Roatan Pay Phone Warning!

[jghflash]

I spent last week in Roatan staying the West End and was pleased to see they have added a host of pay phones around the area. They are small light blue colored "walk-up" phone booths and they are located about every 50 yards or so throughout town. They have prominent signs saying you can make international credit card calls anywhere, the U.S, Europe, etc. DON'T USE THEM!

Nothing on the phone tells you the cost. The only thing you get when you use the phone is a series of voice prompts that eventually lead you to a "dial your number" message. There is no operator available to help and NO indication of how much your call will cost. It turns out the cost is $39.91 for the first 5 minutes to wherever you call. Luckily we only made a 2 minute call and didn't get the pleasure of discovering what the cost is for "minute 6".......I can only imagine.

After discovering the cost by checking the credit card bill online when we got home (we thought it might be something as ridiculous as $3 or $4 a minute!), we called the company phone number that will be listed on your credit card bill. They explained that it is really expensive because they use a satellite link to make the phone call.....wow, I had never thought of anyone doing that, huh? After some discussion they agreed to refund $15 of the cost so it was then ONLY a $25 2 minute phone call (love you , Mom). Anyway, thought I might warn you since we made the mistake already.

P.S. - diving was GREAT, as usual!

 

[RICHinNC]

Phones on ANY island are not cheap.

 

[Cudabait]

Phones on ANY island are not cheap.

Absolutely correct!! Stay away from pay phones in the islands. When in Honduras go to a Hondutel phone bank center or equivalent to make LD calls. Prices are posted up front and they make the call for you. Utila has at least two such banks.

Regards,

 

[Doc]

I have had no bad experiences in surprise costs when calling from AI Resorts. They will tell you exactly what it's going to cost you.

CoCoView uses AT&T so you can sit at a side table near the office and make calls. FIBR has in-room phones (that often will work for outgoing calls) and their charges are only slightly higher (in 2005). I don't know how AKR's system operates.

It's not cheap, but it wasn't even memorable enough for me to recall.

In general, any resort/hotel will explain to you how their outbound toll service charges and works. Just understand that they are all subject to the vagaries of weather and satellite reception. I would wager that it's more an issue of microwave link to the mainland, versus the uplink to satellite from there. That's more likely the problem.

Let's see, 1 Lempira = $.06 US , good thing it wasn't a coin phone.

If you think that was high, try Mexico.

 

[DiversMom]

I spent last week in Roatan staying the West End and was pleased to see they have added a host of pay phones around the area. They are small light blue colored "walk-up" phone booths and they are located about every 50 yards or so throughout town. They have prominent signs saying you can make international credit card calls anywhere, the U.S, Europe, etc. DON'T USE THEM!

Nothing on the phone tells you the cost. The only thing you get when you use the phone is a series of voice prompts that eventually lead you to a "dial your number" message. There is no operator available to help and NO indication of how much your call will cost. It turns out the cost is $39.91 for the first 5 minutes to wherever you call. Luckily we only made a 2 minute call and didn't get the pleasure of discovering what the cost is for "minute 6".......I can only imagine.

After discovering the cost by checking the credit card bill online when we got home (we thought it might be something as ridiculous as $3 or $4 a minute!), we called the company phone number that will be listed on your credit card bill. They explained that it is really expensive because they use a satellite link to make the phone call.....wow, I had never thought of anyone doing that, huh? After some discussion they agreed to refund $15 of the cost so it was then ONLY a $25 2 minute phone call (love you , Mom). Anyway, thought I might warn you since we made the mistake already.

P.S. - diving was GREAT, as usual!

company phones. Any phone company phones will state Hondutel on the side of the little kiosk. Privately owned phones such as that those "Call anywhere using your credit card" phones, IMHO, are a scam to rip off unsuspecting tourists. Use the phone at your resort or go to the Hondutel office and place your outgoing call from there. I'm not sure what internet phone calls cost on the island but they are 2.00 lempiras a minute here on the mainland. That is about 11 cents a minute at the current exchange rate of 18.9 Lempira to the dollar. We never use our phone at home to call the US, we walk arounf the corner to the internet cafe and use their Net to Phone service.

 

[Cudabait]

Thanks, Sandi.....some seem to be confused about what the rate of exchange really is.

Regards,

 

[Brandon]

I paid 25 dollars for a 4 minute phone call in the Sea-Tac airport.

Never using a credit card telephone again.

-Brandon.