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[accommodation]
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[euros]
[mobile]
[phoning]
[apartments]
[hotel]

NOTE: This page is somewhat out of date, especially as regards costs, but the point about buying a sim abroad is still valid. Changes in EU legislation have significantly reduced costs of using your mobile in the EU, so that (unless you adopt a roaming package from your provider) costs should not exceed 38p a min for calling and 19p for receiving, irrespective of who your provider is. Receiving texts is free but sending can cost up to 50p. The EU has just (summer 08) announced plans to control costs of texting too. The Commission wants texts to cost no more than about 10p, and unless companies cut their tariffs will legislate. Cannily, some companies are cutting their costs from September 2008, so as to benefit from the high charges during the peak season. The EU has just (summer 08) announced plans to control costs of texting too.

Latest news! On 22 April 2009 it was announced that further controls will be introduced to control the cost of using other services such as 3G in Europe, and further reductions in call costs. Details will be announced later in the summer. The reason? Apparently there are elections to the European parliament coming up, and the cynical BBC reporter suggested that this could somehow be connected. Whatever the reason, it is good news.

You can use your mobile phone in Spain  fairly easily. However because of the variety of networks the situation is complex.

An interesting solution is to buy a Spanish sim. This has the great advantages of saving you the UK-to-Spain charge that your provider would normally charge you (see below) if you are called from the UK,^* and also gives you cheap calls within Spain and reasonable calls back to the UK. If you make frequent trips to Spain it is definitely worth checking out: you can buy sims over the internet at 0044.co.uk. This site has good reviews in the press, but I haven't used it yet. This is particularly useful if you are phoning within Spain.

(*although your caller will presumably pay more for effectively phoning a foreign mobile)

Summary of using your mobile phone in Spain: If you use your UK mobile, in general you will be paying up to £1.20 a minute for calling home, but you will also pay for receiving calls. (e.g., Vodaphone was charging 75p both ways).

Most providers charge a flat rate for any time of day.

Some providers have an international service: you pay a monthly fee but get cheaper calls while abroad (e.g.,O2 was charging £2.99 a month).

There are websites you can use to send free text messages to UK Mobile Phones such as www.cbfsms.com

Click here for a useful summary  of using your mobile in Spain  (thanks to Carl for this). Her is my attempt to summarize the costs and other matters for mobile phones .

The European Parliament has just (June 2007) passed a new law that will make using your phone abroad much cheaper. The proposed "Euro Tariff" will cap roaming charges at 33 pence a minute for making calls and 16 pence for receiving calls. It should come into force by August  2007. BBC Report

For phoning from a landline, phone cards are probably the best option for a one-off visit, but they are much cheaper if you buy them in Spain. They can be bought in garages, tobacconists etc. E.g.,  eurodirect is one I have used and seems to be the best I have come across. You can buy a card for 6 euros, and by dialing a freephone number you get 300 minutes of time from say a hotel; this is very cheap indeed (less than 2p a minute).  Unfortunately as of August 2004 calls from Telefonica kiosks attract a surcharge, which multiplies the cost by my calculations by about 6 to 7 times. It is only valid for 45 days once you have used it for the first time. (The kiosk on the main square in San Pedro del Pinatar sells them, as does Quick Save). I have discovered that some hotels will charge when you phone using a phonecard, although most in my experience do not. It's worth trying it once and then checking with the desk to see if they charge. You can also buy Eurodirect online at Europhone Calling Cards (I think there is a .25€ charge to cover credit charge fees) and the necessary pin number will be e-mailed within 48 hours; you only need the pin to use the service so this is perfectly efficient. (I haven't used this service.)  Use the Feedback Page if you know of a better deal so I can update this.

If you don't want the bother of buying a phonecard, or will end up with wasted credit, Dial Abroad Spain  may be a solution. It is an instant dial service that let's you call abroad "with no account to open, no separate bills and no hidden charges." (I tried it myself and it works fine.) It works from any phone. From payphones, you pay for your call as normal by putting in coins. Rates vary according to which payphone operator you use. The Instant service costs from 8-12 eurocents per minute from a payphone. Oddly, the rate varies depending both on the payphone operator and on the location of the payphone (for example, a Telefonica payphone on the beachfront may charge more than one on a back street). From hotel phones, calls should presumably be charged as a standard local rate call in Spain, but of course some hotels charge a lot for these.

The following is some blurb from the same company ona  new service they offer:

New DialAbroad Euro service enables you to make calls from your Spanish landline or mobile to anywhere in the world, including UK landlines for 4 cents/minute and UK mobiles for 15 cents/minute The DialAbroad Euro service has been designed to be simple and easy to use. To get started simply: (1) Visit www.dialabroad.eu/spain and purchase DialAbroad calling credit securely using a credit or debit card or PayPal.Credit is available from just 5 Euro and there is no ongoing subscription or commitment.(2) Confirmation of purchase is sent via email and a PIN code sent to your mobile phone.(3) Make a call by dialing 914 149 940 - the Spanish access number - followed by your PIN number.Calls to the DialAbroad access number will be included in most "free minute" bundles on both landline and mobile phone packages. Access numbers for other countries are available at www.dialabroad.eu or on our wallet sized information cards. The access number and PIN can be stored in your mobile phone by entering 914149940pXXXXXXXX# where p is a pause and the Xs represent your PIN number.(4) Your balance is read out and you enter the destination number beginning 00 and then followed by the country code and local number (for example, 00 44 20 8497 8008). You’re then advised how many minutes you have remaining and are connected.  You can use the same credit for calls from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Spain and the USA - so it's great for travelers too. Unlike calling cards and other account based services, the DialAbroad Euro service offers: - Purchase online with no contract, commitment or subscription- Make low cost calls 24 hours a day- Call from landlines or mobiles- Use the same credit from 8 countries – so it’s great if you travel in these countries: eg. you can use the same credit for making calls in Spain, France and Ireland all for the same great rates. No need to pay for different services when visiting different countries.- Especially low cost calls to UK mobiles.

 


Buying a Phonecard in the UK to use in Spain works out much more expensive, although still cheaper than a mobile. Last time I looked (a while ago) with BT charge cards you pay 90p/min, Swiftcall about 32p, Post Office international phone card35p/min.  Last time I used it, the one-tel card charges 29p plus the UK charge per minute Other possibilities include card4anywhere http://www.card4anywhere.com which can be used from a number of countries and has a low per minute charge. The last time I looked, however, using it from Spain incurred a connection charge (of about 50p I think) for each call, but they seemed to be getting rid of that in other countries, so it might be worth checking out if you travel to a variety of countries.

I also used to use "More Minutes".   This is good if you will be making a lot of calls or are a frequent visitor. Use their website http://www.moreminutes.es. They seem to have some talk as much as you want deals, but I have not used them recently. The rest of this  paragraph is based on my experience a couple of years ago. The "card" is only valid for 3 months, so you presumably lose your credit. You can put either 30 or 60 euros from your credit or debit card into it, and it costs only 8 cents (about 5.5p at current exchange rates) a minute for regular calls, either to a landline in the UK or in Spain (not sure about other countries). (Calls to Spanish or U.K.  mobiles cost about 4-6 times that, still cheap.) It takes a few moments to set up. You have a free phone access number and a pin number (the latter can be forgone if no-one else can dial from your line). Make sure you use the freephone number (900805770) rather than the local call access numbers (the latter are charged at local rates, and in fact you only pay 5 cents a minute on top, but the local rate will be high if you are phoning from a call box or hotel etc.) The beauty of it is that you should be able to use it without charge to phone from a hotel room (I've not had a problem yet) or a Telefonica (the national company - they are very common) phone box, though it doesn't seem to work from other phone boxes. It is also very reliable, the operators speak good English, and you always get through to them straight away. It tells you exactly how many minutes you have left, and I have not found that time disappears mysteriously as it does with other providers. One thing they don't tell you over the phone is that after a call you can press # twice to make follow on calls (avoiding having to redial the access number etc.). They also now have an automatic top-up option, and will e-mail you the new pin number each time the top-up is activated if you ask them.

There are also cheap call back services, but for the visitor these are not so convenient.

If you don't use a card, calling from a hotel to the UK typically costs around 58p a minute (in 2004).

Of course, if you need to phone from the UK to Spain there are plenty of  good options. I was moved to talktalk, but their much advertised deal with free broadband and free calls to countries such as Spain for about £20 a month incl. line rental sounds difficult to beat; are there any catches?  Not that I have heard. Send me feedback if you have signed up.  Otherwise: PJ emailed me to suggest telediscount, for which you don't need to prepay and charges only 1p a minute to Spain.  I used it a lot for a while. But recently (11/06) the quality of the connection seems to have deteriorated considerably, so I have abandoned it. (Telediscount: You just dial 0844 861 98 98 and then when you hear the voice dial the whole number (0034...) with a # at the end , although check their website for changes in  numbers in case the deal gets even better; they also have a number for dialling mobiles in Spain). As I have now switched to telewest broadband I am stuck with using one of these operators. Recently I have found that ratebuster charges 1p a min and gives much better quality on average, but I did get one dodgy connection.(dial  0844 720 0000; it works the same way as telediscount; 0911 677 0000 at 13p a min for calling mobiles), and also planet-numbers (2p; dial 0844 799 0181, or to call a Spanish mobile 15p per minute - just dial 0911 552 0181 then 0034...)  which was good quality each time I used it.

I was previously  using OneTel which was costing me 4p a minute to Spain which still seems to be the rate if you pay the international caller £1 a month fee.

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Last modified: 03/04/10. All information is provisional and should be verified by the reader, and strictly no liability is taken for any statements contained in any part of this site.