Cheapest way to call from abroad while on holiday?

meanmum

Hi, some advice please. Going to a festival in Belgium, don't want to take decent phone in case lose it, but just want to be able to call or text home a few times, and to be contactable in an emergency. Have an old orange handset, was thinking the best thing was to get a PAYG SIM card and load it up with the minimum amount (£5?) Does this seem sensible? Can I do this at an orange shop? Will the old phone need anything doing to it to get it to work with a new SIM card? I have checked it should work in Europe. Thanks for any advice.

victor2

If you've got an old tri-band phone, you should be fine.
When we go abroad we take an unlocked phone and buy a local PAYG SIM, but that's so that we can call locally without getting charged international rates. Just make sure whatever SIM you get has got roaming enabled on it and tell people to only call it for urgent matters, as any call received will eat up your credit!
Of course if you buy an Orange SIM, your Orange phone won't need to be unlocked and roaming is automatically enabled.
The Orange call rates for Belgium can be seen at http://www.orange.co.uk/roaming/belgium/

NFH

Get a Belgian SIM card. Then you'll pay what locals pay, rather than being ripped off with roaming charges.

banger9365

what did we do before mobiles and got hammered with charges ,
use a pay phone

System

NFH wrote: »

Get a Belgian SIM card. Then you'll pay what locals pay, rather than being ripped off with roaming charges.

Not worth it for a few days. Looking at the tariffs for the Belgian cards just for voice & text it is cheaper to just use Orange PAYG

grumbler

victor2 wrote: »

The Orange call rates for Belgium can be seen at http://www.orange.co.uk/roaming/belgium/

Their £5.10 bundle gives 200 minutes of free incoming calls. Before leaving you can ask friends and relatives just to call you back when you dial their number and hung up.