Calling US from Europe

[cjf]

Ok...I have read the information on cell phones in Europe. I will be using the Verizon loaner phone and keeping my own number. What special numbers will I need to dial to phone the US from Italy or Greece? What problems can I expect to have with dialing, answering, billing that the 18 year old kid at the Verizon store who never left the country before won't know about? Thanks in advance.

[martyap]

Ok...I have read the information on cell phones in Europe. I will be using the Verizon loaner phone and keeping my own number. What special numbers will I need to dial to phone the US from Italy or Greece? What problems can I expect to have with dialing, answering, billing that the 18 year old kid at the Verizon store who never left the country before won't know about? Thanks in advance.

 

That has to be a very expensive way to make and receive calls in Europe. Did they quote rates? I have an unlocked quad band phone (Motorola RAZR) I bought used on Ebay a few years ago. I pop in a Sim card with a UK number.....incoming calls from the US are FREE. I give my kids prepaid ATT calling cards also via Ebay so they don't get charged. My calls from Europe to the US end up about .40 per minute. From Europe to the USA you would have to dial 00+1+area code+number. On some phones the 0 has a + sign next to it. If you hold down the 0 for a second a + will be entered to call which equals double 0. Marty

[bostoncruisegal]

I used a Verizon loaner phone. We did have some issues dialing in places, but I think it was human error. It comes with directions if I remember correctly (I probably should have brought them with us!)

 

We didn't use it a ton, but we felt the rates were fair when we did. We did not use it on the ship though, since we knew those rates are much higher than they were in the countries we were visiting. I just felt comfortable carrying it in the event of an emergency.

 

Billing went smoothly, and we got our deposit back when they received the phone. No unexpected charges.

 

I would rent a loaner again, the only thing I would do differently was request a regular phone. They sent me a blackberry, I am assuming since I own a blackberry normally, and it was really big. I would have preferred a smaller cell phone.

[Fafos]

About Greece... you can buy from any kiosk the OTE chronokarta with 6 euros.. you can use it from any fixed telephone, even from a public cardphone or payphone in Greece and you can talk 280 minutes with USA.. this cart don't work with mobile telephones...

 

http://oteshop.ote.gr/storefront/en/mobile/calling-and-internet-cards/chronokarta/cos_cat_001-cos_subcat_002-cos_subcat_002002-p0.html

[phcacruiser]

We used Verizon's loaner global phone recently. We also bought the $5.00 minutes that reduced to rates in the countries we visited. Bring your instruction manuel with you. We had a hard time retrieving our messages because we forgot to dial the country code for the US first.