Calling French mobiles regularly (no phone line)

sreee

I make a lot of calls to a French mobile - atleast an hour a day. I'm a university student so I don't have a landline, only internet access, which makes using the 0871 providers like PhoneCheap hard as I don't have a landline to call the number from. At the moment I'm using LocalPhone to call and it costs 8.3 p / min via their VoIP service

Does anyone know a way of getting cheaper calls to French mobiles? Maybe a VoIP provider who does cheap calls to 0871 so I can just use PhoneCheap (6 p / min according to the International Call Checker)?

Any advice would be much appreciated
Tim

flossy_splodge

Buy 2 SIM4Travel sim cards.
Send one to the French end of your communications.
Can be credited online once up and running.
READ the info - think you'll find calls between SIM4Travel's customers are free.
They currently have a good offer too - do a search on Martins article about phones for the link as it doesn't show on their website.
Also please remember that credit is time limited so don't put on heaps straight away.
Hope this might help.
Check it out anyway but that's what I understand.
Have used SIM4 Travel in France and reception etc brilliant.
Good luck.

BexTech

You're not going to find a VoIP provider offering cheaper calls to 0871 as they are revenue generating numbers and a fix fee, plus most VoIP providers don't allow access to 0871 range.

There's http://www.intervoip.com which charge 5.9p/min, might be worth testing from your connection first.

redux

The SIM4travel tariff is about 20 pence a minute, with a daily connection fee, so it would surely be more expensive (there are certainly not any free calls between them).

The cheapest thing to do for that amount of use is based on 2 O2 SIM cards, or maybe even 3.

Send one SIM to the person you are calling to use in a spare phone. If it gets there ok in the post, then register it for O2's My Europe Extra. This costs £10 per month and then incoming calls in Europe are free, outgoing 25p/min.

On the SIM here, register for My O2 Numbers. This costs £5 a month and gives you free calls and texts to 10 defined favourite O2 numbers. Note that there is a fair use policy of 1000 minutes and texts a month. By the sound of your use you'd need to keep track and avoid going over that. Then use another SIM for another 1000 minutes if necessary.

When the other person wants to call you, they can dial and hang up, then you call back.

Thus £15 a month for 1000 minutes. No other method can be this cheap between mobiles.

sreee

Thanks guys, your advice is very much appreciated. Going to save a lot of money! That sounds like a great idea redux! I had a look at the My Europe Extra thing and it is also limited to 1000 minutes. I guess I'll have to try and limit how much I use!

The other O2 deal for 1000 mins to 10 set numbers for £5 sounds great. Is that the cheapest way to get that many minutes to one UK mobile number I assume? I don't suppose VoIP providers do any good deals to mobiles?

Now I just to need to find a spare phone! I don't suppose Orange do a similar deal to that above as I have a spare phone thats locked to Orange?

redux

Well spotted - I forgot that about 1000 minutes on My Europe Extra

Note that the other package is only for O2 numbers. VoIP providers start from about 6 or 7 pence a minute. If you want to call other numbers as well you might look at SIM-only one month notice contracts; £20 for 600 minutes on O2; £21 for 700 on 3, Orange will have something, etc ...

flossy_splodge

redux wrote: »

The SIM4travel tariff is about 20 pence a minute, with a daily connection fee, so it would surely be more expensive (there are certainly not any free calls between them).

The cheapest thing to do for that amount of use is based on 2 O2 SIM cards, or maybe even 3.

Send one SIM to the person you are calling to use in a spare phone. If it gets there ok in the post, then register it for O2's My Europe Extra. This costs £10 per month and then incoming calls in Europe are free, outgoing 25p/min.

On the SIM here, register for My O2 Numbers. This costs £5 a month and gives you free calls and texts to 10 defined favourite O2 numbers. Note that there is a fair use policy of 1000 minutes and texts a month. By the sound of your use you'd need to keep track and avoid going over that. Then use another SIM for another 1000 minutes if necessary.

When the other person wants to call you, they can dial and hang up, then you call back.

Thus £15 a month for 1000 minutes. No other method can be this cheap between mobiles.

Calling SIM4travel from a landline
When calling from the UK it costs from 10p per min to call a SIM4travel from a BT landline. Always check with your network provider for their latest call charges.


Calling from a mobile Calling a SIM4travel from a mobile phone varies in cost from FREE (from within your call bundle allowance). Out of bundle calls cost from 15p per minute. Always check with your network provider for their latest call charges for calling a mobile number starting 07509.

redux

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Calling SIM4travel from a landline
When calling from the UK it costs from 10p per min to call a SIM4travel from a BT landline. Always check with your network provider for their latest call charges.


Calling from a mobile Calling a SIM4travel from a mobile phone varies in cost from FREE (from within your call bundle allowance). Out of bundle calls cost from 15p per minute. Always check with your network provider for their latest call charges for calling a mobile number starting 07509.

Ok, but your claim was that calls between 2 Sim4travel phones are free.

Which is absolutely untrue.

It is a little odd at 25 pence a minute compared to the 6 or 8 pence currently paid to call a French mobile. There's no information about the OP having a mobile contract which would include calls to one such SIM, and you originally recommended calls between 2 SIMs. An hour a day using 2 SIM4travels would cost £15 a day. My suggestion was £15 a month. But yes that SIM is inclusive on O2 contract cross-network minutes (not the £5 payg package I mentioned though), and is said here to be also on Orange and Virgin

And why quote landline rates, when both the thread title and the post detail say there isn't one.

pjsmith76_2

I have been using Localphone.com to call my sister's mobile in France. As far as I know it is a Pay as you go sim in a normal handset. The number starts +33 647****** and she has french Voicemail.
Local Phone charge me 1.4p/min from both my mobile and landline.The conection number comes out of my call allowance on the mobile or is local from the house. The best bet is to type the number requierd into localphone's cost calculator.

nb the price is the same as the +33 4507 ***** landline that is in the chalet she works at

sreee

Do you know what network she is on? The person I'm calling is on Orange but its charged as a mobile rate which is much higher