renting a cell phone

Has anyone rented a cell phone for your Paris trip? I%26#39;d like to find a good company from which to rent a phone for my trip. Thanks!

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%26lt;%26lt;%26lt;Has anyone rented a cell phone for your Paris trip?%26gt;%26gt;%26gt;

Please try the search function. This forum is replete with horror stories of those who have regrettably rented cell phones. Basically, costs far exceed one%26#39;s expectations and exceed what is reasonable.

If you do not already have a GSM phone (T-Mobile or AT%26amp;T) you%26#39;ll save an enormous amount of money buying one which is unlocked (on eBay for example) and purchasing a French sim card.

http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/france.html

Are you absolutely sure you need one? It is very easy to keep in touch with:

1. An international calling card or a Télécarte used to call from any pay phone.

2. If you are traveling with a laptop, use VoIP available from a host of providers, i.e. Skype, Gizmo Project, Lingo, Ekiga, and a plethora of others.

3. Internet email is easy to use and widely available through hotmail.com, gmail.com or yahoo.com

There are a myriad of solutions to one%26#39;s communication requirements and a host of inexpensive answers satisfying one%26#39;s need to keep in touch - renting a phone is not one of them.

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I am not sure whether you can do this for France. You may consider buying a GSM phone overseas and a stored value sim card. For example, in Hong Kong here, the cheapest phones are now maybe US$50. Then you can just buy a sim card for less than US$25 with hundreds of minutes. When the card runs out of money, you just pay to top up the value so you can keep the same phone number.

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I think it%26#39;s better to buy an inexpensive used tri- or quad-band phone on EBay, then decide which SIM is most economical for your needs.

It is not inexpensive to use a cell phone in France.

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You don%26#39;t say what you want the phone for. If it is to have in case of emergency or to make a couple of calls for reservations, I have rented from Travelcell dot com and had good experiences. After renting a couple of times, I realized I needed a more permanent solution. After doing some research, I bought a phone from Mobal dot com for about $50.00. It gives you your own permanent phone number (a UK number)and you pay by the call. Calls aren%26#39;t just a few cents, but I don%26#39;t really make many or any at all, and all I have to do is charge up the phone a day or so before I leave, and it is ready to use with no expired SIM card needing to be replaced.

Hope this helps,

Eve

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I agree with ezs - why rent a phone when you can buy a phone from Mobal.com. For $50 you can own it and take it on many more trips. You only pay for the minutes you use. Like ezs said, charge it up before you leave home and yo are good to go. You even get all the adapters you will need for various countries so you can keep is charged on your trip. Works in some 150 countries. We%26#39;ve had ours about 4 years now and have used it in France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Hungary and Czech without any problems whatsoever.

No need to buy other sim cards for other countries either - one sim card works in all 150 countries.

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I agree with ezs - why rent a phone when you can buy a phone from Mobal.com. For $50 you can own it and take it on many more trips. You only pay for the minutes you use. Like ezs said, charge it up before you leave home and yo are good to go. You even get all the adapters you will need for various countries so you can keep is charged on your trip. Works in some 150 countries. We%26#39;ve had ours about 4 years now and have used it in France, England, Ireland, Scotland, Hungary and Czech without any problems whatsoever.

No need to buy other sim cards for other countries either - one sim card works in all 150 countries.

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I think I%26#39;d like to rent a French phone when I get there. Something that isn%26#39;t expensive for receiving incoming calls from the States. The purpose of the phone for me would be so that my husband could reach me while I%26#39;m away. The only outgoing calls I%26#39;d make would be dinner reservations. Any further suggestions?

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Some details regarding Mobal. Yes, they have an inexpensive phone. The $49 and $99 phones are discontinued models. Displays are monochrome (not color) and there are no %26quot;features%26quot;. Last I heard, Mobal phones are %26quot;locked%26quot;, meaning you cannot use them with a SIM other than Mobal. At the moment, Mobal SIMs are free ($10 shipping). Charges for calls are among the highest of any SIM. They have a UK phone number, so incoming calls are free only in the UK.

When using a Mobal phone and/or Mobal SIM, it is critical to know how to lock the phone, lock the keypad, and lock the SIM (all separate functions). (This applies to any phone/SIM you plan to use overseas.) You want to know how to lock the keypad on a phone without a cover, as bouncing around in your pocket or even in a case, a key could activate a phone call and run up charges. You%26#39;d want to be able to lock the phone, so if lost or stolen, no one can use the phone. And, you%26#39;d want to be able to lock the SIM, so if your phone is lost or stolen, no one can remove the SIM, use it in another phone, and make calls chargeable to you. And, you need to have the Mobal customer service number handy so you can call them immediately if the phone is lost/stolen and cancel your SIM account immediately. Note that their regular customer service number is not 24/7, so you also need the emergency number.

Before purchasing a phone, it%26#39;s a good idea to find a manual for that specific model online (along with reviews for the phone - some work better than others) for ease of use and essential features. You might also want to ensure that accessories you might want/need (US charger, spare battery, car charger, cases, etc.) are available.

If you buy your own unlocked phone (and EBay is a very good resource), then you can purchase and use any SIM card you please.

There are all sorts of SIMs you can purchase online, before leaving home, with varying rates for calls. Or, you can purchase a SIM once you%26#39;ve arrived at your destination.

If you have cell phone service at home, it may be more economical to use the phone you have, or, in the case of Verizon, use their rental service.

Everything turns on how many calls you plan to receive/place, the length of calls, and where you plan to call with the phone.

All in all, using cell phones abroad is not inexpensive, and can be very expensive, depending on the service you choose.

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I don%26#39;t think the $49 and $99 are discontinued with Mobal. I just received my second $49 and it is still on their website as being available. As much as we have traveled with ours, we have never had to lock the phone or had erroneous calls made because we didn%26#39;t do so. When we got our first phone, calls from the US were free, that may have changed by now. We aren%26#39;t too concerned about receiving calls - just being able to make them. We got a second one recently because on our next trip, we feel certain that our party may split up some days and wanted to have the extra phone for emergencies.

There are lots of options out there for cell phone rental. I googled Cell Phone Rentals in France, earlier trying to help you and all I got was corps like Mobal - where it is much cheaper to buy than to rent.

I am sure there are other options once you are in Paris. Before we bought our phone we purchased a phone in England loaded with minutes to use on our 3 weeks there. We didn%26#39;t come close to using them all and left the phone behind for a friend living in the area. There may be options like that in Paris - something like a prepaid phone or the like.

Maybe a local will chime in on where the best place to look once you are in Paris happens to be, so you don%26#39;t waste precious vacation time hunting this down.

Good luck with your search!

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Discontinued by Motorola - not Mobal...