Buying a Cell Phone in Ireland

Communications in Ireland

Buying a Cell Phone in Ireland

This will almost invariably be cheaper than renting a phone while you are in Ireland.

There are phone stores everywhere, highly visible and on the main streets of all towns and cities. Buying a phone is easy, it takes only a few minutes with no contracts to sign and no difficulties for overseas customers.

There are three major phone networks in Ireland, O2, Vodafone and Meteor. Meteor offers by far the cheapest calls to the USA, and for international calls generally, so that is the one you should go for.

What you need is a pay-as-you-go phone, this is one where you are not billed but instead buy call credits in advance whenever you need them. Let's have a look at prices for this option first, then you can have a look at the FAQs to get a feel for how the system works in Ireland.

Costs are based on the following assumtions:

You will make two calls a day on your cell phone to Irish numbers, say checking with your hotel and booking a restaurant.
You call home to America on average once a day for about 5 minutes each time.

You can compare them with the cost of renting a phone in Ireland.


Network: Meteor
Purchase	SIM	Credit	Calls	Incoming	Total Cost
$60	Included	$30	$23.73	Free	$60
€49	Included	€25	€19.70	Free	€49
€10 call credit is applies automatically, another €15 when you register online, which the store may be willing to do for you.

Remember, with this option you are NOT renting - you OWN the phone. Obviously this means the cost does not increase if you need the phone for additional weeks and it will still work if you plan return trips to Ireland in the future.

All in all, I think it is clearly a no-brainer and buying a phone is the best option.

For information about using your phone in Ireland see here.

But what if you already have a GSM phone? Are there ways of using it more efficiently in Ireland? Well, there may be. That depends on the charges your provider levies for 'roaming'. If you are travelling from the USA, the answer is almost certainly yes.

Next: Using your GSM phone in Ireland

Your Comments

Please note: To prevent spam all comments are moderated. Promotional or advertising comments will not be published. If you want to ask a question or start a discussion rather than post a comment, please so so in the forum. Thank you!