Calling home from abroad.(Special Travel Update)

These days, staying in touch with friends or family when you vacation overseas means more than sending a postcard. You may need to call or send an e-mail to keep tabs on an ailing parent or to check with the neighbors watching your house. Below, we describe some options. Three choices you should rule out: hotel phones, cash calls from pay phones, and collect calls.

Hotels are good places to receive calls, but dialing out can break the bank. Payphone rates tend to be steep; you may even need a special phone card to activate a pay phone. Calling the U.S. collect can be expensive, too, no matter which long-distance carrier you use. The big U.S. phone companies maintain toll-free lines in many countries for Americans who hold their calling card, but others are free to use those lines to call collect. Sprint, for instance, charges nonsubscribers $5.13 for the first minute, then $3.14 per minute to call collect from Italy to the U.S., plus a $5.49 connection charge. Rates drop to 17 cents per minute or less from many European countries if you're already a Sprint customer on its Global Collect plan ($8.95 monthly).

 
Staying in touch 
 
                PROS                        CONS 
 
Prepaid         Easy to use. Can often be   You're sunk if the card 
calling card    refilled over the phone     is lost or stolen. 
                using a credit card. Some   But you're only out the 
                companies sell virtual      money remaining on the 
                cards over the Internet;    card. 
                you pay by credit card, 
                get dialing instructions 
                and a PIN. 
 
Regular         Easy to use. Tied to U.S.   You're really sunk if the 
calling card    long-distance plans.        card is lost or stolen; 
                                            expect a hassle if you 
                                            must cancel the card and 
                                            get a new one. 
 
Cell phone      Most flexible way to keep   Your current phone 
                in touch. Best if you'll    probably won't work 
                be in one country for       overseas. Per-minute rates 
                more than a month. In       are pricey on phones you 
                many countries, you         get in the U. S. for 
                pay nothing for             foreign use. With 
                incoming calls if you use   prepaid cellular you 
                a phone you buy             obtain abroad, people 
                overseas.                   in the U.S. pay for an 
                                            international call to 
                                            reach you. 
 
E-mail          Easy to keep in touch,      Not as immediate as a 
                given the prevalence of     phone call. You may have 
                Intenet cafes in other      to provide people 
                countries. ...