cell phones in europe

[chasing a dream]

Got a question. Does anyone know anything about buying a cheap cell phone in europe to call home (USA)? Can I buy minuts in europe like in the USA? What are the prices like for overseas calls? Or should I just forget the cell phone and go old school, use payphones? I have 3 cell phones now, and I don't think any of them will work in europe.

[noke_travel]

theres a bunch of posts about this on the boards. i seached using the word "cellphone" and came up with this

[Canadian Dude]

The info I have is you need a "tri-band" phone for it to work out of North America. As for making calls overseas, PHONECARDS will always be your best bet, just shop wisley, thee are alot of them, some not so good, so fantastic.

[Spartan]

I bought a cell phone here in France while Im in school this year. The phone was 50 EU and I just buy phone cards for it. a pay as you go thing. Works for text anywhere in europe and you can call back to canada, or usa or where ever you need to. If you're in France to get it go to a place called phonehouse.

[bellelass]

At the very least, you can try to get one of your cell phones "unlocked" and then get a sim card there for it. Dont dont dont get off the plane and use your phone to call home, my best friend used her phone in france all last summer and owed nearly a grand to the cell company. Bullshit.

[LiveFreeorDie]

At the very least, you can try to get one of your cell phones "unlocked" and then get a sim card there for it.

You can only do that if you currently have a tri or quad band GSM phone. U.S. carriers that use GSM networks include Cingular and T-Mobile - but you still need to check how many bands it will work with. If you have Verizon or have an older Cingular phone it likely will not work in Europe.

Just keep in mind that U.S. carriers also tend to be very difficult when it comes to getting your phone unlocked so it can be used with multiple SIM cards. Cingular will do this if you have been a customer for 90 days and have a good reason why you want to do this. Some carriers will not unlock their phones.

You can buy a cheap tri or quad band phone in Europe and also buy pay as you go phone cards for the minutes. That's the best way to go.

[futboller]

I bought a cheap unlocked phone from eBay and a SIM card from 09. Around $120 total but I can just get a new SIM card every time I go back.

Just be careful with prepaids because a lot of them don't include international roaming at all and sometimes those that do will charge out the nose for it. Read up first.