Phones in Germany?

Question

My man who is in the military is currently in Frankfurt, Germany. Which is the best way to be in touch with the USA??? What is the best phone company out there, or can he use calling cards or what can he do? I know about the yahoo thing, and he does have an international phone! So he can make calls however it is VERY PRICY! So where could he buy a german SIM so it wouldnt cost as much or what should we do??? Thank u for all of your answers! I would appreciate it if someone with a similar expereince from germany would answer...THANK YOU ALL FOR UR TIME!

Answer 1

I would recommend skype. If he makes friend with a german over there, he should ask him to use his phone ones in a while. Cause if u call  from a german phone (not a cell phone!) and u dial numbers like "010058" before the 001-***-***-**** it DOESN'T EVEN COST 1 CENT PER MINUTE!

Answer 2

I'm pretty sure, depending on his phone, that he can buy a German SIM card to put in his phone, but that will still be really expensive.  Phone cards work, but in my opinion they're really more hassle than it's worth.  What I've always done when I'm in Germany is go to a Internet Cafe/Call Shop (they're usually combined) and just have him call you from there.  It's generally about 10 euro cents a minute to call from Germany to the US depending on which place he goes.

Answer 3

My daughters have all ended up going to Europe, the Middle East or South America with the same phone.  We bought the cheapest phone that would work outside of this country, with a SIM card for whichever country was needed.  Once the SIM cards are bought, you can add time to them fairly cheaply in many different places.  The phone plans have free incoming calls, but calls to the U.S. are pricey.  We have the girls call us, then we call them back using a phone card which we got at Sam's Club.  By purchasing a phone that they can use we have a good place to contact them, rather than waiting for a call from an Internet cafe.  You do have to be careful with your phone card because it doesn't really offer the number of minutes which it advertises.  Another option is Vonage which has a plan where international calls are included.  My youngest daughter's boyfriend is in Hong Kong for a few months, and they communicate with Skype on a daily basis, but that requires that both parties have computers with internet access.

Answer 4

Hi,

I wouldn't recommend using a cell phone to call the US. My mom called me from hers a couple of days ago and paid about 11 euros for maybe 10 minutes.

Does he have a landline phone around that he can use?

Our landline company in Germany is kabeldeutschland and it's really cheap only a couple of cents a minute. You can also add the US as your favorite country in that plan for a couple of Euros and pay even less. As far as I know most of the regular phone companies only charge a couple of cents per minute. But that requires a landline phone.

Or you could use skype?

I am not very familiar with miliary but I think the German military offers special calling cards so that the soldiers can call home for very cheap. Does the US military maybe do something like that too?

Well, hope this kinda helps...