Dialing for Dollars

We recently visited Germany, where most of the pay phones work only with a prepaid card. One Sunday we got lost and didn’t have a calling card, so we went to a beautiful hotel in Munich and made two local phone calls to places one to two miles from the hotel. I was charged $4.50. (A local call is only 20 cents on the phone card.)

When I wrote a letter to clarify this price, the hotel told me it charges by the minute. If I had had a card, it would have cost me 40 cents. I would like other tourists to know this.

MICHAL BEN-ALON TOFTNESS

Los Angeles