Daily affirmations of a word mercenary
Cell phone rentals
24Aug2004 Filed under: LogisticaHey folks who’ve spent a month at a time travelling: is it worth renting a cell-phone in your destination country?
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6 Responses to “Cell phone rentals”
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Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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nancy
August 24th, 2004 at 4:59 pm
Don’t rent one. Just get a cheap pre-pay phone and then pass it on to someone else when you leave. But whatever you get, yes, it is definitely worth having a cell. When I lived in Prague, I didn’t have one and my life definitely would have been easier with it…everyone in my program had one and it came in handy once or twice in near-emergencies.
mark
August 24th, 2004 at 6:49 pm
I would not rent, under any circumstances ’cause the companies that rent phones just screw you.
Best way to go is to do what Nancy suggests and get a pre-paid card which you can refill (like Virgin Mobile).
The question then is where do you get your phone? You could get one there or (a) if you have a GSM phone (TMo, Cing, ATT) get it “unlocked” (e.g. not tied to the carrier)–you can Google the codes to do this or pay a shop in Europe or (b) buy an “unlocked” GSM phone on eBay or otherwise scrounge one here in the US, or (c) buy one in Europe. When we were in Amsterdam in May we looked into buying a 2nd unlocked phone and they were running ~E50.
Ariel
August 24th, 2004 at 6:58 pm
Nancy, thanks for the suggestion about the pre-pay phone. I hadn’t thought of that!
Mark, I have a Sanyo 8100 from Sprint. Sadly, it’s not GSM compatible.
alison
August 25th, 2004 at 7:17 am
i read your post really quickly, and i thought for a second that it said “Hey folks who’ve spent a month time travelling.” you’d be hard-pressed to find any of those folks.
xaotica
August 25th, 2004 at 11:40 am
i thought that too (time travelling)
renee
August 25th, 2004 at 8:50 pm
Maybe see if someone has an unlocked GSM phone you can borrow? The sim cards are super cheap and can be bought anywhere phones are sold and the refill cards can probably be bought in cafes, tobbaconists and similar places. The rates are reasonable and I assume all of your incoming calls would be free, unlike with prepaid plans here (MY experience is with Italy, not France). Also all of the networks have plans with networks in countries so if you do leave the country you will pick up another service. Renting definitely seems like it is a rippoff, especially since you will have no clue what you are spending. Pre-paid numbers are MUCH more popular and user friendly overseas, unlike here.