Hi,

I take an old Nokia phone over to Spain with me which is unlocked. Make sure it is unlocked or it will not work. Any good local dealer will do this.

In Spain go into a Vodafone shop which appear the best rate and just buy a sim card pack. They will do all the work for you in the shop, providing you speak the lingo!!! Then thats it. In Spain they deduct the IVA from what you purchase so if you buy say 25 euros it will credit your phone by about 22 euros.

Hope this is a start to help you.

I would agree that Vodafone is probably the best service to use; their coverage is much greater. I have just looked at my phone bill for some prices for you, bear in mind though that I am on contract so PAYG will be slightly more I think. I believe you can choose the tariff you need most.

International text messages are 60c per message
National text messages 15c each
International calls (normal rate) 78c per minute
(cheap rate) (don't know!!)
National calls to landlines and moviles (normal rate) 57c per min
(cheap rate) 25c per min

The per minute charge goes down somewhat if the calls are longer, for example a 2 min call cheap rate to a national mobile cost 38c total

HTH

I have bought a spanish Vodafone sim which I use when I go to Tenerife, usually 2 or 3 times a year. I bought it from http://www.0044.co.uk which gives the cost of calls on the site. There are no charges for receiving calls, you just have to tell everyone your no. before you go.

Thanks Guys will pass the replies on to him.

One thing that everybody has forgoten to add about the Vodaphone PAYG Card is that if you say put 50€ on it and you don't use it all before you return to the UK you will not loose the remaining credit, unlike some PAYG mobile companies in the UK where if you don't use it within say 3 month you loose what credit you have left.

I have been using a Vodaphone pay as you go and can confirm the previous poster's observation. Never had any problems with this method of communication, although I still use a payphone if I want to make a long call to UK.