Jonto

Hi

A friend of mine is currently travelling and after a £450 phone bill she looking at cheaper ways of communicating.

Obviously you can use skype for computer to computer and that is free isn’t it? But I am looking at what is the best way and cheapest way to talk on say a weekly basis? I know you can also buy a skype mobile?

Can you just call a computer from this and vice versa? Has any one got any experience of this or and other ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Coffin Dodger

Calling with a phone card from a call box or other public phone is usually the cheapest.

Lots of info here Mobile Roaming: Cheapest calls when you're abroad...

dpb

calling with a phone card from your home landline has got to be cheapest surley

http://www.thephonecardsite.com/

Ray T

Also skype out, it allows you to call landlines/mobiles, you just buy a credit of £10 (11.50 with vat) or more, you can top it up from your skype account with cc or debit card.

We use it to call aus to establish contact, and then switch over to computer/computer skype for the free call and video link.

Forgot to add it would probably be worth them getting a local pay as u go sim card then it won't/should'nt cost anything to recieve your call.

warrenm2

or if youre calling them try 0844calls.co.uk

mykp

if there mobile phone as wifi or 3g and can run proggies then get a copy of Fring.

fring- talk, chat and interact with Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Facebook, Yahoo! and AIM

Its an app you run on your phone and allows you to connect to skype, MSN, ICQ and other people using Fring.

I've installed it on litterly hundreds of mobiles for customers, who use it with 3g when out of the office and it saves them a fortune in phone calles as they can talk to others in the office via the web.

It does depend on their phone though!

LG John

My brother has been in Aus for the last 9 months and I talk to him several times a week just using MSN and a microphone. It costs nothing beyond the price of my internet service, which I'd have regardless of him being away. Sometimes, we'll sit on our respective computers for hours with the line open so that we can talk as if the other person was in the room. This is different from a 'phone call' as there will often be lengthy periods of silence. IIRC he uses Skype to communicate with my parents.

coolangatta

Hi,
I use 'Skype out' to UK land-lines from Japan.
Very good sound quality with little or no delay.

DanTerzo

iTrader: (1)

When they are in Oz, get them to buy an australian network sim and use it in there phone. I used optus when i was over there and it was very cheap to call home. Optus also did a turbocharge plan, when you put in 30 dollars, they topped it up to 150 dollars, 50 dollars they topped it upto 250 dollars and so on, dont think they do the turbo charge deal anymore, i went in 2006 so it will have changed but i found it the cheapest way to call home

davegtt

When I was travelling the phone cards were cheap and worked ok if you want to call from a phone box.

I eventually started using Skype though. £10 credit onto the account and if I rang a UK landline I was being charged something silly like £0.02 a minute.

scoobyster

When I researched this, Voipcheap seemed to be the best option for internet calls and I have been happy with it. You buy €10 of credit (which actually costs €12 or something after vat and fees!) and that gets you 90 days of 'free' calls to landlines in most countries (inc UK) and even to some mobiles (inc USA but not UK). You can spend the rest of your €10 on calls which aren't free (eg. €0.08/min to UK mobiles, €0.04 for sms) or calls to landlines once your 90 days expire. I use it all the time but you do have to make sure you have enough bandwidth available, and occasionally it drops out or the quality decreases. You can set it up so it has your number as caller-id so no one knows you're a cheapskate!

richardg

i pay £1.95 a month with skype and get free landline calls to the uk.....very handy when out of the country

if your friend were to set up an account with skype (they would need to do it from this country though - ie would need someone's help here as they are away), then that would give them free landline calls to akk uk numbers)

...and i have an 0207 number people can call me on as well, with voicemail, so very handy