landline to landline/mobile in Australia - help!

Aitch7

Hi,

I am with Virgin Media and have just arranged to go on their £1.50/month international package which will allow me to call Australia for 3p/min if its a landline I am calling.

I've been reading all your posts about cheaper ways to do this i.e. Rebtel but when I called Virgin Media to ask if they would charge for these calls they said they might - they said they were unsure of Rebtel and didn't know if the local access numbers would be charged or not.

I've also looked into how to call Australian mobiles as my friend only has a mobile phone and at the moment we have to arrange for her to go to a friends house with a landline so I can call.

I'm getting swamped with the technology surrounding all the providers suggested at this website and again when I contacted Virgin media about the local numbers that these sites provide they said that I would be charged at a very high rate for them i.e. they appear to have blocked use of these numbers.

I have a landline and a mobile with Virgin Media. Does anyone have any suggestions about any sites that might be of help - or of their experience with Rebtel?

Any advice re calling landline to landline/mobile
mobile to landline/mobile
sending texts
would be very gratefully received:-)

Best wishes
Aitch7

Heinz

I'd try gateway providers shown in the MSE International Callchecker (the green cells):

Australian mobile from BT landline;

Australian landline from BT landline;

They're standard 0844/0871 numbers so Virgin should carry them at roughly the same price as BT (although I hear they tend to double the cost of 0.5p and 1p/minute 0844 numbers).

diamonds

How much average do you use monthly for mobiles, landlines & texts to AU

jhp

You could use http://www.18185.co.uk/mobilerates.php to call via their FreePhone 0808 number from landline and their 020 number from mobile.

maytaurus

TalkTalk
Unlimited free calls anytime to 36 international destinations

mazza111

If you are on a Virgin Media talk plan it may be worth your while going on to Talk 200,400 or 800. It works a bit like your mobile phone where you buy minutes each month instead of having a discounted call. You can use these minutes to call foreign mobiles.

jhp

maytaurus wrote: »

TalkTalk
Unlimited free calls anytime to 36 international destinations

How can he use Talk Talk if he is on Virgin Media ?

Aitch7

Thanks for the advice guys - re the question of how much I spend - I am dreading checking my mobile bill as I only just found out that the texts I've been sending are not included in my free 300 per month - I now know they cost 20p each and at 10ish per day I am now financially absolutely stuffed - will have to borrow the money. I did check at Virgin medias website and could find nothing to say that the texts would not be included - am going to write a complaint to Virgin to tell them that they need to spell it out clearer.

Anyway thank you for your advice - I have registered with 18185 and am going to see how that works.

Best wishes Aitch7

Aitch7

jhp wrote: »

How can he use Talk Talk if he is on Virgin Media ?

I am a 'she' by the way:-)

redux

For cheaper texts, there are some mobile Java programs which send an equivalent using the phone's data connection, costing from about a penny per message, then you pay your network for the data, half a penny or less.

Some are Fishtext smsBug and Vyke, the first being the cheapest. There's an article by Martin and a discussion thread; you'd find the thread using the forum search function for these names.

anwar78

Beware of web sites offering you free texts - always read the small print, or you'll find that free will mean free as in "we charge you £5 a week"