Phoning England from Switzerland on 02 mobile

karena

My daughter is going to Switzerland next week. She is on 02 pay as you go, I am on 02 contract with 400 inc. minutes. What is going to be the cheapest way of phoning each other? Perhaps I buy a phone card and call her mobile or will she incurr charges? Thank you!!

redux

If she uses the O2 SIM abroad, it will be expensive, like about £1 a minute for incoming and outgoing calls. There is an option that cuts it a bit, but it's still a lot.

She could get a Swiss payg SIM card. To use a different SIM in the phone, it needs to be unlocked from the original network. You can get advice about this on a couple of threads at the top of the board, but in simple terms, a Nokia can be done with a unique code that people on the thread will give you, and most others need to be done at a shop or market stall.

You could then use a cheap calls operator to call her Swiss number from your landline. From your mobile, assuming you have ITS it would be 17p per minute, but .........

At the moment though, the MSE Callchecker shows the cheapest calls to Swiss mobiles to be via the Dialaround number 08445667878 at 5 pence per minute from landlines. Even better, an 0844 number comes from your O2 inclusive minutes. I imagine this rate is a temporary offer, and I hope it lasts for her visit.

http://www.dialaround.co.uk/rates.php has the details and instuctions. Don't press send at the end of the Swiss mobile number as this will make a direct call after all.

For the first contact, she could send you an sms for the Swiss number. After that, I envisage her calling your number, let it ring a couple of times then hang up. Then you call back (using the Dialabroad route, not the missed call number).

If she wants to call other people in UK as well, look into her getting a calling card as int'l calls still tend to cost a bit. If it's only for a couple of minutes though, the SIM credit would cover it.

For info on Swiss SIMs
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/en/switzerland.html
I think you can order a SIM online from Orangeclick, for delivery to a Swiss address, and you have to show ID when it's delivered. Other SIMs will be in the shops.

karena

Thank you for that information. As she is only there for a week she will keep her phone as it is. I think the answer might be to buy a cheap phone card here and use my landline to ring her mobile?

redux

It costs you the same to ring an O2 mobile from yours, wherever the other one is, so it will come out of your inclusive minutes.

But the roaming phone will be charged about £1 a minute. Text messages cost 49p.

Here is info about the Euro bolt-on that cuts charges from 99p for all calls to 69p per minute to make a call, and 49p to receive. It costs £1.99 to subscribe.

http://www.o2.co.uk/productsservices/boltons/eurodesc

Here is the Orangeclick SIM I mentioned, at CHF 10; that's about £4.50, and you can call it via that 0844 from your spare minutes.
http://www.orangeclick.ch/wss/templates/images/en_GB/html/more_info/more_info_en.htm