Travel Technology - Rental cell phone with US phone number for use in Germany

I have Verizon wireless and found out that they do not use GSM technology and my cell phone will not work in Germany. I will be there for 10 days. Verizon offers a rental phone for $3.99 a day/ $1.49 a minute and a $22.00 shipping charge + my return shipping costs. That works out to at least $62 before I use one minute.
Are there cheaper alternatives? Prepaid minutes would be fine.

I have Verizon wireless and found out that they do not use GSM technology and my cell phone will not work in Germany. I will be there for 10 days. Verizon offers a rental phone for $3.99 a day/ $1.49 a minute and a $22.00 shipping charge + my return shipping costs. That works out to at least $62 before I use one minute.
Are there cheaper alternatives? Prepaid minutes would be fine.

1. Go to eBay, purchase worldband (tri-band or quad-band) UNLOCKED gsm phone...if all you need is to make calls, you should be able to get one for $50 range. Don't worry if it seems outdated - all you need is a black/white LCD GSM phone that has the overseas bands (dual band would even do).

2. Go to http://www.prepaidgsm.net/index.html ... they will have complete details on various prepaid accounts, usually vodafone is most popular but you can check re cost vs your needs. More times than not you can pick up the prepaid account/SIM chip upon arrival. I would guess this would probably cost you btwn $15-30 which would include prepaid local minutes. This account is probably good for at least 3 months, maybe up to one year...so if you return to Germany or anywhere else that has GSM, you could use unused minutes.

I have a box of prepaid sim/accounts for most every country in asia and it works fine. If you know you'll be traveling often overseas, you might want to invest in better phone.

A couple of forums which will help you include: http://www.howardchui.com/


No one should rent a phone....good luck and pm if you need more help.

I realize you said cell phone (and cheaper), but just maybe the Vonage WiFi Phone (http://www.vonage.com/device.php?type=F1000) could fit your needs if you're going to be near a network (and you're also looking for an excuse to try out VOIP).

It's a wireless internet phone that uses Vonage over WiFi hotspots (open or secure). You could even take your own access point to connect to an existing network. (Even when you're not near a network, you have built-in voicemail.

Costs about $100 at set-up (talking them out of the activation fee), then the monthly plan, with either 500 U.S/Canada minutes or else unlimited minutes. I don't yet have one, but it's in the mail as I type this. (I already use Vonage in Germany over their router setup.)

I'd recommend T-mobile. They have international rentals but as mentioned above, buying a Tri-band / quad band phone and purchasing pre-paid cards may say you some money.

I think that anyone/everyone that travels to other countries would want to own a phone that can work in those other countries.

My advice:

1. Buy an UNLOCKED GSM phone that supports 900 and 1800 MHz GSM. Or at least 1800 MHz.

2. Buy a prepaid sim for the country that you're going to.

3. Take a plug adapter for your new phone's charger (assuming that it will work on 100-240VAC)

3. Enjoy!

BTW, there are plenty of good used GSM phones on ebay, too. And I frequently see prepaid German sims offered, too.

Like you need more suggestions:

Go to ebay and get an unlocked GSM phone like everybody is saying.

Go to kall8.com and set up a toll free number for yourself

Go to Germany and buy a prepaid SIM card when you get there

Go to an internet caft, log into your kall8 account, and forward the calls to the number on your cell phone in germany

Calls will ring on your phone, callers just dial a toll free number to reach you.

As you travel, just log in again and change the number to match the sim you put in.

I have Verizon wireless and found out that they do not use GSM technology and my cell phone will not work in Germany. I will be there for 10 days. Verizon offers a rental phone for $3.99 a day/ $1.49 a minute and a $22.00 shipping charge + my return shipping costs. That works out to at least $62 before I use one minute.
Are there cheaper alternatives? Prepaid minutes would be fine.
You can also buy a pre-paid phone card (and phone if you need it) at http://www.telestial.com. Unlocked GSM phones are also available from Amazon.

Is it possible to get a card with a data plan so I can check my emails too?

All the above I aggree with only one more thing if you get a local sim card your Voice Mail will be in German. There is no getting around this. You can set your phone to English, but you have to navagate through German on your VM. :td:

When I picked up a prepaid SIM card in Israel (http://www.orange.co.il), it had the option to change VM from Hebrew to English. ^