REBTEL: Calling from UK mobile from Valencia, Spain to UK mobile in UK

stevejwatts

Hi there

I am going to Valencia, Spain this weekend and have signed up for Rebtel as has my wife.

We have got two Rebtel numbers (one in London and one in Barcelona) which we must use if we wish to call each other. We will ring each other back and therefore take advantage of our 'free minutes'.


My question is will this definately work if I call her or she calls me, obviously we want to make sure it does otherwise we will be hit with massive bills from Vodafone!

If I call her do I just call her London Rebtel number and if she calls me does she call the Spain Rebtel number or have I got this the wrong way round? Should I be calling the Spain number and then she calls me back on it?

redux

This is why I haven't bothered with Rebtel, as it's too confusing.

I think the intention of Rebtel is that both people call a local landline access, but if not then Rebtel charges the forwarding cost of whichever leg it is.

Will you be using a Spanish SIM card in your phone, as that would be the reason to have a Spanish access number?

If not, I think Vodafone Passport will be useful for you, either instead or as well. Free to sign up, it means that you have a 75 pence per call connect fee, then your normal tariff, so incoming calls then no extra charge, and outgoing calls use your inclusive minutes while you have some.

These rates are supposed to apply for calls to the home country and the country you are in, so you might use the Spanish Rebtel access after all, which would mean your wife can call a UK landline rather than your mobile. If she can call you from a mobile with plenty of spare minutes, or Vodafone Stop-the-clock off-peak, then I don't really see savings with Rebtel

I'm assuming that you'll chat for quite a few minutes at a time, so the connect fee won't be as terrible as it would be for very short calls. But if you have Stop-the-clock, that isn't meant to apply when roaming, though a friend once told me he thought it had on his (I'd guess he was wrong, and misunderstood something).

Or you could get a Spanish SIM, used in an unlocked phone, and use this to call the Spanish Rebtel number. Maybe Vodafone Spain, which has a 60 for 1 minutes option, charging only the first minute.

Errrm, I think maybe I've just made it more complicated, rather than simpler

stevejwatts

Thank you for reply.

I just feel that it suits the mobile phone companies to make things like this as complicated as possible!

Just to be clear...if I wish to call my wife when I am in Spain, do I call the London Rebtel number or the Barcelona Rebtel number? I feel that it is the London one?

I have also posted this question on to the official Rebtel website so I will keep all MSEs posted!

redux

Well, I'm not exactly sure

I feel that it's akin to a conference facility where you each have different access numbers, but with optional forwarding on top.

I don't know what makes the default switch to forwarding, and whether the London number will forward to your phone under some conditions, like if you haven't got in the "room" first. Does one person set it up, then the other call back to the other number? And what if one phone is out of range at the time - forwarded at cost to the mobile answerphone?

I read some stuff on other forums about this a few months ago, which left me not much wiser and sort of put me off.

So I hope they give you more help than I can

redux

In fact, I'd actually suggest something rather different

- an O2 UK pay&go SIM, enrolled on Chosen country - Spain. A £5 fee for a month gets you free incoming calls, and outgoing at 25p/min to most of Europe.

http://www.o2.co.uk/international/travellingabroad/paygoabroad/chosencountryspain

Then try using that with callback, which converts incoming to outgoing calls; ReturnCall has a 2p/min rate from UK mobile to UK landline ...

http://www.returncall.co.uk/index2.php

You can get an O2 SIM virtually free, and would need a top-up of £10 for the 2 £5 fees, or a bit more if you expect to go over the first £5 to RtnCall (actually the £5 sms might cost about 10p to send as well; it did on my contract O2 just recently)

You could still use Vodafone Passport for your incoming calls from other people who don't know your O2 number (or you could forward the Vodafone to the O2 number for the meantime, depending how many calls you'd expect), and just use the O2 number between you and your wife

barnishroader

Can this work if i have a UK O2 phone and go to Ireland and want to call back to the UK?
Would i have to set it up for my phone and for each person in the UK i want to call/receive calls from?
Also if i was to call other UK numbers thats users are in Ireland is there a way of using Rebeltel to do this?
Just found out about this today so totally in the dark as to how to use it so would appreciate any help as the scenario above will be happening to me next month.
Im going to a music festival with a bunch of mates so will need to call them and receive calls from them and also call the UK and receive calls from the UK and worried that the bills are going to be HUGE!