Hi, I am coming to live in Zurich soon and wondered if anyone knew of any low cost good quality phone cards as I need them to do my coaching via the phone especially to the UK and Spain. Thanks

I thought you had Skype?
I assume you'll have an internet connection here?

yes I do have skype and hopefully I will have ADSL but in case I don't I thought I'd ask if there was a decent alternative

www.comparis.ch might give you some hints. But obviously bringing your account and number with you would present the most seamless solution for your time in Switzerland

I just went to the Kiosk at the main trainstation in Zurich and asked for the best-value phone card to call Australia. The one they sold me is http://www.flashtelecom.ch/ and it works fine for me, but I haven`t tried any other ones here. You can use it from pay phones and mobiles if you need to.

www.helvatel.ch shows the rates - Australia is 4rp/min from your home phone (was 3rp/min last year). You just add their number to the front of the one you're calling and it puts it on your usual phone company's bill. No sign up. No shopping at kiosks etc.

Thanks for this, sounds good, I'll take a look. It's this kind of info that is so helpful

Nice one, I've been using http://www.teletel.ch/deutsch/d-tarife1.htm but helvatel is 1 rap cheaper. Makes the Scott in me proud.

Raptel (www.raptel.ch) are very similar to Helvatel. I use them for calls to Kyrgyzstan.

Could someone walk me through the proceedure for this, I've just tried dialing the access number for Uk (0840533533) but before I can carry on with the Uk number I get a prerecorded voice harping on in German (of with I understand nothing) and it wont allow me to punch in anything.

Nick

I often have trouble with some free or premium numbers in the UK when calling from Switzerland.

Is that a free / premium number ?

no, just a normal home number

Okay, what you do is.. when you dial the number it tells you the call cost/ per minute. now as soon as they say this you can dial the number with the country code.. including 00
So for UK...


Dial 0840533533

Wait for the lady to finish (you don't really have to listen & continue dialing)

0044- xxx-xxx-xxxx-#

And then it'll tell you to please wait in german and you're connected

Great, I'll give it a go now,
Thanks

Hey rjain19 it worked just fine, excellent
Thanks for you help.
Nick

Hi
Does anyone know about a better calling card to call North America?
Also would you recommend getting internet and TV cable through CityCable (Lausanne). I don't want a land line as I have a cell phone and never really home during day time to answer the land phone.
I will greatly appreciate your input.

I have been a loyal Bluewin customer since ADSL first came to Switzerland a few years back. I have never had ONE problem. Think about it: you will pay 25.- a month + 49.- for internet. It's really worth it in my opinion as the service and treatment you'll get is incomparable.

www.helvatel.ch
it's a dial-in service, can call all countries for only a few cents/min.

Bluewin through Swisscom is working great for us and relatively inexpensive for internet.

If you go that route, get a decent headset for your computer (about 30 CHF) and use skype to call, rather than calling cards...unless someone knows of good cards from mobiles. For me to Canada it is 0.017CHF/minute.

I call my sister in the USA with Tele2 for 8 cents/min. But for north america its really not a problem. You could also try flash phone cards....