Cheap way to avoid roaming??

inmypocketnottheirs

I think that I may have come up with a pretty good solution to seriously reduce roaming costs, whilst still receiving incoming calls from your UK mobile.

This is my plan, can any one see any flaws?

I am off to China on Tuesday. Orange contract phone with inclusive minutes for UK landline and cross network calls.

So, I set up a skype account.

Then get a skype on line number (£11.50 for 3 months), which is a UK landline number.

Prior to leaving the UK, set my UK contract phone to divert all calls to the skype on line number.

Then when I arrive in China, get a local PAYG sim card.

Log on to skype, and then set the on line number to divert to the China mobile. Skype rate to China mobile 1.4p per minute.

I have been racking my brains to a way to reduce incoming call costs by using call divert and something like 1899 or a discounted sim card like lebara. This seems workable.

Anyone else tried this?:beer:

Log on to skype account, and activate call forwarding from the on line number to my China mobile.

meinnit

You might get charged by your network to divert calls. Nice idea though

redux

You can find cheaper ways than Skype, for both numbers and calls, and better quality.

Or some global SIMs have free roaming or can be forwarded cheap or free to a local SIM, and some of these come from Orange minutes. I'd tend to suggest this more if you're also visiting other countries though, and will use it long term, as SIM cost is sometimes a bit higher than the included credit value

MarkLS12

If you use sipgate.co.uk instead of Skype you can get a UK Landline number for free, the cost of diverting to a Chinese number with sipgate.co.uk is 1.5p per minute.

On your UK Mobile, instead of diverting, you could just leave an outgoing voicemail telling callers your Skype(or sipgate) landline number. Read it out slowly, twice.

buglawton

Put a message on your UK land line/mobile voice mail with your China number on it. If anyone really needs to call you they'll pay for the call.

Once in China the best way to call home is via a computer and Skype via cheap internet cafes - they all have Skype installed. Or carry a WiFi enabled smartphone with a free app like Fring on it - use your hotel's WiFi and Skype from you own phone.

Another simple solution is buy an international sim card - this one
http://www.0044.co.uk/Global-sim-card.htm
claims to have free incoming calls while roaming in China and a UK mobile incoming + a USA incoming number in the bundle.

inmypocketnottheirs

meinnit wrote: »

You might get charged by your network to divert calls. Nice idea though

Call divert to UK landlines/mobiles is included, so no problem there.

inmypocketnottheirs

Many thanks for the above. Sipgate looks the best option, cheaper than skype.

The most important thing for me is to receiving incoming calls, the option of leaving a message to redial is not really the answer for me.

All in all, I think the sipgate solution and a local sim is the best.

Many thanks!

redux

There are more, some cheaper than Sipgate, for example Localphone is 0.8p, and several Betamax VoIP accounts at 0, though you might need a separate number with these, as the ones they issue are probably 0560, which I'm not sure are included by Orange

meinnit

buglawton wrote: »

Another simple solution is buy an international sim card - this one
http://www.0044.co.uk/Global-sim-card.htm
claims to have free incoming calls while roaming in China and a UK mobile incoming + a USA incoming number in the bundle.

SIMs like this usually have a Jersey number or equivilent which is expensive for callers to call.

buglawton

The number you get has a normal mobile prefix (not a personal 070 number) and these cost the same to call as any other mobile in the UK. There might be a slight risk that these are not included in free mobile minutes on a contract mobile, though.

redux

buglawton wrote: »

The number you get has a normal mobile prefix (not a personal 070 number) and these cost the same to call as any other mobile in the UK. There might be a slight risk that these are not included in free mobile minutes on a contract mobile, though.

It's an Isle of Man number, not included by all networks, though Orange does