Arriving in Madrid next couple of weeks, would like to purchase a Spanish Sim card and airtime for my phone.
Primarily to make local calls and a few calls to UK over a 6 week period. Can anyone recommend ?
Ideally would like to be able to purchase in Arrivals at Madrid airport.

I would also like information on this.. actgually, just finding a prepaid phone would be ok with me.

Any ideas on this would be spectacular!

You can certainly purchase pay as you go phones easily in most of the high street phone stores, of which telefonica seem to be the most common. This is also one of the ways to buy top ups, simply go in one, pay the amount you want to top up and give them your money.

You can also buy Sim cards in these shops, but what I am not sure of is whether that includes pay as you go or only contract. I would guess it does but you would have to ask.

I don´t think you will be able to sort this out at the airport though. Also bear in mind your UK phone needs to be unblocked to use a sim card from a different network.

Jamongris,
Assuming I just wanted a basic prepaid phone, do you have any idea what the cost would be?

gls858

are prepaid phones and sim cards available? I don't have any unlocked phones I can use...

And, does anyone know how much.. even approximately?

If its any help most if not all Motorola phones-at least those sold in the UK are unlocked.
I only paid £14.99 for my C139 (with £5 of orange airtime) from carphone warehouse. It must be possible to purchase a similar phone in Spain.

When I bought one about 3 years ago now I paid 80 € for a phone and sim card which included 30 € of calls.

Helpful chap that I am I´ve had a look on the telefonica movistar website and they are advertising them now from 39 € although I am not sure if this includes any calls, or if you have to buy calls in addition as part of the deal.

https://www.tu-tienda.movistar.es/weblog...IV&origen=P

As I said previously, the best thing is to go into one of their shops.

My daughter will be studying abroad in January through June and I am totally confused about how and where she will get a phone to use in Spain locally and which will not cost her a fortune to call us in the States. Our phone is GSM but I don't believe it is unlocked so I doubt she can change the SIM card from US Sim. DOes anyone know how this works or who is the best company to get a short term contract with?

Bev writes: Your U.S. GSM Phone would have to be a quad-band (850, 900, 1800 & 1900mhz) 'worldphone' for it to work with a Spain Mobile Service provider. I have one of those, but I haven't yet had an opportunity to change the SIM and use it in Spain. For 6-months it's probably worthwhile for your daughter to buy a prepaid phone in Spain for local use. Check the link Jamongris posted.

Calling a telefono movil in Spain is quite expensive. It cost me as much to call a cousin's cellphone within Spain as it does to call Philadelphia or New York using a Telefonica phone card. That might call for a two-tierd approach: Use a Telefonica phone card (the kind with the I/C chip on the card) for direct dialed calls bach home, and a mobile phone for local use.

I am definitely of the pre-mobile generation although all my family members now use them. So, in Spain, I just use Phone cards.

You can also buy a sim card on ebay before you leave so you can give people your number

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgi...

Also you should be able to get your phone unlock in any market type place often by the guys that sell phone covers in Dublin this is in Moore Street and it costs €15

I'm still confused. We do have a quad band, worldphone, T-Mobil. I was able to call her from Spain last year but there were lots of charges since we didn't change to the Spanish sim card (it was just a short visit) I'm sure she'll figure it out when she gets there. Hopefully she'll pick a cheap phone with a good plan but I wrote down all your helpful suggestions so we can go over them before she leaves. Thanks again.

I bought a Telefonica SIM on my visit.
It wasn't cheap !! 60 euros including 12 euros of air time. It needs a top up at least once every 6 months to keep it active! It would seem the only failsafe way of doing this from outside of Spain is to get someone to go to a Telefonica shop, with your phone number and add the money ( minimum 5 euros) in person.

Yes that is about the only way. If you have a Spanish bank account and can use an on line facility, then you can top them up through that.

Jamongris, you can top it up with a credit card through Movistar\'s website .

Thanks Antonio, I didn´t know that, a useful tip.

I'd rather get someone I know in Madrid to do it !!! (Hi Antonio)