Agreed on pretty much every point.

But I think Hhhhhappymovil beats Eurodirect on at least two fronts:

1) Shear convenience. You only have to buy one card.

2) Initial outlay (especially important for tourists). With the VF/Eurodirect combination you need to get a VF card (10€?) plus the Eurodirect card (6€?) A 16€ outlay, whereas with Hhhhhappymovil it's just 10€.

I think if you combine those and ask the average tourist "do you want to buy a single card for 10€ that charges 5c per minute or buy two cards for 16€ and pay a bit less" people will go for happymobil.

But this eurodirect business can be complicated. I don't understand how you can have a call rate of "0.0075 Euros per min. for up to an hour". I thought it was 2.3c? I probably have read how you can achieve that, but I can't remember!


By the way, I didn't mean I'll be using Yoigo for overseas calls (though I think they *are* cheaper than Orange/VF/Movistar for overseas calls, no?), it's just that they are the absolute cheapest for domestic calls (if you are going to make 6€ of calls) and the offer they have at the moment is great (a Sony Ericsson K610i with 20€ credit for 99€). I'll probably change to Hhhhhhappymovil when the credit runs out.

It's a very interesting thread indeed. I enjoyed Eurodirect because it allowed me to call the States for 1 céntimo a minute combined with the Contrato Uno de Vodafone. What a deal!

Cervantes, it basically depends on what the person wants and what they see as savings. If you are not impressed with Eurodirect, by all means find something that works for you. That's what life is all about in the end, making a situation work for us. I wish you luck in your search.

Have a great day,

Shawn

Cervantes.

you could not be more mistaken man.

for easy of things, happy could be a nightmare for 2 reasons...

1) recharges: for happy móvil they are not "readily"-available. i speak from experience when i tell you that some of my clients have had a hard enough time finding vodafone recharges and they sell them EVERYWHERE. god help the ones who have to go hunt down a happy móvil recharge. they will spend 3 days of their 7 day stay in spain trying to load credit into the phone

2) coverage: as i said, i have a feeling that happy is using the amena/orange network. many tourists realy get around while here and let's face it, as much as orange removes the amena signs and puts up their own, it will still be years before they reach the level of coverage that vodafone and movistar offer. you can dress a pig up all ya want but it is still a pig i would rather reject a client than send them to the canary islands or more remote parts of spain with the amena/orange network

as for my rentals, there is no advantage to happy móvil as i give all the eurodirect minutes to my clients for free. all they pay is 40 cents for the connection fee and can talk all they want back home. i also have the system tweaked so they need not buy a eurodirect card, all they need is the mobile they rent from me with the vodafone SIM in it.

quote:

But this eurodirect business can be complicated. I don't understand how you can have a call rate of "0.0075 Euros per min. for up to an hour". I thought it was 2.3c? I probably have read how you can achieve that, but I can't remember!

you did not go to the page i linked to in one of my prev. posts, it is at http://www.spainsim.com/vodmovicallcards.htm .

really basic if you pay attention. vodafone pay-as-you-go offers a plan called "vitamina 60x1" which allows you to call all vodafone mobiles and landlines in spain and pay the connection fee (12 cents) and the first minute (28 cents), they then give you 59 minutes for free, hence 60 x 1 (60 FOR 1). the eurodirect card has a local access number (912910067) which is a landline. so, the call from the vodafone mobile to that landline is 40 cents (12 cent connection fee + 28 cents for the first minute) from anywhere in spain and the connection is open for up to an hour talk time at that 40 cent price. when you use the local access number on a eurodirect, you get 800 minutes on the 6 euros card. divide 6 by 800 (6 euros by 800 minutes) and the per mimnute rate is ... drumroll please...

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0.0075 which is the cost per minute.

tadah!

another HUGE advantage to eurodirect + vodafone 60x1 plan is that you can make as many calls as you need to within that hour at no extra connection fee. say you call your mom and talk for 5 minutes (as long as we can deal with moms ). then you want to call a friend afterwards. you DO NOT HANG UP but instead you simply hit "##" as instructed to do on the eurodirect card for "follow on calls". the system then asks you to duil your destination number. you dial your bud's number and talk to him for say 30 minutes. next call, don't hang up, just press "##" and dial away. you still have 25 minutes left of your 60 minute session via vodafone that cost you 40 cents. so, you call your sister and get an answering machine, leasve a message and then hit "##" again. dial your new destination number and you still gots more or less 23 minutes to talk away!!! so, you just made 4 phone calls, one for 5 mins., second for 30 mins., third for maybe 2 mins to leave a message and the fourth for the remaining 23 minutes and it ALL COST YOU the 40 cent fee to vodafone plus 60 minutes off the eurodirect card for a grand whopping total of 75 euroCENTS

those 4 calls with happy would have cost you 4.20 euros my friend...

30 cent connection on 4 calls = 1.20 euros.
60 minutes total airtime at 5 cents/min. = 3 euros.
TOTAL = 4.20 euros.

trust me man, once you try the eurodirect + vodafone 60x1 system you will never go back

you could even make TEN 6 minute phone calls for the same 75 cents while with happy móvil it would cost you 3 euros for the minutes and 3 euros for the 10 connection fees.

75 cents -vs- 6 euros is more than "a bit less" as you put it.

by the way, the 2.3 cents per minute is when you use the toll-free eurodirect access number because you get 260 minutes which comes to 0.023 euros (2.3 cents) a minute. divide 6 (euros) by 260 (minutes).

so, while we all appreciate a bit of competition and a great thread on this topic, in the end i have 5 years of DIRECT experience working with thousands of foreigners here (tourists and ex-pats alike) in the telecom world.

unless you have first-hand experience dealing with foreigners and telecom in spain, you cannot know the troubles they can run into.

quote:

By the way, I didn't mean I'll be using Yoigo for overseas calls (though I think they *are* cheaper than Orange/VF/Movistar for overseas calls, no?),

NO, if you can choose when to call and wait till off-peak (night), vodafone has a service called "mi país" (my country) which offers calls at "happy hour" back home to landlines or mobiles for as low as 18 cents a min. normal rates during peak hours are between 23 and 90 cents/min. depending on which countries you have on your list.

this is great for north-americans and canadians who are 6-9 hours ahead of their home countries anyway.

see THIS PAGE FOR MORE.

Shawn...

quote:

I enjoyed Eurodirect because it allowed me to call the States for 1 céntimo a minute combined with the Contrato Uno de Vodafone. What a deal!

you were really actually paying only 0.0075 euros (3/4 of a cent) but who's counting

saludos,
jer...

Yes, life is indeed about finding something that works for you, I didn't think I was imposing my opinion. I'm just interested in finding out what is the very best. What jer has said has been very convincing and I was on the verge of adding it to my site until I walked in to The Phone House. Seems to me that for tourists Hhhhhappymovil is the best as it has the lowest outlay, if you have the internet Skype is the cheapest and for everyone else Eurodirect is the best.

But I still don't understand all these 1c, 000000000000001c calls everyone is talking about! I thought it was 2.3c.

Cervantes,

I understand that you weren't imposing at all. I will explain it to you. I have Vodafone's Contrato Uno. After 6pm - 8am (during the week)and during weekends, I can call all fijo's and Vodafone numbers for just 1 céntimo a minute.

The Eurodirect card has a fijo number, therefore, after 6pm and during weekends, I am calling the States for 1 Céntimo a minute. I will give you a true example. I called the States and talked for 80 minutes and 30 seconds and the total on my bill was only 93 céntimos. TRUE STORY.

So in the end, both Contrato Uno and Eurodirect work for me. They make a great pair and I look forward to their honeymoon special.

I hope this makes things clearer.

Shawn

Aah, we were typing at the same time.

I didn't know you gave your minutes for free. Where does it say that? You don't half write long pages on your websites! No prices on that page either. I don't see any page that says "you get a vodafone card with eurodirect included for XX€". According to your VF page you have to buy the eurodirect card separately.

I went to your home page but there is no easy link to anything that says "Eurodirect" so I got lost.

Jer,

I was saving even more money. Damn you for not telling me this sooner. Those saving could've helped me stay in Spain.

I'll know next time.

Keep up the good investigative work, chaval.

Shawn

Please guys, wait in line - if I'm typing, wait!

I still don't get it Redwood - I understand that you can call the Eurodirect number for 1c a minute, that makes sense, but how do you not pay the 2.3c per minute? Do you also your eurodirect minutes off jer for free?

quote:

Originally posted by jer:

1) recharges: for happy móvil they are not "readily"-available.

But if the 5€ you start with is enough? By the way, Hhhhhappymovil only launched at the weekend, so we wouldn't have seen the recharges yet. Only time will tell...

quote:

2) coverage: as i said, i have a feeling that happy is using the amena/orange network.

OK, never used Orange.

quote:

trust me man, once you try the eurodirect + vodafone 60x1 system you will never go back

Please sir, can I have some free eurodirect minutes?

Cervantes, what website are you looking at man?

2 sites in my main biz, the www.onspanishtime.com site where you enter in the part for cell phone rentals and the www.spainSIM.com site where i sell SIM cards.

if you are looking at the www.spainSIM.com site where you enter into the part to buy a SIM card, NO, it does not include a eurodirect card, they have to buy one separately.

i was refering to the fact that i give all of my cell phone rental clients the minutes for free.

my cell rental website homepage at http://www.onspanishtime.com/web/index.htm CLEARLY states...

quote:

ADVANTAGES OF OUR RENTAL SERVICE

New UNBELIEVABLE calling rates! FREE incoming calls. 40 cents per call FOR UP TO 60 MINUTES to most numbers in Spain and 800 FREE minutes (13+ hours) back to U.S.A. + Canada!!! You will never use all the free minutes we give you. click HERE to see our calling rates page for details.

did the big red bold text throw ya off

this is what makes my rental service so popular. i have yet to have a client use all the 800 minutes (although a few have come close).

so, that is 800 free minutes but i always tell them when i deliver the phone/s that if they need more, i will give them more for free if they use up the initial 800.

i always tell the client as a joke that if they are going to need more than 800 minutes to call back home during their stay here (usually a week or 2), then they should have stayed home

quote:

You don't half write long pages on your websites!

i do not understand what you mean there. please explain.

and i can't wait till you get complaints about the happymóvil via your website that they can't find recharges or have poor coverage.

saludos,
jer...

I have nothing to do with Jer's minutes, although if Jer were to ask me out on a date, I would have to think twice. I'm not that kinda guy.

So, for 800 minutes for 6 Euros, it's still a deal and I don't see how you get 2.3 cents a minute, but I have stated my case and I will just continue reading what you two have to say. It's fun and all good.

Shawn

Cervantes, YOU ARE NOT READING MY POSTS!

above, i told you that the 2.3 cents a min. for eurodirect is ONLY WHEN YOU USE THE TOLL-FREE ACCESS NUMBER.

if you use the local access number (912910067), the rate drops to .75 cents per min hence when Shawn was calling, he used the local access and paid 1 cent a min to vodafone + the 0.0075 euros (.75 cents) a minute from the eurodirect card.

"the cow could program the vcr by now" (challenge you all to find where that quote came from).

quote:

But if the 5€ you start with is enough? By the way, Hhhhhappymovil only launched at the weekend, so we wouldn't have seen the recharges yet. Only time will tell...

NO WAY! to give you an idea, my cell rental clients use an average of 20 euros for a 1 week rental. 5 euros will go VERY fast and if you tell them that 5 euros is going to be enough for their stay here, you are misleading them.

no, Shawn bought his eurodirect cards from me like everyone else but he did get a sexy leg kick discount of 50 cents per card, bringing the per min. rate down to 0.0068 euros per min. (+ the 1 cent a min. to cvodafone).

Cervantes, if ya want me to school you on the eurodirect thang, i will be glad to have a sit down when you come to madrid.

saludos,
jer...

for further clarification...

- Onspanishtime: www.onspanishtime.com is for mobile, gps, etc.. rentals.

- spainSIM: www.spainSIM.com is for buying spanish SIM cards and the eurodirect card is also on offer there. under "products" there is a " money saving prepaid calling cards to use with our SIMs" that explains how to use the eurodirect card with spain SIMs to get good rates back home. on that same page you can buy the eurodirect card as well.

- eurodirect: www.europhonecards.org is for buying the eurodirect card only.

quote:

Please sir, can I have some free eurodirect minutes?

funny you should say that. a while back i had a load of card codes that were left over from a corporate rental and were going to expire so i posted on it here on the board and a lot of people got to use the minutes for free

saludos,
jer...

I used to use Skype but I found out about FreeCall (http://www.freecall.com/en/index.html) and been using it to call for free land lines in US and other countries (listed on the website). The voice quality is similar to Skype, sometimes its not very good so I just hang up and call again (you get 300 free minutes per week). You can also send sms messages for 5 cents, much cheaper than through Skype.

OK now I'm confused!!! (No comment jer )

Just registered for SkypeOut, all done, signed up for buying credit, and it was refused with the following message

"One known reason at this time for orders being refused is that at this time, we do not support SkypeOut purchases with credit cards issued in certain countries, such as Spain."