Plus, it's a little different that Europe. When I've been overseas in various European contries, they get free incoming calls. My wife would call from the States using Skype for a couple cents a minute and it wouldn't cost me a dime. Here in the US, it's an awkward system. You pay for all your minutes[1] and most the large carriers (Verizon, AT&T, etc) even charge daily access fees, up to $1/day whether you use the phone or not[2].
[1] Unless you get one of those hybrid plans, where you are pre-paid/off contract, but you pay for a certain number of minutes per month. [2] All the carriers differ, some only charge on the days you use the phone. T-mobile seems to be the best "large" operator for pre-paid service in the US, though there are decent regional MVNOs with good deals.