Phone Cards in Egypt

Got a temporary pre-paid mobile connection as its really important for me to be contactable & in contact.

Someone from the office helped us arrange this, so I'm not too sure about the formalities for acquiring one. I do know that thee is some address proof & the like required for post paid connections. More on that once I convert. Supposedly I can convert to post paid without having to change my cell number which sounds great.

On pre paid the rates are quite high. Need to analyse whether it makes better economic sense to be on international roaming or pre paid for ISD calls.

Had to recharge the phone because the initial amount ran out quite quickly, what with Diwali & all.

So when to the local supermarket chain "Metro Market" & asked for 1 - 500LE card, 1 - 200 LE card & 1 - 100LE card. (3 of our cells had run out at the same time, that was quite hilarious too. 3 local cell phones & we had to all 3 call local numbers on international roaming cells from India because we all 3 ran out of currency at the same time) He only had 100LE cards so I asked for 6 of these (thinking I would add the balance sometime later)

Now with a 100LE recharge, you only get about 93LE value of talk time. When the bill got printed (difficult to converse with store clerks in English in some areas) I found I had been charge 115LE for each 100LE recharge card. I thought the supermarket was gypping me, but on further clarification I found that this is the standard practice.

The printed value on the recharge card is 100LE, the selling price is 115LE & the actual value of talk time available is 93LE. So be aware.

Will need to check how much the 200 LE & 500LE cards cost at retail