Mobile Phone Advice

[Lupo]

I am going to France/Italy at the end of the month.
I need to keep in radio contact with the boss who is going to be staying at home as she has kindly let me out of the house unattended. Also for emergencies obviously.

As I do not want to pay hideous charges to use my mobile abroad
Anyone got any suggestions ?
* I thought maybe buy a cheap sim in France and use ?
* Any PAYG UK SP's that have cheap foriegn rates ?

What do you lot do ? this is my first European motorsickle trip.....

Suggestions welcome !

 

[Rushy]

1) Keep the phone for emergecies only .

2) Each night text the number of the hotel you are staying in to your missus and she can call you on the landline from home at relatively low cost.

3) When she calls make sure that the hooker doesnt answer the phone

HTH

 

[Rambling Sid Rumpo]

A few possibilities:

1. a SIM card from www.sim4travel.co.uk. Free calls inbound, excellent rates outbound even internationally. Pre-pay, and credit doesn't expire every five minutes. Need an unlocked mobile.
2. carry a mini-pc or wi-fi enabled phone, log on at hotspots, and use Skype (I use a little JVC notebook pc running Win XP, that has a footprint the same size as A5 paper and an 8.5" screen - great for Mapsource, too). You'd need a USB plug-in phone as well to make life easier. If you're a BT Internet customer you get a free minutes ration as well on OpenZone I think it's called. Lets you log in while travelling. The price of ultra-portables has reduced by about 400% since that review was published.
3. just carry the USB plug-in phone if you can use Skype at an internet cafe.

I use 1 and 2. The mini-pc is excellent and SkypeOut calls are dirt-cheap; Skype-to-Skype calls are free. There are probably other ways too but I find these are both simple, cheap and effective.

 

[Wapping]

I am going to France/Italy at the end of the month.
I need to keep in radio contact with the boss who is going to be staying at home as she has kindly let me out of the house unattended. Also for emergencies obviously.

As I do not want to pay hideous charges to use my mobile abroad
Anyone got any suggestions ?
* I thought maybe buy a cheap sim in France and use ?
* Any PAYG UK SP's that have cheap foriegn rates ?

What do you lot do ? this is my first European motorsickle trip.....

Suggestions welcome !

Don't spend hours gassing on the phone. Just hello, I'm / she is alright. It won't be that much. Send a postcard or a fax if you have lots to say.

Some kindly hotels will let you send an email for free.....or use an internet cafe.

Use brief texts.

Use a landline. Get her to call the hotel number, not, perhaps, the other way around. Some hotels (not all by any means) may put a lumpy call charge on for external / international calls. Or use a public call box.

There again, we are not talking about £100's. The phone bill should be miniscule compared with the £100's of pounds of fuel you are going to burn, the ferry tickets, your bike...... and the hundreds she will spend in your absence....probably best not to go!

HAVE FUN!

 

[wessie]

Check with your network as some have schemes for overseas use e.g. Vodaphone Passport charges 75p for a connection then the same rate per minute as you pay in the UK. So for incoming calls you pay the 75p and the caller pays their normal rate. Picking up voicemail costs 75p. Dialling out costs 75p plus UK call rates (so you can use your included minutes from abroad)

 

[Wapping]

Check with your network as some have schemes for overseas use e.g. Vodaphone Passport charges 75p for a connection then the same rate per minute as you pay in the UK. So for incoming calls you pay the 75p and the caller pays their normal rate. Picking up voicemail costs 75p. Dialling out costs 75p plus UK call rates (so you can use your included minutes from abroad)

That's all true....

 

[Lupo]

Some good advice there as always.
My current SIM is on Vodaphone so I think it is probably worth making sure of the Tariffs as stated above and then only use the phone minimally.
As you have said, it will probably only be peanuts when compared with fuel etc used over 2-3 weeks of biking.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

 

[ChasMill]

Or try these guys who do either pay as you go SIMs or contract SIMs for various contries:

http://www.0044.co.uk/index.htm

I have in the past bought a PAYG SIM from a French supplier for my jaunts abroad (I have a flat in France and my sister lives in the same village. It costs her/me a fortune to call each other on our mobiles). The main issue with this is that the supplier demanded that the SIM was credited every three months or the number would expire. Not sure if this is still the case but worth checking once you get to France. A bit like here, there are mobile phone shops everywhere and Orange are particularly visible whenever I am over there.

 

[Invicta Moto]

When I am away without Mrs Moto and out of our formerly green and pleasant land in the the habitat of Johnny Foreigner I sms and keep it short. I bet she's glad of the peace and quiet and doesn't want to yak to me anyway!!!!

 

[wessie]

A few possibilities:

1. a SIM card from www.sim4travel.co.uk. Free calls inbound, excellent rates outbound even internationally. Pre-pay, and credit doesn't expire every five minutes. Need an unlocked mobile.

and just posted over on UKRM is a code to get the £15.99 SIM for £8.99

"You have the opportunity of getting a SIM card and œ10 of airtime for
a one off price of only £8.99 + P&P. This normally costs £15.99 + P&P
so it's a great deal.
The offer is only open until the 30th April 2008 but as there is no
time limit on when you have to use the airtime, you can buy it now and
use it later in the year.
All you have to do is visit www.sim4travel.com and go to the buy now
page and enter the word skireps in the promo code box"

 

[kenseaton]

I'm just back from Italy visiting friends - not on the bike unfortunately (Provence, Alpes, Cote d'Azur in September planned) - and was left high and dry by my bank when my cashpoint cards were cancelled.

Tried to get cash from the cashlines in Pompeii and got the message that our cards weren't authorised for overseas use.

After a round of the - not too many - banks in Pompeii we called Royal Bank of Scotland telephone banking on the mobile at huge expense and discovered that our cards had been blocked because the computers had spotted unusual activity in a high-fraud area.

A few checks once I got back and I discovered it's happening to quite a few people. Best advice - though it's a pain in the bum - is to let your bank know what you're planning. Either that, or sue their asses off when you get back... skint.

Ken
Glasgow

 

[Rambling Sid Rumpo]

Best advice - though it's a pain in the bum - is to let your bank know what you're planning. Either that, or sue their asses off when you get back... skint.

Ken
Glasgow

Gawd. I mean, of course your bank should have realise,d telepathically, that you might be abroad, and so authorised your transactions. I mean, if some Italian toerag had ripped off your details and drained your account, you would have been quite relaxed about the whole thing, presumably.

Of course, if you're about to do something out of the norm, tell your bank. How else do you expect them to look after your interests?

Give me strength.............