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Question for those who travel overseas....


KrissiK
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DH is going to Germany and Great Britain next month for a week and a half on business and his cell phone only works in the US. We have the pay-as-you-go plan, we are not techies,. no smart phone here. He's wondering how he should best communicate, so I said I'd ask around the Hive. Any suggestions?

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I don't think you can rent phones here, but you could buy a cheap one and a pay as you go SIM card.

 

But honestly, it's usually cheaper to buy Skype credits to call a regular phone from your computer. It's not video, but it's communication. All he would need is the Internet connection, which might be free at the hotel or at least covered by his company if he needs it for work.

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You can also usually rent cell phones in foreign countries. Or at least you can in Japan (and I'd assume elsewhere). But to pay for international calling was extra.

 

 

You can rent phones at UK airports. Make sure to ask how much it will cost for the person receiving the calls - we were stung that way when we were living in Hong Kong and I rented a phone on a visit to the UK. The UK costs were low but the Hong Kong receiving costs were high.

 

Laura

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I agree with the use internet to Skype or email. I took my Nook with me and used free wifi at a hotel when I had it. Most of the people I know who travel buy a small pay as you go type phone in the country when they get there. Verizon has an international traveller policy and will send you an international phone (if you have a plan with them) to use. The per-minute usage is expensive so I usually get one and send a text daily to family back home (50 cents to send and 5 cents to receive) if I don't have wi-fi...when at a bed and breakfast rather than a hotel.

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Skype to Skype calls (voice or video) are FREE. I know a Singer (Grammy award winner) and the people who sing with him. They all use Skype, to keep in touch with their families, when they are away from home. They also have iPhones and Blackberries on “Roamingâ€, when they are out of their country, but I suspect the company pays the “Roaming†charges for them.

 

Skype calls to a regular phone number in the USA are very inexpensive from Colombia, and hopefully are also inexpensive, from the UK or Germany.

 

Buying a very inexpensive GSM cell phone (unlocked), if it has the GSM bands used in both the UK and Germany, would be OK. Then, after arrival in each country, he would purchase a Prepaid SIM card and have a local phone number to use to send/receive phone calls.

 

Roaming charges, would probably be very high, assuming he has a GSM phone that works on the GSM bands used in the UK and in Germany, that he uses in the USA

 

Renting a cell phone would probably be expensive. And, when we met a friend and his wife, in Florida, some years ago, he rented a phone and the manual was in Spanish. Possibly he’d taken Spanish in High School, but if your DH doesn’t speak German and rents a phone in Germany and the manual is in German, he will be confused.

 

Best bet for regular phone calls would probably be to go into an Internet place, like one where we live, where I go to get photocopies, send faxes, etc. Very inexpensive from here to the USA, but in the UK and Germany, your DH had better prepare for “sticker shock†for *every* purchase. The U.S. Dollar has been very weak, for many years, and your DH will need to bring plenty of Dollars with him and/or have a high limit on his credit card.

 

CDMA phones that are commonly used in the USA, will not work, in the majority of countries in the world.

 

If you have a GSM phone (those take a “SIM†card), that is: (1) “Unlocked†and can be used with any provider and (2) will work on the GSM band(s) in use in the area he will be in in the UK and in Germany, then he can purchase a “Prepaid†SIM card in the UK and another in Germany and use that to send/receive phone calls.

 

The 2 GSM bands most commonly used in “The Americas" (North and South), 850 and 1900 are not used in Europe. So, if you have a “dual band†GSM phone in the USA, it will be of no use to you in the UK or Europe.

 

However, if you have a so called “World Band†phone (4 GSM bands, DD has one of those, my old Sony Ericcson W300i Walkman) then it will probably work in the UK and Europe.

 

There are some special places, Israel, South Korea, even in the USA, where they are now using other GSM bands, but that is very rare.

 

You will need Power Adapters, or, at the minimum, different cables, to recharge the batteries in Laptops, Cameras, Cell Phones, etc.

 

If he is a U.S. Citizen, have your DH register with the ACS (American Citizen Services unit), in the U.S. Embassies in the UK and Germany, via their web sites, before or after arrival.

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