International calling?

[Rajah]

Anyone know the best way to make international calls *FROM* Switzerland *TO* the US while traveling? Is there a pre-paid phone card that will be able to work?

I'd like to be able call and check on things while I'm in Switzerland...

 

[faithinkarma]

Check with your local server. When I am in Europe, there is an 800 # to call to have the call go through my home server, using my calling card. It gets billed to my regular bill and is much cheaper than any other way of placing calls from Europe.

 

[Carl]

It isn't cheap, but is convenient to use a tri-mode T-Mobile phone to call home or receive calls. It costs 99 cents per minute and you can call from where ever you are - even on the bus.

People can call you at the hotel where you are staying by using 10-10-987. It costs 46 cents to connect and 3 cents per minute. I don't know of any CHEAP way to call back home. I used a phone card before I got T-Mobile. I believe that it cost somewhere between 50 cent and $1.00 per minute that way. NEVER call FROM the hotel to home. That is the most expensive way to call. The hotels charge a fortune for outgoing calls.

 

[gemmie214]

I take MCI calling cards with me when I travel internationally. They work great and I never have to worry about a big bill when I get home. Just remember to get the Swiss access number for the calling card before you leave and make sure it is able to call from outside the US to the US. Obviously MCI does and I get them at Costco

 

[caitycaity]

you can either buy a calling card when you get to switzerland that you can use, or if you have a calling card from at&t (or i would imagine other carries as well, but i only have experience with the at&t one), you can use that internationally as well.

 

[Rajah]

If I'm expecting to do about 45 minutes cumulative of international calling if that, does it make sense to stop by Sam's and get an AT&T international calling card?

 

[caitycaity]

most of the calling cards i've seen for sale in the us work either internationally or domestically, so if you buy one beforehand and don't use it up while abroad you can always use it (or give it to someone else to use) when you get home too. doublecheck before you buy it, but that's how the ones i've seen work.

 

[Dizzy-Disney4]

I use Net2phone calling cards. I am bringing mine with me when we go to the UK in the fall. You can defintely use them while abroad and I believe the web site will give you the rate for calling from switzerland to the US.
Update...just checked and the rate from Switzerland to the USA is .21 a minute. I use it often to call my good friend in the UK on his mobile phone...its the best rate I have found so far on calls that terminate on mobile phones.

 

[tiggerlover]

Originally posted by Rajah
If I'm expecting to do about 45 minutes cumulative of international calling if that, does it make sense to stop by Sam's and get an AT&T international calling card?

Just note that if you are buying a 45 minute card and calling from europe to the US you will not get 45 minutes of talk time. Since the rates are higher over here than in the US a 45 minute card usually only gets you about 20-25 min. Because of this I stopped buying them.

What we use over here is called a Europa Card, it is a calling card that is costs 5 or 10 euro, (about $7-13) and you get about 150 clicks (less than a minute, but I am not sure the exact time. I use them all the time in Italy and they are the cheapest way to go for me and you purchase them at tabacco stores. Not sure what the story is for Switzerland, but since it is called a Europa Card I would think you could use it in Europe.

 

[SyracuseWolvrine]

When I was in Europe recently, I had a few different options for phones ... in Russia, I used my credit card in a payphone in the hotel lobby ... ended up working out to 40 cents (US) per minute. In Estonia, all the payphones required a special card with a chip on it, that you could buy at gas stations and such. Ended up being about $1/minute. In Finland, I couldn't find a way to make a call to the US from a pay phone, so I had to resort to using the international cell phone I had rented, it cost about $1.30/minute

 

[boueburn]

Well if you are on a pc addict, i would suggest using skype or gtalk that would help you save money, while when im ourt of the pc, i use voxcall which has cheap rates.

 

[gillep]

when my brother was living in Europe we used skype it was cheaper than most of the alternatives that we could find and everyone found it easy to use.

 

[KristaTX]

This thread is 7 years old. I thought Rajah was back at first ! Too bad.

 

[Carl]

This thread is 7 years old. I thought Rajah was back at first ! Too bad.

Same thing I thought when I saw it. I wonder where she is and what she's doing now.