Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Calls to the UK

We are having difficulty in getting our family to add SKYPE to their PCs as they do not trust it!

For goodness sakes it is superb!

Does anybody out there know any cheap calling codes or carriers to the UK?

We have been charged $5 for low usuage every month from our international & long distance carrier which is bugging me!

Please let me know.

Thanks

8 comments:

Jane said...

It has taken us some time but we've got all our family on to SKYPE now. We even sent the in-laws a webcam so that they can see us and now they won't use a land line at all.
My mother is the only one who refuses to have a computer.We have a package with Verizon but are thinking of changing to Vonage. You get free international calls to the UK on their unlimited plan.

Almost American said...

I use SkypeOut for calling relatives with phones but no computer, or when they're not logged into Skype. We used to use a dial-around, but they were more expensive than SkypeOut, especially once you added in their $1/month fee and taxes and fees.

We have Verizon too and I think they charge us an extra $3 any month we don't spend at least $3 on long distance - maybe they've upped that to $5 now, I haven't paid much attention to the bill recently. I haven't found a better alternative. We'd drop the landline altogether, but our cellphone service at the house is non-existent, and DH is nervous about the 911 service if we go with Comcast's VOIP service.

Slightly off topic - I got a Grand Central phone number and love it! Makes it easy to give people one phone # - both your landline and cell phone can ring at the same time, and call screening is a breeze.

Janet said...

We cancelled our long distance service earlier this year, it was just too expensive for the amount of calls we make.

Now, I use Yahoo Messenger which has a phone service, you just pay them $10 and calls to the UK are charged at 1.2 cents per minute. When the $10 runs out you just top it up. There is no charge for this service.

I also have an international calling card, just in case of computer problems. You can pick these up at grocery stores and gas stations. Shop around though for the best deal. And when your minutes are getting low you can top them up. I forget how much per minute the calling rate is on ours, but it's a darn sight cheaper than paying for long distance. HTH

I can't comment on SKYPE as I don't know what it is.

Gill - That British Woman said...

we bought a calling card when in the States to check in with family, and the one we got was only charging us 4.3 cents per minute to Britain which we thought was really good.

I don't know what is is with those guys over there and telephones, they are allergic to using them if you ask me!!!

Gill in Canada

Expat mum said...

Blimey - I am really out of date on this one. We just use AT&T for everything. I need to look into the alternatives too.

Mom/Mum said...

I'd highly recommend Vonage. We ditched at&t as it was so expensive to have long calls to UK with them. We pay a standard monthly fee (I think it's $30 or $40) and can phone locally and internationally as much and for as long as we want. Think it only charges if the call is to a mobile/cellphone abroad.
We use SKYPE for webcams with grandparents.

Daffodilly said...

Ooh ladies this is awesome info thanks so much.

MarmiteToasty said...

Hi - Im living in England with many many friends in the States whom I often ring........ I only pay about $1 an hour or about 60p in our money....

You do NOT have to sign up for any thing and you use whatever phone company ya with..... Im just with NTL/virgin... the only rule is...... you have to ring AFTER 6pm on a week night but can ring anytime over the weekends for the cheap rate......

This is ALL you have to do when living in england and wanting to ring someone in America or Canada...

dial o8452443443 and press the call button......

it will say 'welcome to budget.com, please enter the number you wish to call including the country code (which is just 001) and press hash after the number......

so you ring 08452443443 001 then then number you wish to ring......

if you chat for more then an hour or so it will disconnect and you just dial again.......

It HONESTLY only costs $1 an hour...... I ring at least 3-4 times to america every week....

I hope this helps :)

Great blob by the way lol

x