Hotel phone charges
Avoid the scandalously high cost of making a phone call from your hotel room
This one's simple: hotels charge obscenely high telephone rates—we're talking markups anywhere from 150% to 400%—especially on long-distance calls.
As usual, the more expensive the establishment, the higher the mark-up (often, modest little cheap hotels will only charge you the same price as a payphone, which is very stand-upish of them).
Many hotels will even charge you for what should be a local "toll free" call (0800 or 0808).
Their totally indefensible excuse for this bit of thievery is that you are tying up one of their outgoing lines, and so should be charged for the usage, when really they're just miffed that they're missing out on the chance to gouge you big-time for an overseas call.
I have a simple rule: just pretend the hotel phone doesn't exist and use Skype or a cellphone with a roaming plan (or Skype using he cheap T-Mobile data plan)
- OneSimCard - International Cell phone rentals (voice/data or just data), global SIM cards (for your existing, unlocked phone), portable WiFi hotspots, and satellite phone rentals.Partner
- Cellular Abroad - International Cell phone sales and rentals (voice/data or just data), global SIM cards (for your existing, unlocked phone), portable WiFi hotspots, and satellite phone rentals. Now parterned with National Geographic.Partner
- Mobal.com - International Cell phone sales and rentals (voice/data or just data), global SIM cards (for your existing, unlocked phone), portable WiFi hotspots, and satellite phone rentals and sales.Partner
- T-mobile.com - By far the cheapest option for oversaes travel, with inexpensive ($10–$20) plans that will cover data and/or voice beween dozens of countries at no extra charge.Partner
- Att.com - Since it uses the world-standard GSM, all AT&T phones will work abroad—though you definitely should sign up for an international plan before traveling (and even then, calls and data will still be expensive).
- Verizon.com - iPhones, Android, and some other smartphones from Verizon will work in the U.K., though others will not (only some phones use the world-standard GSM technology—or the newer 4G-LTE—while others are still stuck with a dead-end U.S. system called CDMA). However, you definitely should sign up for an international plan before traveling (and even then, calls and data will still be expensive).
- Sprint.com - iPhones, Android, and some other smartphones from Sprint will work in the U.K., though others will not (only some phones use the world-standard GSM technology—or the newer 4G-LTE—while others are still stuck with a dead-end U.S. system called CDMA). However, you definitely should sign up for an international plan before traveling (and even then, calls and data will still be expensive).
Related
How to use a cell phone (in British: "mobile") in the U.K., whether using your own, or buying or renting one to use while you travel.
