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1016868
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Jonathan's Top 10
Least Expensive
Ways to keep in
touch with America when you study and stay in Europe
and
how to let your
family and friends from America keep in touch with you (using inexpensive
international calling cards and numbers like 1016868) without running
their phone bills through the roof. |
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Because I studied in
Oldenburg, Germany, this centers around studying in Oldenburg.
However, most of this applies to studying/working anywhere in
Europe.
If you want the best
rates on cheap international and national calling cards, as well as
airfares, be sure to check out the links on this page marked with
a
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1. Don't Call. Don't
buy a calling card. Don't heed my advice for inexpensive phone
rates.
Note: Not
calling is not recommended and not a good idea if you want people to think
you're still alive. However, if you went to Europe to escape a
(crazy ex who wouldn't stop calling, psycho roommate, calls from a long
distance company's bills collectors, etc.) this may be the absolute best
calling strategy you can use. |
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| 2. Do
call
Use a calling card! The least expensive calling
card that I knew of (when I was in Germany) for calling from Europe to
America (thanks to Kurt telling me) was the Eurocity card.
The Eurocity card can be purchased all over Europe in
Telecafe's (Internet cafe's as well.)
With this calling card, dialing to the states is not
expensive (at summer 2001 exchange rates, about 4 cents/minute from
Europe to the U.S.).
You get a 0800 number (like the U.S.' 1800 number), and then the back of
the card gives you a PIN # to dial. You dial the number and the
recording asks you to choose the language you want. (There are about
15 to choose from--English is 1). Then it gives you instructions and
you dial your number very cheap.
In Oldenburg, you can purchase this calling card in
the Telecafe in the Innenstadt. The Telecafe is near the
Lambertikirche across from Kaufhof. Ask for the Eurocity card for
either 10 or 20 Marks. Note: Be careful to get the correct card. My
brother visited Austria for a weekend and accidentally bought a Eurocity
calling card which which cost about 3.3 cents per minute in Austria, which
would have been great except that he studied and lived in
Germany.
Since getting back to America however, I have
discovered some better deals for calling from America to Europe. One
of the best sites I've found is the
calling card search above.
Parents/husbands/wives can send these calling cards to their loved ones
living/working in Europe.
Another option is to change your
long distance carrier to one which offers you better rates on local,
national, and international calls. One of the best ways to find out
if your long distance can be cheaper is to use Cognigen's
best rate calculator. The strive4impact Cognigen site
will find the cheapest long distance provider for your specific phone number,
location, and calling situation when you click the link below.
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What
can you do with 2.9 cents? Call the US from anywhere in the world.
If you have
friends who would be interested in reading the discounted long distance
advice offered here,
click here and tell them about this page.
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3. Have your
parents/loved ones set up a 1800 #.
 Check out
Kall8 for some awesome deals for setting
up 800 numbers. They're an awesome 800 number company and can get you
some great 800 number deals! Also check out the features, because if
you get even a few international calls on your 800 number, it can be very
easy to rack up an international long distance bill in a hurry.
Kall8 has come up with a
solution.
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4. Email
 Hello? No email
account yet? If you don't already have an
email account, spending a semester or a year in
Europe is a good excuse to get one.
I've linked you to a couple sites on the right which give free email.
If you don't choose one of these, there are hundreds of other free email
providers. |
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I have
purchased tickets through both of these sites, and both of them offer
rates lower than the airlines' web sites.
Cheap
Airline Tickets! 
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| 5. High Speed
Internet
If you are not studying at the University of
Oldenburg, contact your exchange University to find out if you will have
an Internet connection or at least access to the Internet. It's
helpful to know.
In Oldenburg, if you are going to live
in Hermann Ehler's House or Huntemannstrasse, the Internet connection is
not expensive. (In Huntemannstrasse, less than $30 for the whole
semester.) Provided of course that you have a computer (taking or
buying a laptop is recommended) with high speed Internet capability, this
gives you access to email (see #4) sending SMS' (see #7), Instant
Messaging (see #8). |
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6. Get a "handy"
 Why do Germans
call a cell phone a Handy? It's like asking why do people
park in driveways and park in driveways. I really don't know.
It's someone else's job to figure these things out.
A handy is a cell phone. Besides allowing you
to receive and send SMS' (See # 7), they also allow you to receive phone
calls for free. Since the phones are prepaid, it only costs you when
you call, not when someone calls you.
When I was in Oldenburg, the E-Plus store in
the Innenstadt had a deal where they were selling a NOKIA for 99 Marks
(about $45), with 25 Marks of prepaid time and 70 Prepaid SMS' (I said see
#7). This was a great deal considering it gave me a phone for the
entire time I was in Germany, and when I ran out of time, all I had to do
was go back and get a refill card for my phone. (You'll be able to
figure this one out on your own, but if not, the people in the store will
help you.)
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| 7. SMS
(SMS,
a page
by Jonathan)
We have a lot of things in the US, but
I don't know why it's taking America so long to get SMS (phone to phone
Instant Messaging). It's just now getting as popular in America as
it is in Europe. To learn more about SMS, (a major means of
communication in Europe) head to my
SMS page. |
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 8. Instant
Messaging
 This
I used quite a bit while in Germany. Both of my brothers have MSN
Instant Messenger, some friends of mine from school use Yahoo IM, and some
people I met in Germany use ICQ.
Whichever you decide to use, these programs allow you to chat with one or
more people in a real time typed (and now voice) conversation via the
Internet. Instead of calling long distance, even though it is very,
very cheap, if you've paid your Internet already, why pay for long
distance calls too? You can share files, pictures, viruses (let's
not do that), and keep in touch with people at the touch of a button.
Quite awesome! |
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9. 1016868
(Updated 9/20/02:
I couldn't fit all of the
1016868 information on this page.
Click here for better and more
complete information about 1016868 and dial around plans)If you want to save your people (who are calling you
long distance from America) some moola (do you have people? It's fun
to have people), your best bet is to have them use the long distance
routing code. Kurt also told me about this.
To use this in the states, you have to call from a
phone which is registered to someone (can't be a pay phone), and it can't
have long distance blocking on the service.
Dial 1016868 before calling. Then the
international calling number (011 from the US), then the country code,
then the number. So calling Germany would go something like
this. 1016868, then 011, then 49, then the number.
Without this number, dialing long distance to Germany
directly, my parents were charged over (overcharged) $1.00/minute.
When they used this number, it became 9 cents/minute.
1016868 |
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10. Tin cans and string
 Note: This is not highly
recommended. Long distance over string can get difficult and due to
the long distance between America and Europe, your string may break.
However, if you decide to use this method, you are going to need one very
long, very expensive, very strong string. As for the cans, I've
heard that the Campbell's Soup ones work the best, although I can't say
for sure.
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