I've posted elsewhere that I'm after a Polish SIM, but have also thought about a calling card to let me call the UK from Poland. I currently have O2 and will have Sami Swoi sims and I will need to call mainly landlines in the UK.

Any good deals?

Have NO idea if this is a good rate. EZplan:

From Poland to
United Kingdom: 13.2?
United Kingdom - Cell: 36.5?
From United Kingdom to Poland: 4.5?

http://www.enjoyprepaid.com/enjoyprepaid/j...anselection.jsp

They are US based and I have used their services in DE and USA. They do NOT show individual call history just starting and remaining balance.

Stan

Beerfestival and UKSteve - I'll post you some offers.


Card name: Telepin

Debiting 60/60

Access numbers:
A: +48 22 331 79 89 (from any phone, it's a landline in Warsaw)
B: 0 800 033 033 (from landlines)
C: 0 800 800 300, 0 800 800 888 (from landlines, and possibly non-Polish Telecom payphones)
D: 0 800 66 55 44 (from landlines, payphones and Orange - even with zero credit!)

The fees are listed by card nominals

+44 landlines
............... A ..... B .... C ..... D
100 PLN 0,22 0,34 0,57 1,34
50 PLN 0,22 0,34 0,57 1,34
25 PLN 0,28 0,40 0,63 1,40
15 PLN 0,32 0,44 0,67 1,44
10 PLN 0,35 0,47 0,70 1,47


+44 mobiles
............... A ..... B .... C ..... D
100 PLN 1,38 1,50 1,73 2,50
50 PLN 1,38 1,50 1,73 2,50
25 PLN 1,44 1,56 1,79 2,56
15 PLN 1,48 1,60 1,83 2,60
10 PLN 1,51 1,63 1,86 2,63

There's a "permament promotion" to landlines in UK and some other countries:
"Talk 10 minutes, next 30 minutes free"

As you can see, it's cheaper to call access number A from Sami Swoi (0.24 PLN/min on top) than to use free access numbers C and D!

Card name: Telegrosik

Debiting 15/15

Access numbers:
A: +48 22 330 19 00 and other numbers printed on the card (from any phone)
B: 0 800 80 19 00 (from landlines and possibly non-Polish Telecom payphones)

Fees:

+44 landlines
A: 0,65 B: 0,85
+44 mobiles
A: 1,50 B: 1,70

There's a "permament promotion" to landlines in UK and some other countries:
"Talk 10 minutes, next 20 minutes free".

Card nominals: 10, 20, 50 PLN

Not very good as for calls to landlines, but not bad for mobiles.

But there's one disadvantage - the access number 00-800-111-4553.
International freephone numbers are NOT FREE in Poland. From landlines (incl. payphones) it's not a big problem since 00800's cost just usually 11-12 (up to 20) cents per call. But from mobile phones those numbers are either unavailable or cost as national calls - 21-25 cents per minute and it's not any good deal at all!

Card name: Telerabat

Website in English (but online shop is in Polish only):
http://www.telerabat.pl/index_en.php

Debiting 1/1

Access number: + 48 22 370 1000 (from any phone, it's a landline in Warsaw)

+44 landlines 0,35 PLN
+44 mobiles 1,49 PLN

There's a "permament promotion" to landlines in UK and some other countries:
"Talk 10 minutes, next 60 minutes free".

Card nominals: 10, 20, 50 PLN

Ahh, at last I know why I couldn't use my UK calling card from a payphone in Poland - I should have put money in! I think it was only a bit more from the mobile anyway, 40p vs 33p - Era tak tak - but now I know others are cheaper ...

Most of Polish payphones (exactly: all from TP - Polish Telecom) don't use money for many years - nowadays they "feed" with chip cards only. 00800 calls use just one billing unit per call (named "impulse" here) which costs 0.30 - 0.60 PLN depending on the card nominal.

What was "more from the mobile"? A call to 00800 or call to the UK?

BTW, as you can see - rates for calls to UK (and other European mobiles) from Polish calling cards are comparable with rates of direct calls from Heyah (1.70 PLN/min, can be done even better when using "10% more on each top-up) and Sami Swoi 2 PLN/min.

Card name: Dzwoneczek

Debiting 60/60

Access numbers:
A: +48 22 326 79 99 and other numbers printed on the card (from any phone)
B: 0 800 051 051 (from landlines and possibly non-Polish Telecom payphones)
(corrected 0800 number)

Fees:

+44 landlines
0,60 (night tariff 0:00-8:00 Polish time: 0,23)

+44 mobiles
1,38

No extra fee for using 800 access number.

There's a promotion "while stock lasts"
"Buy one card, get another one free"

Card nominals: 10, 25, 50, 100 PLN.

Card name: Telebonus
Debiting 60/60

Access numbers:
A: +48 22 335 46 00 and other numbers printed on the card (from any phone)
B: 0 800 800 121 (from landlines and possibly non-Polish Telecom payphones)

Fees:

+44 landlines
A: 0,23 B: 0,86
+44 mobiles
A: 1,21 B: 1,64

This card offers relatively good rate for Liechtenstein mobiles :):
A: 0,73 B: 1,16

Card nominals: 10, 20, 30, 50 PLN.
50 PLN card contains 55 PLN credit.

I think Tak tak to UK was equiv to 40p/min. My calling card rate would have been 33p/min from callbox - it does have some better rates! I didn't try 00800 from SIM

That was in 2003. As you say, Heyah would be cheaper now, or Riiing. I drove across Poland just before last Xmas expecting the car to break down (noisy gearbox) and I'd buy a Heyah SIM ... but it made it to Magdeburg before all the oil came out, so Vodafone got my money instead.

Yes, the prices in PLN have dropped since 2003. But PLN is stronger against foreign currencies than in 2003, so from your point of view it isn't much cheaper. As of today, 1 GBP = 5.7 PLN so Heyah with its 1.70 PLN/min rate is about 30p/min anyway.

I don't know if 00800 "works" in Tak Tak - in Heyah it doesn't.

Thanks to Mr P for his excellent breakdown of calling cards :)

I can confirm that, whilst Polish Telecom 0800 numbers are free from Nowy Pop/Orange SIMs, 00800 numbers are charged at standard 0.80 Zloty rates.

My conclusion is that Sami Swoi is the way to go, even for occasional visitors to Poland (like me - 2/3 times a year) as the cards are so cheap you simply let them die in the drawer or sell them on eBay when you are finished.

I'll be over in Poland again in Feb, so will grab a couple of Sami Swoi cards when I get there. In the meantime, I have an Orange Poland card on standby.

And a Riiing card

And a whole heap of other cards.

Thanks to everyone for the heap of information.

Steve :)
:beer:

Andy - hope you had a decent breakdown policy - we have a great Direct Line international policy on two vehicles - ?150 a year for the works, including repatriation.

This is straying off topic though, so I'll shut up now...

Steve :whistle:

You 're welcome :D

Yes, but the debiting for 00800 is 60/60, not 1/1 as in case of national calls :(.

Yes, we have had an "explosion" a lot of cheap (<= 10 PLN) SIMs recently. The first one was POP 10 PLN/8 PLN credit, later Sami Swoi 9,99 PLN/9 PLN credit, Tak Tak 9 PLN/ 8 PLN credit, and limited Xmas offer for Orange Go 9 PLN/9 PLN credit :).

Thanks once again for the info!

The Telebonus seems to give good rates - are these available from pretty much anywhere? Are they easy to use (English!!!)?

Ta.

All cards I mentioned here are (or at least) should be available from post offices ("Poczta Polska"). They are also often available from newsagents, filling stations, groceries etc.

However, in my subjective opinion the most widely available are Telegrosik cards. Telegrosik PIN codes are sold as printouts in some point of sales with GSM top-up terminals.

As to English, that's a problem with Telebonus card. It seems it doesn't have non-Polish voice commands/messages or instructions printed on the card.

If you need, I can tell you how to use this card (but you won't be able to check the remaining credit anyway). Or I can check other cards as to their English capabilities.
Now I can say I'm sure that Telepin has English voice prompts (I used it in the summer).

Just checked. Among the cards mentioned above only Telepin and Dzwoneczek have English voice prompts :(. In Telepin you must dial 2 in the beginning to select English, in Dzwoneczek prompts are bilingual.

OK. so another one:

Card name: Karta Świat Tele 2

Debiting 30/6

Access numbers:
A: +48 22 70 150 20 (from any phone)
B: 0 800 88 33 33 (from landlines, they claim it works from payphones, must check)


Fees:

+44 landlines
0,39

+44 mobiles
1,50

Fees above for using 800 access number, not stated if they give any discounts for using regular + 48 22 number.

Card nominals: 12, 25, 50, 100 PLN.

Voice prompts in English (dial 2), Russian (dial 3) and German (dial 4).

:clap: www.608608.com for all your needs :)

Przemek has gone to a lot of kind effort to post all this info - unfortunately this affiliate link doesn't match that quality.

The card that shows up cheapest on there has no tariff info at all for the supplements for calling from payphones and mobiles in Poland. Typical charges for these in other European countries range from 18.5p to 45.5p per minute, unless they have bothered to do anything about this since it was written on 12th April
there are hints that this Mode 3 is a callback service, even if triggered by freephone call - you'd think their few days could be less than 7 months.

edit - ok, apologies, I've found it - 26p per minute from a Polish mobile to UK landline with their cheaper eCallback

i really dont think i could help him anymore considering i am not from poland, but hey no problem :ranting2:



by the way check the best possible card

http://www.uk66.com/Merchant2/agent.mvc?SC...=GDY&P=MillE15T

Millennium ?15 card Access from :-

Surcharge (SC) if applicable ?cents/min

Country Access Number Access Type Landline Payphone* Mobile*
Access Access/SC Access/SC
Poland
00800-451-1328 Free Phone Yes ?? ??
00800-111-3440 Free Phone Yes, 6.4? ??, 6.4? ??, 6.4?
00800-321-1310 Free Phone Yes, 20? Yes, 20? Yes, 20?



check the link for clearer info :clap:

Thanks for you appreciated my work :).
As to surcharges you mention IMHO we can distinguish two kinds of them when using calling cards:
1) Surcharge paid from the card's credit limit - applicable when a toll free access number instead of "regular" landline number is used
2) Surcharge paid "outside" the card's credit limit in order to call the access number.
Which surcharges do you mean?

Is eCallback a Web/WAP triggering?
After all, it seems that it's better to use for such a call gt-sim instead - it'll be 26 again but eurocents :D

OK, I checked.
http://www.uk66.com/callcalc.php says:

UK LOCAL 13.9 cent
UK NATIONAL 14.3 cent
UK SPECIAL 42.9 cent
UK-MOB O2, ORANGE 42.9 cent
UK-MOB T, VODAPHONE 42.9 cent
UK-OTHER MOBILES 50.0 cent

Now I apply today's exchange rate of selling euro cash in exchange office in Poland 1 EUR = 3,85 PLN.

All the access numbers you mentioned are 00800 what means that they are not free!
To access them from payphones you must buy a payphone card. The chepaest one costs 2,39 EUR and contains 15 "billing units" (15.6 cents/unit). Each "unit" is enough to make a 00800 call of any duration. Units in more expensive payphone cards cost 13 or 10.4 cents each. This means a surcharge of 10.4-15.6 per call.
If you want to access those numbers from a mobile phone, it's worse. I have no idea if they are available in any postpaid roaming. Even if they are (possibly in Orange and Plus), national roaming rates would apply - I don't dare how high they are :(.
In case of prepaid SIMs, 00800 numbers are available only from Orange prepaids at 20.8 cents/min and this would be a "local" yet REAL surcharge to the above call rates!

OTOH, if you buy a Heyah SIM for 5.20 EUR, you'll get 3.90 EUR credit and the rate for UK (and all Europe) landlines and mobiles 44.2 cents/min. If you join HeyahKlub as described in the Heyah section of PPGSM (cost 1.6 cents), you'll get 10% more on each top up what decreases the _real_ rate for UK/Eur calls to 40.1 cents/min.
Those Heyah rates are pretty high for UK landlines yet they are quite good for UK mobiles. My conclusion is that if you want to call UK mobiles it doesn't make any sense to use international calling cards (and Polish too) and have mess with access rumbers and PINs since you can make regular calls from Heyah at practically the same or even better rates.
If you want to call mainly UK (and not only) landlines, calling cards are worth considering.
But warning! All international (i.e. not issued in Poland) calling cards as well as services like CBW/Enlinea or Country Direct collect calls use AFAIK 00800 as their toll "free" access numbers in Poland. And if you want access those numbers from a mobile phone, you must buy an Orange prepaid SIM and add 20.8 cents/min to the listed rates of the 00800 service you are using.

Sorry, I had a problem replying earlier ...

I think I meant surcharges within the card credit - they didn't seem to have been specified on those pages.

It is often difficult to find detailed tariff information for calling cards - in one case it needed 3 emails enquiries to get mobile and callbox surcharges. In another a new calling card raised some tariffs by factors of up to 20 times (ie 1.5p to 27p) only 6 weeks after being recommended on another forum.

I think the callback may have been via an 0800 number, although this wasn't very clear. To tell the truth, I wasn't too interested; my main point was that it wasn't all that cheap. I think you've amplified this now in your later post.

Maybe I would like too much from telecom companies, namely so that they would specify exact extra costs of reaching foreign access numbers.

But not all the companies follow that way.
E.g. Polish Telecom provides the list of access numbers for Poland Direct collect call service with remarks of unavailability or necessity of using a coin/card when using payphones.
I remember also discontinued VisaPhone service, where restrictions and/or extra costs of reaching access numbers were described in rather detailed way.

http://www.enjoyprepaid.com/enjoyprepaid/j...&to_country=289

They now have a LOCAL # with the following EZplan rates:

to UK 4.7 us cents
to UK cell 28 us cents
5 cents toll free surcharge

Local access # is:

POLAND (+48) Warshaw 470-1222

Not aware of your exchange rate but these rates do beat the rates I first reported some time ago. I would advise that rates and local accesses are subject to change. Their original rate to Liechtenstein cells was like 12 cents. Now it has jumped to 70 cents.

In the US you can arrange for PINless dialing. That does not work on any of the local access or overseas toll free #s.

If you sign up for $50, they will give you $10 free. I was skeptical the first time and failed to take advantage of that offer -- that was about 2 years ago. No sure how much someone in Poland would use this kind of service.

BUT.... If you can tolerate not being able to track your calls online or otherwise and trust them, I would do it. I have spent nearly $40 of my first $50 and am generally pleased with them. They have recently added lots of US local access #s bringing the domestic rate down to 1.9 cents per minute. The local access rate to Germany is 2.5 cents and 2.4 cents from Germany to US. No connect fee, no maintenance fee, no taxes. In my experience a good rate. The USA to German cell rate of 28 cents is, however, nothing to bragg about but it is typical of rates I have seen. My other standard LD card, Onesuite, has a rate of 26 cents per minute.


Stan

Good rates - I don't know any local calling card here that can bit them :).

OT - "Warshaw" - what a horrible spelling is that? Is this the German name for Warszawa - "Warschau" spelled according to English phonetic rules :D?

And as to the number itself. From mobiles it's (+48) 22 470 1222 (+48 may be skipped) and from landlines it's 0 22 470 1222.

It's basically a very good idea to provide a landline access number in Poland since it can be accessed from any phone (unlike 00800 or 0800 numbers).

As to costs of accessing the landline number. The current exchange rate is about 1 zloty = 30 US cents.

From Polish prepaid SIMs rates to landline numbers vary from 7.5 cents to 24 cents with 1/1 debiting.

From public payphones it's all more complicated.

The real cost depends on the payphone card nominal.

Cards are loaded with billing units of constant monetary value.
The unit on the 60-unit card is worth 12 cents, on the 30 unit - 15 cents and on the 15 unit - 18 cents. Each call costs the multiple of the value of units - the debiting is made in "money" intervals, not time intervals.

If the call is a local one i.e. within the same "numbering zone" (e.g from Warsaw to a 022 number), the the units are "consumed" each 2 min 13.3 secs.

If the call is a long distance one between the zones (e.g. from Gdansk - zone 58 to a 022 number), then the units are "consumed" each 49.18 secs.

So the real cost of the call is a fee per unit multiplied by the number of the time intervals (the multiple of 12, 15 or 18 cents).

The same rules apply also to all other calls (but the intervals for which one unit is enough may be different, of course )

00800 numbers and some share cost number (0801 1, 0801 2) are charged one unit per call.

Payphone cards should be sold at "recommended retail prices" 24, 15 or 9 zlotys. However those prices are guaranteed only at post offices and Polish Telecom shops. Some small retailers like newsagents often add 8-15% to the prices above.


70 cents from Poland? There are better deals even with direct dialing from local prepaid SIMs :).