yet another card
 

Hello
I used to carry three cards just in case of connection problems. 09 & awayphone have closed leaving me with united mobile. I could contact the people that have taken over from awayphone and put a fresh lot of money on it or get a new card altogether.
Any suggestions please - if I could phone the UK from germany & poland that would do nicely. What about the new polish card!

For Poland, get a Heyah SIM and switch is to Taryfa Równa (Flat rate tariff) *100*1*1# Heyah.pl - English
The rate to EU/EEA is 0.44 PLN/min (the same as national rate but with 60/60 billing instead of 1/1 national). At the current exchange rate is about 9.36p/min. With the same tariff you'll get free calls voicemail and data at 0.02 PLN/100 kb (4.26p/MB).

In Germany I'd suggest solomo. Cheap local and direct-dialled international calls from 8 and 9 cents a minute. And it can be back-up as a roaming SIM as well. Or if you dial a lot of German mobiles then congstar or simyo at 9c. All delivered to only German addresses, but solomo accepted UK Visa card ok; simyo said something about bank transfer; you can find an offer for a congstar SIM with free credit

Thank you both for your suggestions. If I go for the Heyah card can I just buy one and top up in a mobile phone shop in Poland and tell them flat rate.
Alternatively if I choose the German constar card could i just purchase one in a mobile phone shop. I am in Berlin in a few weeks.

There are several 9ct/min all german destinations prepaid cards which can be purchased in supermarkets or electronic stores. Just have a look at the non-food section in Plus or Rewe markets, ask at the cashier in Aldi and Lidl or have a look at the mobile phone section of MediaMarkt or Saturn or Euronics. Also the Tchibo coffeshop sells cards which have reasonable rates.

Chris

Thanks very much for the info. How easy is it to top up these cards....

some cards have own brand recharge vouchers. Work like regular scratch cards. Others can be also recharged with the network operators vouchers. At many supermarket cashiers you can tell them to get a recharge, give cash and they print you a voucher.

Chris

I don't know what you mean by "mobile shop". If you mean "Heyah dealer", there aren't any. Heyah SIMs and top-ups are not sold at Era dealers either (though it's an Era "subrand").

You can buy a Heyah SIM at newsagents, petrol stations, some bookstores, electronic shops (Media Markt, Saturn, Electroworld, some local chain electronic stores usually denoted by "AGD RTV" or "RTV AGD" like Euro), independent second-hand mobile shops/services (Komis GSM, Serwis GSM, Serwis telefonów komórkowych or sth like this).
However, don't count very much on the shop assistant's help in switching the tariff. Even if he/she speak English, may not know about the tariff :-P. Just use the code I told you in the previous post.

At all those places (and many more, practically everywhere where you see a red hand logo) you can buy a top-up. There are scratch cards or terminal printouts with top-up codes for 5, 20, 30 and 50 PLN. If there's a language issue, write down "Proszę doładowanie Heyah za X PLN" ("A Heyah top-up for X PLN, please"). From terminals, you can also top-up with any full zlotys amount from 5 to 500 directly to your account. In this case, write down "Proszę doładowanie Heyah dla numeru xxx xxx xxx za X PLN" (A Heyah top-up for the number xxx xxx xxx for X PLN, please") where xxx xxx xxx is your phone number without +48.
There also top-ups available from ATMs ("bankomat") operated by Bank BGŻ, BZ WBK (both 20-500 PLN) and Euronet (5-500 PLN). They all have English menus. You select "other services" or sth like this and type the nine digit phone number. I'm not sure if they accept chip-only cards - I'm afraid they "run" on magnetic stripes (=> skimming risk :-().

Thanks for all the info. I meant by a mobile phone shop - a shop that sells only mobile phones with all makes/service providers covered. I am in Wroclaw in a couple of weeks, will go into Media Market - the one I am thinking of is in the Galleria and try and sort out a sim card.

If you mean a shop which sells phones/accessories and both prepaid and postpaid sims from many operators, then such a thing doesn't exist in Poland :-). The closest to that definition are second-hand shops with services which I have already mentioned. Primarily they were trading second-hand phones as well as were unlocking and repairing phones. Currently they also sell prepaid sims of most brands, top-ups, accessories and sometimes also new phones (usually older models from "warehouse cleaning").

Media Markt is an excellent choice for you. It's a self-service store, so you take a sim and top-up scratch card from the shelf, you pay (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro cards accepted) and that's all. You won't probably have to say/understand a word in Polish :-).

BTW, until 15th Feb you can use the "double top-up" promotion. If you add at least 30 PLN in one transaction to your account, your next top-up within next 5 days will be doubled (but the bonus won't be larger than 150 PLN).