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 | OFCOM has a new guide to mobile phones abroad |
| There is also a European Commission Guide to mobile phone use abroad and how to get a better deal. |
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 "from 4 cents a minute 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, but
are supposed
never to exceed 15 cents/min. What I don't know is whether it has become more
expensive since Aug 2004 (see above). From hotel phones, calls should presumably be charged as a
standard local rate call in Spain.
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. Iwas 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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