Pre-Paid Calling Cards and Cell Phones in Greece

Pre-Paid Calling Cards

There are a number of calling cards you can get at any kiosk in Greece; each for a specific purpose and some for all purposes. Some are dependable, others not; some save you money, others charge the same as a call through a fixed line. Some you can call abroad and others only for Greece. These groups are split into 3; the ones you put into a slot at any outside phone booth (without the actual booth) and some you can only call from a fixed line; some can even store the credit of your card in memory of your fixed line while others need you to enter the pin number for each call. Here are the best known cards, what they can or can't do.

Fixed Line Cards

These come in different colors and designs and price range. Here you see one in blue and another in pink. They are called "telecarta" and can be used from any public phone "booth" by just inserting the card in the slot. There is no pin number. You can identify them by a "gold chip" (see picture). Calling from this card is a bit cheaper than from a land line phone andabout 80% cheaper than mobile (cell) phone, and much much cheaper than calling from a hotel. However, calling abroad with these is not cheap. You'll see the units on the phone in your booth traveling at the speed of light. You'll manage to say something like," Hi Mom, I'm in Gree....; the "ce" won't make it through, times up and so goes the 4 euros of the card. A bit of exaggeration but nevertheless it's expensive. Try calling after 10 pm. Greek time when the rates drop. It is a good idea to always have one on you as there are "booths" everywhere to make your inland calls; reservations, your hotel, a friend, Dorian, etc.

The cheapest way, and I mean cheapest, to call abroad is to use a pre-paid card and call from a land line anywhere. There are many, and you can also call a mobile phone abroad for almost the same price as a fixed line. There's Dorian who accumulated a monthly bill of 600 euros as he always calls the States from Greece until someone told him about a card that's almost a gift from heaven. He tried it. The same amount of time and the same number of calls cost him 54 euros!!! That's the incredible difference. This card he strongly recommends is called SMILE+WEB. It's the green one in the picture and you can find it at any kiosk. This card literally saved his relationship with his fiance who was living in the USA. Now Dorian has the money to go and visit her since he is not spending so much on phone calls.

SMILE:  Simply the best. However, the mobile phone cannot memorize the pin. Don't use it from a mobile. Do not call locally with it. Calling across the street is more expensive than a regular OTE call. OTE is the Greek Telecom company.....monopoly. It also has the capability to be used for internet services and even more, you don't have to keep dialing a pin number. You add the pin number. just once and your fixed line remembers it. Calling from a fixed line to a mobile phone is cheaper too than without it. These cards start at 3 euros. You scratch the back of it for your pin no. Of course if you are calling from your hotel room you don't care if your phone remembers the pin since you are just an extension and the next person who uses the phone from any room in the hotel may get the benefits of your card. But the solution is simple. Just buy them in 3 euro implements and stay on the phone until they run out.

CALL PLUS (Vivodi) Forget it. Not only does in not retain the pin no., but in front of the card it reads: "for inland and international calls" and the back says:" for Greece only." I think they're out of business because I have not seen any of their cards around lately or maybe people are not buying them. It's the blue card that says +0.50 bonus. Yes they give you an extra 50 cents of talking time. Thanks guys!!

CHRONOKARTA CONN-X. This one directly from OTE gives you, yes, believe it or not, 0.36 euros extra talking time. That is the equivelant of about fifty whole US cents. Wow! OTE thank you. This one (blue, green grey) has internet service as well, but cannot retain the pin. The charges are a bit higher than SMILE but this card can change the language to one of your choice. Smile is only in Greek and English but here you have, so it says, a choice of other languages. I've never tried it and really who cares? By the way, the cards you scratch with a pin CANNOT be inserted into pay phones.

Ya. The orange and yellow card is like the two above and sponsored by Q telecoms, a company which is getting alot of praise lately. This card gives you a whopping 30 cents bonus and is good for Greece and abroad but it's more expensive than SMILE and has the disadvantage that it's only in English and Greek....no Swahili. You cannot use it for internet.

TALK TALK. Dorian's other recommended card. It is wonderful for inland calls from fixed lines ONLY. It memorizes the pin , and is generally cheaper than a regular call. It's easy to use and reliable. Another wonderful thing about this card is you can store all the time in your phone or even part of it. for example, you feed 3 euros into your fixed line and then you can transfer let's say 1 or 2 euros of the 3 you put in to another line, sort of like a gift to a friend. The instructions in English are clear and to the point. They come in many colors and price range, the one depicted here is yellow and white. Don't forget the more you pay the more time you have. With TALK TALK you don't have to wait for the time to run out, you can replenish your time whenever you want, much like putting gas into a car. Or a mobile card phone like these listed below....

Also...Vivodi calling cards, they are probably the cheapest card, very much still in use, excellent line quality and very definitely can be  used for international calls.

Mobile Card Phones

There are four companies in Greece and they are all the same except for one which is under government investigation when they were caught in a bugging scandal which you can read about in The Nation Magazine (March 20, 2006 issue) . They had bugged the Greek prime minister, his wife, the foreign minister, the defense minister and 100 other Vodafone subscribers from before the 2004 Athens Olympics until March 2005, when the bug was removed. A  VODAPHONE network manager, engaged to be married and with no known personal problems, hanged himself at his home one day after the bugging was discovered. He was one of a handful of employees with the access required to install such software. Vodafone firmly denied that the death had any connection to the scandal. No one believes the company.

VODAPHONE. Good company, bad name now. They have bonus plans now and sales to try to regain their market. Their slogan is "get a Vodaphone phone and make friends all over the world." That's because the whole world can listen in. The cards come in different colors and price ranges. The one here (above) is red (their characteristic color which like TIM you will see everywhere, even written on the sides of ferry boats in gigantic letters) and costs 10 euros. Here you scratch the back and insert the number in your mobile (cell) phone. ONLY FOR MOBILE PHONES. These four companies are roughly the same and share the market equally. Mobile phones are much more expensive to use than fixed line telephones but you have the luxury of receiving calls pretty much wherever you are.

TIM. Formally called TELESTET which was popular with travelers because of their guided tours. You would call a number and the phone would zero in on your location and tell you what you were seeing and give you a guided tour of the area. VODAPHONE tried something similar only when it zeroes in on you it would send a predator missle (Greek Joke). Dorian uses this card. Always has the blue and red color like the one pictured above. Matt uses these too. In fact if you get a phone from Greece Travel Phones this is the system they use. They offer specials sometimes like if you get a card and send a text message to a number they double your time. So if you got a 15 euro card they give you 30 euros worth of calls. Same scratch system as VODAPHONE.

Q by Telecom. (not pictured) but just the same as the one for fixed lines. Good company. Like the rest. (Even VODAPHONE)

COSMOTE. This is directly from OTE the monopoly. They are reliable, have much to offer as the others do but is OTE's baby, they take care of it's offspring. OTENET is a subsidiary of OTE.

Don't forget, these mobile phones can be used IN GREECE ONLY. Just like mobile phones from America won't work here in Greece. Well some of them will. I think Cingular does but if you use it in Greece to call down the street for a souvlaki you are calling through America so your souvlaki will be a lot more expensive. You can buy these phones from Germanos or the shops that bear the signs of the different companies. But you have to wait 24 hours for it to charge and sometimes they guys in the shop are not very helpful, if they even speak English. If you rent one from Greece Travel Phones you get it fully charged, they can deliver it to your hotel or the airport or anywhere you like, and the instructions are in English. Matt's first phone he got from a shop and it took him weeks to figure it out and then it was time to go home. See www.greecetravel.com/phones

See Also Staying Connected...Computers and Internet Cafes

Thanks to Dorian Kokas for this article. See his website at www.athensguide.com/dorian