Mobile Phones Abroad

marrwyck

Guest
Hi everyone.
As we are nearly ready for the off on our tour we were just wondering how you got on with mobile phones abroad.

We currently have o2 pay as you go.
We were going to buy an unlocked phone then when we get to Spain etc buy sim cards in that country which is the way I did it in the USA.
That way there should be no problems with topping up etc.

So any thoughts would be appreciated:)
 
I have been told by a friend that I should go into a Supermarket like LeClerc/Hypermarche or whatever and buy their cheapest PAYG because its the best way of phoning back to the UK

€30 to €40 should see you up and running c/w €10 on the phone. I'm sure that the same thing applies in Spain. Eroski had some deals the last time I was down in Andalusia
 
We hit a problem with buying a SIM card in Germany - all the instructions that the "voice" gave us were in German and well beyond my 6 month course of Speak Fluent German!! 30E up the spout grrrrrr.

I assume that most countries will only give instructions in their language??

We had a UK sim from O2 which was easy to top up, we had another "free" sim which would not accept a non UK credit card.

There was a lot of chat in the press last year about UK mobile charges being limited, what happened about that?
 
Roger said:
We hit a problem with buying a SIM card in Germany - all the instructions that the "voice" gave us were in German and well beyond my 6 month course of Speak Fluent German!! 30E up the spout grrrrrr.

I assume that most countries will only give instructions in their language??

There was a lot of chat in the press last year about UK mobile charges being limited, what happened about that?
Click to expand...

:D The brave Captain to a French campsite owner
"Excuse me but do you speak English"

Frog "But off course, Msr. But this is France!"

Exit Johann cursing under his breath :D

The point being that, unfortunately, if you're abroad, the instructions will only be in the language of that country. The exception being things like cameras, microwaves etc that will be sold internationally

The Brit mobile phone companies have had to reduce the costs of call transfer to other networks. Not that it makes a lot of difference but they are marginally cheaper than they used to be - In other words, still too much :mad:

The Mobile phone companies think that they have got away with it but I reckon that the EU Parliament will force them to reduce the costs further.
 
Hia
Something on gmtv this morning about phoning home ect from abroad.
Martins money tips.
Try having al ook at his web site. (martin the money saving man)
I should really pay more attention.
It may not be of use but there again it could be.
 
If you can manage it and you're only going to one country then, I think but don't know for sure, that an unlocked phone and a pay as you go SIM card for the country you're in is the way to go. However, if you're travelling a bit, eg for Portugal you're almost certainly having to go through Spain and probably France too. Three SIM cards? Well maybe. If you only have a, say, French card then you'll have to pay roaming charges for Spain and Portugal? Or perhaps a PAYG card won't allow roaming?

These, and more, are questions too difficult for me. Our solution was a Global SIM card. You could google "Global SIM Card" or I could send you the website.

We already had one unlocked phone and we bought another so we now have two phones with a SIM card each. There's no charge for receiving calls and the call charges don't seem that bad - but quoted in US dollars - so the exchange rate is important. There's no problem with unused credits because you can use the phone in the UK too - it's a number that looks like it's in the Isle of Man.

Anyway, I'm not trying to sell a Global SIM Card but the system is well worth a look. If anybody can pick holes in it then I'd love to hear what I overlooked. But it works for us.

Tom
 
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money saving expert site has all the answers
now i use an international sim around £20 as i travel to so many places in europe if giong to denmark make sure your phone is a tri band or you could have problems try this link

mhttp://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/cheap-roaming-callsaking calls

sim4travel seem quite good
 
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Thxs for your replies & the info.

Martin Lewis' site very useful & packed with plenty of info.

I think Skype & local sims probably the easiest way to go but might consider the roaming sim.

Once again many thxs to you all :D
 
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