While in Egypt I learned about the hazards of ATM machines. I arrived on a weekend and the ATM at my hotel was mostly empty, I managed to get about 70 pounds out of it. I also came home to find a $50 withdrawl from my bank account on the same day when I tried to get more money out but when no money actually came out. My bank did reimburse me for that money. I was thankful that I had brought a fair amount of cash with me as well as some travelers cheques. My roommate Tara (not the one that I'm going to Hawaii with) had much bigger problems...
The day she left she notified her bank that she was going to Egypt so that they wouldn't block her ATM card, they failed to mention to her that they already had a fraud alert on the card and the card was already blocked, opps! She came to Egypt and couldn't get money out of the ATM, at first she thought it was just the 1 or 2 ATM's, but finally in Aswan she checked the internet and realized that she had this block on her account.
I went with her to get a phone card to call the bank and we tried to figure out how to work the thing, but it wasn't happening. Then we tried Ed's cell phone, that didn't work either. Finally she as able to get through using my international phone - the 20 minute conversation only cost $60. The bank straightened it out and assured her that her ATM card would work, though there would be a lower then usual daily limit. We waited a few hours and went to the ATM machine - it ate her card - it went in but it didn't come out and neither did money.
Tara took it like a trooper and after figuring out the hours of the bank we went shopping. Back on our ship a little while later we ran into our Tour Manager and one of the ships crew. We were told that "the ATM was hungry," not an uncommon thing at night in Egypt - ouch! The next day we used our little bit of free time before our ship left Aswan to get the ATM card back. We seemed to be interrupting the bank guy who was counting piles of cash, but we kept nagging him and finally got it back - but not before he made us walk across the street twice for photocopies. But Tara got her ATM card back and the next time she used it she actually got money out, she also got reimbursed for the cell phone call to the bank.
The lesson: don't count only on ATM machines.
Showing posts with label cell phones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cell phones. Show all posts
Friday, May 1, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
ET, Phone home...
So, if you were ET, how would you phone home? Or if you were me, in Europe, how would you phone home? I generally don't call much, but I do like to check in from time to time.
In 2006 when I went to Scandinavia and Russia I decided to buy an international cell phone. I had looked at several different options: renting or buying an international phone. I decided to go with a company called Mobal. With Mobal you purchase a used phone with a sim card from the UK and pay for calls based on your usage. The phone I bought was $50 and calls are as cheap as $1.25 per minutes, though the cost in most countries is $2.00 per minute. In Russia it is actually $8.00 per minute, I didn't use it there. The per minute charges are kinda high, but I was only planning to use the phone to check in with my parents or if there was an emergency. For the 33 days I was away I only spent around $20.00, plus I had the peace of mind of having the phone if I needed it. I was also able to use the phone in Egypt and can use it on other future trips.
I've been happy with the international phone but I switched my regular cell phone service to ATT mostly since it didn't work in my new apt, but as a nice bonus ATT uses the GSM network. Since I'm now starting to plan my first trip overseas since switching to ATT I wanted to find out what options I have now, other then my old international phone. I explored a bit and have 2 options:
1. If I am able to get my phone unlocked by ATT I could buy a local sim card to use. I figured that ATT would make me fulfill my 2 year contract before I could do that, but I was wrong. I gave ATT a call and found out that a phone can be unlocked after 3 months of service provided you meet some other qualifications - like you pay your bill on time, I should be eligible. And I have a Blackberry, which is a quad band phone, which I would need for my phone to actually work in Europe. From what I've read on the internet the best thing to do is to buy a pre-paid sim card when in Europe, they can start as low as 5 pounds in Scotland. The one downside to this is that some of the services on my phone probably wont work and having to wait until I purchase the sim card to get the new phone number.
2. Just use my cell phone as it is and pay per call. For this I looked at the per minute cost: From Scotland, Italy, Hungry, Austria and Germany it's $1.29 a minute. From Slovakia $1.99 a minute and from the Czech Republic and Poland it's $2.29 a minute. Outgoing text messages are 50 cents each and data usage is .02 cents per kb and pay per use. Aside from the higher costs of this the other downside is that it's unlikely that I would be able to make calls within the country, only to the US. The good thing about this is though is that my family would be able to call me without having to figure out a different international phone number, I just have to pray that other people don't call me and run up my bill.
My plan at the moment - If I go with a multi-country tour I will probably just use my phone as it is. That will save me the trouble of having to switch sim cards in different countries, and I would anticipate that I wouldn't need my phone that much anyway. I would still get my phone unlocked so that I have the option of getting a local sim card if the need arises. If I decided to go to just Scotland (or Paris) for a week then I would get a local sim card. If I do this then I will be doing my own planning and on top of only needing to get 1 sim card I will be able to call hotels or hostels or set up plans while in Scotland.
In 2006 when I went to Scandinavia and Russia I decided to buy an international cell phone. I had looked at several different options: renting or buying an international phone. I decided to go with a company called Mobal. With Mobal you purchase a used phone with a sim card from the UK and pay for calls based on your usage. The phone I bought was $50 and calls are as cheap as $1.25 per minutes, though the cost in most countries is $2.00 per minute. In Russia it is actually $8.00 per minute, I didn't use it there. The per minute charges are kinda high, but I was only planning to use the phone to check in with my parents or if there was an emergency. For the 33 days I was away I only spent around $20.00, plus I had the peace of mind of having the phone if I needed it. I was also able to use the phone in Egypt and can use it on other future trips.
I've been happy with the international phone but I switched my regular cell phone service to ATT mostly since it didn't work in my new apt, but as a nice bonus ATT uses the GSM network. Since I'm now starting to plan my first trip overseas since switching to ATT I wanted to find out what options I have now, other then my old international phone. I explored a bit and have 2 options:
1. If I am able to get my phone unlocked by ATT I could buy a local sim card to use. I figured that ATT would make me fulfill my 2 year contract before I could do that, but I was wrong. I gave ATT a call and found out that a phone can be unlocked after 3 months of service provided you meet some other qualifications - like you pay your bill on time, I should be eligible. And I have a Blackberry, which is a quad band phone, which I would need for my phone to actually work in Europe. From what I've read on the internet the best thing to do is to buy a pre-paid sim card when in Europe, they can start as low as 5 pounds in Scotland. The one downside to this is that some of the services on my phone probably wont work and having to wait until I purchase the sim card to get the new phone number.
2. Just use my cell phone as it is and pay per call. For this I looked at the per minute cost: From Scotland, Italy, Hungry, Austria and Germany it's $1.29 a minute. From Slovakia $1.99 a minute and from the Czech Republic and Poland it's $2.29 a minute. Outgoing text messages are 50 cents each and data usage is .02 cents per kb and pay per use. Aside from the higher costs of this the other downside is that it's unlikely that I would be able to make calls within the country, only to the US. The good thing about this is though is that my family would be able to call me without having to figure out a different international phone number, I just have to pray that other people don't call me and run up my bill.
My plan at the moment - If I go with a multi-country tour I will probably just use my phone as it is. That will save me the trouble of having to switch sim cards in different countries, and I would anticipate that I wouldn't need my phone that much anyway. I would still get my phone unlocked so that I have the option of getting a local sim card if the need arises. If I decided to go to just Scotland (or Paris) for a week then I would get a local sim card. If I do this then I will be doing my own planning and on top of only needing to get 1 sim card I will be able to call hotels or hostels or set up plans while in Scotland.
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