Going to Spain next week. Would phone cards be the most economical way to call back to the US. Best to buy in Spain or in US?

I usually buy a telefonica card as soon as I get in Spain. It's inexpensive and super easy - just put the card in a phone that accepts the card, wait for the dial tone and that's it. I've rarely had trouble finding public phones that don't take the Telefonica card. Just remember to remove your card when you're done - the only problem I seem to continue to have! You can see your remaining units ticking away as you're talking.

There's another phone card that you can use that you dial a number and then have to key in a code. Since I don't speak fluent spanish and all of the instructions and information on remaining minutes is in spanish, I prefer the Telefonica card. However, I think the advantage to this card is you can use it from any telephone.

Before I forget. Most Tabaco shops sell these cards but are closed on Sundays. So if you're arriving on a Sunday it's something to keep in mind too.

Hope this helps!

The one I use (and I see most) is the Platicard.
It costs 5 or 10 Euros. They provide a toll free number and a code. If you ise it from a hotel it is a bit cheaper, but you pay for the clicks on your room bill.

Overall, it seems to be about .20-.25 per minute to the US.

That's a great question, and I think you could do a great service to all of us, which we would greatly appreciate. I know that in circle K stores they sell,international "world cards". I can call the canary Islands mobile phone to mobile phone and get 147 min. for 20 dollars.I ould be greatly interested in knowing if you can get the same rate calling from Spain.(about 13.5 cents per minute)

I have found the Eurocity card to be the best deal (I think you get a lot more minutes for your money as opposed to the Telefonica card). You can buy it for 6 euros and you usually get around 120 minutes of talking with the toll free number(no connection charge, which is great in case you are only calling for a few minutes). There are also some local numbers with this card for some cities (Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, Bilbao, etc.), and if you use this option you get a lot more minutes, but you have to put coins in so I am yet to figure out which is the better deal (although I think it comes out about even). So long story short, I recommend the Eurocity card and you can buy it at many Tobacco stores and I know that they sell them in the Sol metro station too.

I found the Eurocity card to be the best as well. For 6 Euros I got at least 2 hours of talking. I didn't even use them all. They have instructions in both English and Spanish, so it's super easy.

Eurocity is the best....

When I went to Madrid last month, I took an AT&T pre-paid calling card that I purchased at Sam's Club in the States with me. The card costs 3.4 cents per minute, but when you call the US from Spain, it uses 6 minutes of your card for every minute of calling time - still not bad then at a little over 20 cents per min. You should call the customer service number on the card before you leave the states to get the AT&T calling code for Spain (which if I remember is 900-99-00-11), then you call that code from any phone and you get AT&T. After that, it's just like using the card at home, dial the toll-free number, the card number and the US number you are calling. I found this very convenient - didn't have to buy a telefonica card and then figure it out in Spanish, or fool around with any coins, althought I don't know if this would have been any cheaper. Also, by the way, you can use these same cards to call Spain from the U.S. at 2 units, or less than 7 cents, per minute with no connection fees!

It's a shame you can't arrange a times/dates to call you while in Spain. I've been using the 10-10-987 service that you see advertised everywhere here in the US and WOW it is amazingly cheap. I'm talking to people in Spain for 2 hours for like $2.50 !! It's SO nice to get the monthly phone bill and the Long Distance calls are totalling less than $20 instead of nearly $100 as I was paying before. It's good for calling cell phones in Spain too!

Saludos, MadridMan

Eurocity is the best...

I hate to repeat myself, but A.T. & T. is NOT the way to call the U.S. from Spain. A Eurocity card costs 6 Euros, and ends up costing about 4 cents per minute. You do not have to use any coins at a payphone. You just dial the toll-free number, select your language option, English being one of them, and rock and roll.

It tells you how many minutes you have left, and works great anywhere in Spain. Very simple...

Thanks MM for the tip on 10-10-987. I have been paying about 13 cents per minute to call Spain.