Originally Posted by MarshalN
I thought there are long distance cards that are cheaper to use to call to the States than on prepaid SIM, not sure though. I tend to buy local-calls-only cards since I don't need long distance capability.
Yeah I took a US calling card to Rome. Then bought a local card to use the pay phones. But if you're going to have a cell phone with you, you might as well pay a bit more for the convenience of being able to use it anywhere.
In Europe, calling the US was like 60 to 70 Euro cents. Not that great a bargain, especially if you consider that with T-mobile International Roaming, it's 99 cents so you don't save that much with a local SIM.
You probably don't want to do too much International calling anyways on a cell phone, unless it's to a neighboring country, not some country a continent away, on the other side of the Pacific.