Turkey |
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Help!
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| 10. |
06 Jan 2008 Sun 03:15 pm |
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Quoting lady in red: Quoting oceanmavi: Quoting lady in red:
You can put a turkish sim in your english phone but you will probably find your phone locked if you are here for 9 weeks - so you won't be able to use it. If you are intending to visit Turkey a lot it would probably be worthwhile buying a basic Turkish cell phone - you can get one at the moment for about 80 ytl (around £40 at the moment). I hope you have a great time! |
I saw on mymerhaba that if you buy a turkish phone over there then you have to register it and might have to wait up to 3 months to be able to use it, don't know if its true or not but would be a big pain if it is!
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I bought a turkish cellphone just after we came here - It was registered for me when I bought it and I could use it straightaway. BTW I would disagree that it is better to phone than sms - phoning is quite expensive. With Turkcell it is 2 kontours (credits) for each sms. A 200 kontours card costs around 33 ytl + you get 50 free (so its really 250!) |
LAdyinRed: your advice about calling, and the fact that a Turkish phone or SIM card can be used within 2 hours is spot on. I helped someone buy one last week, they just needed their passport for ID and it was all ready for use within about 2 hours of them leaving the shop.
Just, if you already have a phone, register it at the airport when you arrive. Phones in Turkey are more expensive than in many countries because of high import taxes and luxury goods taxes. My new Aussie friends that I helped get a phone were shocked that it cost them 144 Aussie dollars for a phone that in Aus was only 88 Aussie dollars.
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| 11. |
06 Jan 2008 Sun 03:29 pm |
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My advice is . . . don't take travellers cheques. Nobody wants to echange them, not even the banks. That was my experience.
I forgot to register my phone at the airport so I went into Turkcell and bought a sim. They went throught the documentation for registering the phone for me, but I needed the help of my turkish friend to do this as they didn't speak english. You will need to have your passport with you btw. Even after I did this, the phone was locked so I had to ask my friend to send me a text with the question "where can I get my phone unlocked please?" I showed the message to a guy in a kiosk and he directed me to a small shop that had a turkcell outlet and they did the job for me for YTL25.
I have been back twice since and the phone is fine. I just have to make sure it's topped up every 90 days so the sim won't expire.
If you live in England, the Post Office does a card that can be loaded with currency of your choosing. I found that my debit card and sterling were adequate.
Have a great time!
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| 12. |
06 Jan 2008 Sun 04:30 pm |
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Thanks so much to everyone for your advice. So I should either buy a phone here in England and register it at the airport (does this cost money?), or buy a phone and register it there. I'm going to Altinkum and i can't remember seeing any phone shops there, does anyone know if there are some? Thanks again for all your help!
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| 13. |
06 Jan 2008 Sun 06:35 pm |
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No cost at the airport.
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| 14. |
06 Jan 2008 Sun 07:52 pm |
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great, thanks Marion 
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