# Best phone cards for calling from USA to Europe

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 5, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723 "2004-01-05T00:33:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723/1 "2004-01-05T00:33:07Z")

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Does anyone have any opinions on the best phone calling cards?  
We need to make calls to France and are at a loss; our phone service with Qwest is no bargain, nor is, especially, our Verizon cell phone. All the phone cards I see at Safeway or Target etc. say “International Rates Vary.”  
Hence my query, which does not seem straightforward enough for the General Questions forum.

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**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\
**Post date:** [January 5, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723/2 "2004-01-05T03:26:03Z")

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I use a phone card called PayLess. I don’t know if they are available where you live, but I usually pay under 10 cents a minute to call Rio de Janeiro.

Usually, these types of phone cards are sold in immigrant markets or in dollar stores.

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**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723/4 "2013-09-24T04:04:16Z")

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To Western Europe, rates in the 3 to 4 cents per minute range are common. You can do that with a card bought at the local immigrant grocer, with a 1010- dialaround service (I use 1010-987), or you can set up a Google Voice account and pay about 2 cents per minute.

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**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723/5 "2013-09-24T12:10:08Z")

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Does it have to be actual phone service? If you have a smart phone or something like an iPod touch or a small tablet - really, anything that can connect to wi-fi and has a speaker and a microphone - you can use Skype very, very cheaply. Like a few cents a minute, depending on the plan you get. I’ve used it when calling the US from Canada, and the quality is the same as cell phone quality.

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**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723/6 "2013-09-24T16:37:00Z")

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Zombie alert.

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**Author:** ![Caffeine.addict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f475e1/32.png) [@Caffeine.addict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caffeine.addict)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2013, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-phone-cards-for-calling-from-usa-to-europe/222723/7 "2013-09-24T17:46:53Z")

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I see that I responded back in 2004. I’ve been using Skype since 2005 and Google Voice for a few years as well.