Phonecards?

[ryfig]

Hi,

I just had a question about phone cards. Is there an international phone card that I can use from different countries in europe to call home (canada) as well as use it within europe? How does this work? Thanks!

[dizzyfreedom]

Great question! I would love to know as well. For calling both w/in Europe and the U.S.

[madamtrashheap]

There are many schools of thought on this topic (have a look back in the Tips & Advice Thread or the Odds & Ends thread for ones like pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=Tips&action=display&n=1&thread=571 or pretravel.proboards1.com/index.cgi?board=Tips&action=display&n=1&thread=474 and you'll see what I mean.

To answer you directly, phone companies have a "call home" cards available that you can either put money on and use while you're away like a type of phone credit card, or a card that gives you an access number for dialing collect/reverse charges which gets billed to your home address. Make sure whatever card you go with that they provide you with the country access numbers (each one is different, and I mean toll free, not country codes) and your pin number. You should be able to call country to country around the world, not just to the country of origin.

Canadians - any specific company recommendations?

[pointofnoreturn]

I have a Bell Canada card and it says on the back of it that I can use it over-seas but I must call them before leaving to get a special number to call rather than the number on the card itself (which is obviously a Canadian toll-free number).

They didn't mention charges or whatever. The card's good for 1 year but I guess the charges must be high if you're calling from the overseas.

[Eagle]

I normally travel with a Cell Phone, so haven't looked at the issue of Phone Cards too carefully. When I was in the U.K. in 2004, I was going to get a Phone Card (I'm not sure why?), but wasn't able to find any in the usual spots - Tesco Supermarkets, Post Office or whatever. Finally, I just gave up and used the mobile which was much simpler (although of course, more expensive).

ryfig, you stated that you wanted the phone card to "call home". I couldn't tell from your profile where in Canada you're located, but one possibility occurs to me. When my Son was living in the U.K., we had a Call-Me plan with Telus. This allowed him to call my home number at no charge by dialling a special number (the charges were applied to my bill - you'll have to decide if this might be agreeable to your parents?). From what I recall, the plan only allowed calls to one (home) number. You might check with your local phone network too see whether they offer anything like that?

dizzyfreedom, I believe there are two "types" of phone cards - those for calling within a country, and those for calling North America (or elsewhere). You might have to buy two different Cards for calling both Europe and the U.S.?

I'll have a look at some Guidebooks when I get a few spare minutes, to see what's mentioned about phone cards.

Cheers!!!

[jennifer]

Careful with Bell, they hurt! I used the card I had, it was a special program they had a couple years back where the card was designed to call one specific number for free, charged to that person, so my parents had given me that card when I was young and when I went to Europe in 2003 I tried it, MY MY MY, crazy fees! I strongly suggest buying local calling cards, like those internation 300 minutes for 5 euros type of thing. They came in wayyyy more price efficient for me!

[madamtrashheap]

Canadian friends suggested Canada Direct - any thoughts?

[Eagle]

MTH, good point! I'd forgotten about Canada Direct. That might be a good option to consider? However, in checking over their web site, a couple of thoughts occured to me:

> Customers might have to register for this service before they leave home?

> It wasn't clear to me whether this service would be available for those people who have switched their long distance service to one of the "alternate" providers? There are five phone companies listed on the Canada Direct site, so I'm assuming you would need a long distance account with one of those phone companies (otherwise how would they be billed for the calls)

(Must look into that prior to my next trip, as it might be a nice "backup" to the mobile - my provider is one of those on the list).

Hopefully someone here has used Canada Direct, and can provide some "first hand" experience.

Cheers!!!

[jennifer]

I have also used Canada Direct. It's actually a collect call service. The bills are steeeep! For a 20 min call, my mom was charged +-50 dollars. For me that's not ok!

With the little cards I bought, I could call them for months!

[Eagle]

jennifer,

Careful with Bell, they hurt!

I agree!!! There were some well-publicized difficulties with Bell Mobile service in this area last year. When the story was aired on the local TV station, a number of other customers "came out of the woodwork", complaining of the same problems with their billing practises. I don't recall seeing a follow-up report on whether the problems were resolved, however IMO these never should have happened in the first place!

In addition, I have first-hand experience regarding problems with Bell ExpressView business practises, and I WON'T EVER be using them for TV service!!!!

Thanks for the clarification on the "collect" service provided by Canada Direct. I'll do a bit of checking next week to find out what their current rates are, just for "general interest".

Cheers!!!

[jennifer]

I may be mistaking, but this is from what I recall. Like i said, i've always used "bought-on-the-spot" calling cards, except for some rare occasions.

Funny fact : I called my parents collect from Pau, France just to let them know I was still alive as I hadn't talked to them in 2 weeks. We spoke for 16 minutes and it cost 67 dollars! THAT IS JUST NUTS!

[world2002traveler]

On all of my trips, I've purchased a phone card in each country.
Sometimes regretfully though I purchased one with more minutes
than I should have, and you can't use them in other countries.
Even though vendors will tell you that you can. I now purchase
smaller minute cards and if I deceide to stay in a place longer, then I buy another small one and use the minutes before I leave
that country. They work out very well, and you get great value. I
always paid about 10 cents a minute to call back to the U.S.

WT