US Travelers Rent UK Cellphones

Savings made by hiring cellphones locally in the UK and Ireland

Mar 23, 2007

American visitors who don't want to take their cellphones to London or elsewhere in the UK and Ireland can take out a short-term rental to solve the problem

Taking your mobile/cellphone overseas can be a problem, as in some countries networks just don't work, or there are extremely high roaming charges. The answer could be to take out a short-term rental, so you pick up a cellphone when you arrive at your overseas airport, and return it at the end of the trip.

Adam Phones is a London company which has been specialising in hiring out cell phones on short-term rentals for about twenty years. Their clients include the BBC, the US Embassy in London, members of ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) and ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents). They're also business partners with Hertz and Travelex, and you can read more about them by clicking here.

So what kind of savings can be made? Quite big ones, if you compare the tariffs of the main phone operators. If you take your Sprint, Verizon or Cingular cellphone to the UK, you can expect to pay roughly $1.29 per minute for everything – incoming calls, outgoing calls to the USA, voicemail and even calls within the UK. Rent a phone locally and all incoming calls are free, calls to the USA cost about $0.95, and calls within the UK and all voicemail is about $0.45 per minute. The figures are approximate and based on exchange rates and prices quoted in January 2007, but it gives a general impression of the difference in costs.

The cost of renting the phone and the line while you are traveling in the UK is £1 per day (about $1.96 at the time of writing - click here for current exchange rates). So if you know you'll be using your cellphone to make or receive calls from the USA for more than about five minutes a day, it's cheaper to rent one short-term. Even if you're only going to call within the UK, and not receive calls from the USA, it's cheaper to rent if you use the phone on average for more than three minutes per day.

There is a refundable deposit of £100 ($196 approx) on each phone, and a delivery charge to any UK location of £7 ($13.76), so you can have your cellphone waiting for you at your hotel, or collect it at the airport if booking through Hertz or Travelex.

The copyright of the article US Travelers Rent UK Cellphones in U.K./Ireland Travel is owned by Mike Gerrard. Permission to republish US Travelers Rent UK Cellphones in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.