Telephones and Mobiles

Here we present some useful info on using mobiles and payphones in Greece, along with important phone numbers for the Emergency Services and so on.

Payphones
In Greece, payphones are all card-operated. You buy phonecards (tilay-kar-tes) from any street kiosk (per-ip-tera) and most grocery stores and supermarkets at a cost of 3 Euro which buys nearly 5 minutes talk-time to the UK during off-peak hours. Phonecards are considered collectors items by some Greeks as they all have different pictures on them, and each picture has an issue date and the number of that design produced printed on the card. Issues range from 500,000 to 3,000,000 for popular ones. An issue of 25,000 or less is considered rare.

Mobile Phones
If you have a pay-as-you-go mobile, you can't buy top-ups for them in Greece (Greek Vodafone cards are for Greek vodafones only) . Also worth noting is that if you use a UK number abroad it costs you to receive calls as well as make them. Somebody calling you from the UK pays the normal rate for calling your network - you pick up the extra cost of routing that call internationally. If you must use your mobile, you should limit yourself to using text messages only, and if someone is calling you from the UK, cancel the call and text them to text you back, or you will soon run out of credit (or have a massive bill on your return if you are on a contract)!

Useful Phone Numbers