Nasti-
If you don't want to pay the money for a phone in your apt. you're really left with little choice than do what you're doing and the suggestions everyone is giving you. It may seem like a lot of money, but really if you think about it, your spending more money avoiding getting the regular phone! Now even if you do decide to get a regular phone installed- calls are still not cheap! In Spain you are charged per call and the amount of time you're on the call - so you'd still have to be careful not to get carried away and spend too much time on the phone. Roe's llamada perdida is a good suggestion- my friends and I do that alot- like when we're going to meet and you're on your way out the door so that the other person knows that and can estimate how long it will take you... or even do 2 in a row if you're going to be late- stuff like that. Keep in mind also that its cheaper to call movil to movil than movil to fijo (reg. telephone). You say you have vodaphone- that may be part of your problem- what types of phones do your friends have? Its more expensive to call someone whose phone is from a different company and cheaper if you have the same company- maybe you should look into movistar or amena-find out what most of your friends have and check out the deals with the different cell carriers. Those are your choices so you can deal with it, or like you said, if its that much of a burden, don't return to Spain. That simple. Good luck!

All of this makes me realize how lucky we are here in the U.S. to have fairly cheap telephone options. I am on a mobile calling plan with free unlimited calling on weekends, free calls to other people with the same service provider, etc.--plus 800 weekday minutes (split between my husband and me) for about $70 a month (that's for two mobile telephones).

We have dropped long distance from our home telephone and just use the mobiles for long distance calling. And of course, we have free local calling (which for me includes four regional area codes in an enormous 5-county metropolitan area) on our fijo. I think we spend under $90 a month, total, for all our calling--and we are on the phone a lot, with family spread out over about 6 other states.

I wonder why there is such a difference in the price of phone service in Spain (and the rest of Europe)?

aww shucks peeps, thanks for the advice even though you haven given me the miraculous answers that i was hoping for.

i think that eventually i^ll probably fork over the money over to telefonica for a phone card, be it 200 or whatever.

see, i{m very much into sending messsages. it{s just that some spaniards here don{t always take to messages and can be a tad insulted by them after a while. also, calling on a street phone gets so old. i just plain love the feeling of being surrounded by the walls of my room while making a call pertaining to a delicate situation.

and no, i am not one of those american girls who spends hours a day on the telephone. i just need a phone right now so i can{t be neglectful of my contacts, which are quite a few.

how much do monthly telefonica bills come to. how much do they charge for around spain(mobile, fijo) calls? does it cost much less to call from a home phone o a movil through telefonica(i cannot get auna as my address, fug)? what are your home phone bills like?

Nasti-
For phone calls to movil phones- use a movil! When you call from a reg. telf. it gets expensive. So use your reg phone for regular calls only. Use a phone card with your reg. phone for your international calls- that should keep your bills down.

As per avg. phone bills... hard to say- depends on who you're calling and how long you tend to speak on the phone. Avg from 40 - 60 euros. But it also depends on what services you chose with telefonica.

Here's info on phone what a phone call costs from your home phone to another fijo:
Nacionales
Tipo de Llamada Tarifa llamada mínima Tarifa Normal-Importe/minuto adicional (1) Tarifa Reducida-Importe/minuto adicional (1) FRANQUICIA (Número de segundos sin coste adicional al iniciar)
Metropolitana Connection fee: 0,0685 € reg hour additional minute: 0,0240 minute cost at reduced fare: € 0,0099 additional free seconds after additional connection(so if you don't talk more than 160 sec. you only get charged the cost of the connection of the call): € 160 sg.
Provincial Connecion fee: 0,0833 Reg. price add min: € 0,0384 Reduced fare: € 0,0264 Free seconds before charge:€ 0 sg.
Interprovincial Connection fee:0,0833 € Regular min: 0,0678 Reduced min:€ 0,0378 Free time after connection of call:€ 0 sg.

For more information go to telefonicaonline.com it should pretty much answer all of your questions. It gives info as per times for reduced fares/reg fares and costs from a reg phone to a movil and even breaks down how much calling different movil carries would be (Amena is the most costly, vodaphone, moviline and movistar are the same.

This is a little bit of a mystery to me. I must confess that I don't use my mobile much, since it is office-issued, and they will charge me up the wazoo if I use it for personal calls, and I don't want to have to carry around two mobiles if I were to get a personal one. Also, up to now, I haven't really found the need to have a mobile since I have a fixed line at home.

However, everywhere I go, I see Madrileños of all ages gabbing away on their mobiles, especially young Madrileñas. What's up with that? If mobile calls are so expensive, do I just happen to see the independently-wealthy users? Or is Papa paying the bills?

No, most people just suck it up and pay the bills (I should say recharge the card!). Cell phone use is soooo common because people are more often out and about then they are at home. It also depends on the plan. I have a good cell phone plan that calls from 4 in the afternoon to 4 in the morning (when I use it more- between those hours are mostly work hours so not too many calls to be made from a cell- a landline is used here ) are cheap- so not a big deal.

There you go Nasti- what call plan do you have? Maybe you should look into a different calling plan (you can change them at any time).

You might want to consider buying a second SIM card (that is if you have a need to make personal calls as well) for personal calls. It´s tiny and fits perfectly in your wallet. Simply replace your company´s sim card for yours when you want to make personal calls!

Hola Chica,
What is a SIM card?

Booklady- its like a computer chip that goes into the phone that retains all the memory etc. that you have programmed into your phone. When we talk about recharging the card, its the chip they credit the account on

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