Phone Home

Wondering if anyone can recommend a cheap way to phone the UK.

I am on a phone contract which doesn't include International Calls, however I use WhatsApp for friends and family as this is free.

We still have a property in the UK (which isn't selling and is going down in value as fast as the properties over here are increasing, but that's another story).

A situation has arisen where I need to phone our mortgage provider and the Water Utility Company (I know in theory it can be done on-line, but because we've had tenants in it has got a bit messy).

In order to sort things out I need to make phone calls and wondered if anyone can recommend a cheap way of doing this?

I use Skype to speak to family and also Skype phone calls to make other calls. You can buy credit through the Skype account and $15 lasts me about a year. Can't remember how I set it up originally. If you are with Telstra, I think you can buy an International pack to add to your account as and when you need it. I could with my landline when I didn't have internet.

If you are with Amaysim (they use the Optus network) you get free unlimited calls to UK landlines and mobiles (also SMS but not photo messages).

Their plans are all 'bring your own SIM' and very competitive - I pay around $45 a month for unlimited use in Australia, the above inclusions to the UK (and lots of other countries) and 7GB data a month.

Skype, facebook calls, FaceTime what's app call etc are great but rely on either being in good wifi/using lots of your mobile data - I love being able to just to make a call 'as normal' from my mobile to anyone on my contact list without worrying about cost.

I use Skype and we've got $10 or so credit on there and its lasted for ages. I only use it to make non personal calls back to the UK, so for calling HMRC or the bank. I usually sit at my desk at home so I can have all the paperwork to hand and its been fine. Clear line, no issues and I can see how long the call has lasted and the remaining credit.

Yes I do the same for ringing the bank too. And I use it to ring Centrelink as well to save my mobile credit as we don't have a landline.

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I have the Skype app on my phone so I can use the Skype from my mobile in the normal way. I only do it at home over wifi. Also remember that Skype credit expires if you don't use it, but it's easy to reactivate it indefinitely. These days doing that works fine, Skype is much better.

For all other family calls etc we use FaceTime.

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Thank you Cliffy, I did this...got some Skype credit it is 10c a minute to phone the UK.

Thank you to everyone for your help!

Some of the internet service providers (TPG for example) offer plans that have unlimited calls to local, mobile and overseas landline and mobile phones as part of their internet packages.

I have a couple of plans that have them included and you can make normal calls from your landline phone here to landlines and mobiles in the Uk for unlimited time periods.

I think that they may have changed some of the plans recently though due to abuse...some countries now restricted (China and India) to a certain amount of minutes every month.

May be worth a look though and see how much extra it is to add it on to any broadband service you may require.

Skype is great but I also have 300 minutes of international calls on my plan with Vodafone which only costs $40 per month (SIM only), so I dont even need to use Skype for shorter calls.