Best card for calls from Germany to USA?
 

I was going for the Ortel card:

12.95 Euros for SIM with 10 Euro call credit
.09 Euros to the USA
.19 Euros to German landline or mobile
.15 Euros call setup per call

but they require a bank transfer which I can not arrange quickly.

What can I get to call the USA and Germany from a mobile in Germany that is as good or better?

I already have a Yackie card coming for use outside of Germany and for incoming calls (I will keep the Yackie card in the phone when I am not making a call to the USA from Germany)

Solomo Pro is cheaper:

20 Euros for SIM with 20 Euro call credit
.09 Euros to the USA
.08 Euros to German landline
.12 Euros to German mobile
.00 Euros call setup per call (direct calling, no callback)
.29 Euros for texts to the US

ordering the Solomo Pro now. Are incoming calls free?

Yes, incoming call are free of charge, like it's the case with every European SIM card unless you leave it's home country.
Btw solomo is also quite cheap for going online through your mobile, as they charge € 0.24/MB.
If you order through this link you'll get some additional € 5 of credit.
I'm just not sure, if they ship to the US.

When I went thru to the ordering page they only had the choice of a few European countries -- Belgium and Poland where on there, but no US :(

@eurouser

There is a way cheaper mode to call the US from Germany or make calls to German landline- or mobil numbers.

Get yourself a Simyo SIM, topping up can be done via E+ topup cards, available at almost every gas station. Topup 30 Euro, choose the 15 Euro flatrate tarif at Simyo. (You can make calls to landline numbers within Germany for 0 Cent for 30 days)

When you have your Simyo SIM and you´re in Germany, send a SMS to 85550 with the text EASY ON. This SMS costs 4,99 Euro and will be deducted from your prepaid account at Simyo, in realtime.

After this you can call the US for as a little as 0,5 !Cent!/Minute (a half Eurocent). Landline as well as mobile numbers.

The only thing you hvae to watch out is that you have to call first the entry number 02115399499, then you are connected to the easytelecom.de (http://www.easytelecom.de/english.php) system and then dial the US number or any other number in the world, even a German mobile number (10 Cent/minute)

If you have a Nokia cellphone you can store your numbers like this 02115399499p001xxxxxxxx#

...you forgot to mention that the simyo mobile call is also charged. so you pay 9,5ct/min but also pay 9ct/min for busy lines, dialling, answering machines and non picked up calls.

Chris

I have already purchased the solomo card, so I think I will stick with it this time. But I am happy to learn of other alternatives since I travel to Germany at least once a year. It would be nice if I didn't have to switch between to cards to get the best rates in both directions. Right now I have to keep the Yackie card in the phone for incoming calls and switch to the solomo for outgoing. This gives me the best rate (adding costs to caller and called number) I have found so far and gives me one number I can give out for incoming calls.

Solomo?
 

A NEW card? Would they send it to you in the USA? I think that would be new.

We have German address, so we were able to have the Solomo card sent there.

OK, I am really interested in the Solomo offer -- I emailed them and they said there should be no problem using a US credit card and shipping to a German friend.

So has anybody here actually used them? Comments on call quality, reliability, etc. etc? The 9 eurocents a minute back to the states is real attractive!

I ordered to my German address after I called my credit card company and added my German address to my credit card authorized addresses. Your credit card company may very well balk at authorizing a delivery to a address in another country if Solomo asks for an authorization to send to that address. If Solomo just trusts you and doesn't report the requested delivery address your credit card company might let it go, but it is a hassle trying to find out where your delivery went if it fails to show up, so I suggest adding the address with your credit card company first.

In Germany neither delivery address nor card holder's address are being checked by payment processors when paying online by credit card, so calling your CC company in order to add some German address is superfluous. What they check is the card's country of origin, so the only problem could be, that certain processors may accept European CCs only.
Remember to order through this link for additional € 5 of credit: http://www.solomo.de/?function=order&affiliateId=3106 (order "Solomo Pro" for cheap international tariffs! "Solomo 08/15" has completely different interational rates!)
Regarding call quality and reliability there's no significant difference to other GSM-operators. However data service is inferior to other German operators, as the E-Plus network does neither support EDGE nor HSDPA, so bandwidth is smaller, and their data service suffers from congestions sometimes. In return E-Plus/solomo is the cheapest provider in Germany.
Btw solomo is a MVNO using the E-Plus network, which is mainly GSM1800 and in places EGSM900 (mostly rural areas) as well as 3G/UMTS2100 (urban areas), so be sure your phone supports at least GSM1800 for comprehensive coverage!
You can check E-Plus' network coverage at http://eis03sn1.eplus-online.de/evportal/portal/gsm

Thanks, inquisitor

I'm going to order a bunch of the Solomo Pro SIMs for a beer trip a bunch of us are doing in the fall.

Dont be so sure. CC fraud is rife. CC companies check all sorts of things from wherever they originate.

@dg7feq

Hallo Chris,

was zur Hölle habe ich wo vergessen?

Es wird im Flat Tarif keine Abrechnung für Festnetzanrufe ausgeführt. :nono:

Ich habe übersehen das Du vom FLAT-Tarif redest. Für 15 Euro kann ich mit dem Calltrough ja schon 150 Minuten telefonieren.. Das lohnt sich ja gar nicht...

Wieder nur so oberflächliche WischiWaschi Antworten, gib mal ein Beispiel für Callthrough von 150 min, vorallem direkt vom Handy und nicht in "VoIP-ich-verstehe-gar-nichts-Qualität"

Ständig diese unausgegorenen und nicht selbst getesteten Empfehlungen. Callthrough gibt es auch nicht umsonst d.h. dafür muß ich auch zahlen, wo wir dann auf der gleichen Kostenhohe wären, jedoch mit Simyo die Anrufe unbegrenzt (keine Minuten Begrenzung) sind und bei Callthrough auf das Guthabenvolumen (150 min bei 15 Euro) begrenzt ist. Wie kann man so bescheuerte Empfehlungen machen??? Zuerst Denken, dann reden/schreiben!

Es gibt im deutschen Raum keine kostengünstigere Alternative als die von mir aufgezeigte.

Gentlemen:

If I have my facts correct (please advise) we have as alternatives:

1. SIMYO flatrate 30 days costs ~ 20 Euros (15 + 4.99) for unlimited landline access PLUS VOIP etc fees
2. Callthru 15 Euros for 150 minutes = 10 cents per minute PLUS VOIP etc fees (sorry, didn't see many details on this one)
3. Blauworld 9 cents + 15 cents setup (no VOIP fees)

My PRICING comparison of MARGINAL prices, ignoring any purchase of SIM, etc.

For a few calls of limited time, 3 is best (least expense). 10 calls of 15 minutes to USA totals 15 Euros. Using 2, 10 calls of 15 minutes to USA totals 15 Euros PLUS the VOIP or other fees. Using 1, 10 calls of 15 minutes to USA totals 20 Euros PLUS the VIOP or other fees.

For lots of calls or longer calls we have:

1) 30 calls of 15 minutes (450 minutes) total 20 Euros PLUS VOIP fees
2) 30 calls of 15 minutes (450 minutes) unknown final total because we don't know the charges for the 300 extra minutes PLUS VOIP fees
3) 30 calls of 15 minutes (450 minutes) total 45 Euros

If the VOIP fees are 1 cent per minute, the 450 minutes = 4.5 Euros.

I think we can see that the least cost solution depends on how many minutes and how many calls. For less than 150 minutes of calling 3 is the cheapest option; for 450 minutes 1 is the winner. I suspect somewhere in the middle 2 will be cheaper than either of the others.

Stan

Yes, quite right.
A good solution for 2) is using one of the Betamax VoIP providers. Many of them provide landline access numbers and offer calls to the US for 0...2ct/min. Advantage of this is that you can also use these accounts via internet and so be more flexible than using a flatrate account.
EDIT: I personally use voipdiscount.com for about 2 years now but there are many more - quality is the same for all of them...

3) is best for light users

Solomo would be perfect but it seems they are not very well prepared for international customers yet.

Chris

JohnDoe: dont feel personally offended, i just wanted to show more solutions.

teltarif.de recently reported, that eplus (the network simyo & blau use) has recently started barring certain access numbers of call-through-services, after O2 did that before. I don't know if Betamax access numbers are affected yet on the eplus network, but O2 definitely blocks calls to most Betamax access numbers. So be prepared Betamax callthrough to become unavailable.

As far as i am informed they only barred dial in numbers for certain voice chat services but no access numbers for any calltrough providers.

Chris