International texts

imbigron

I am currently on a pay as you go package with Vodafone, and its costing me 24p a text to text an international mobile. i have been looking to get a monthly contract with any provider that offers free texts and minutes, but looking at the small print none of them seem to include texts to international numbers in their free minutes. Does anyone know of a network provider that includes texts to international numbers in their free minutes package?

euglycaemia

Not that I know of...
Any particular country...because there are lots of web sites for sending free text?

Jarlawuk

O2 charge 12p per text if you are on a £35 or more a month tariff, if you are on a lower tariff then you will pay 16p unless you pay for the ITS bundle which is £3 per month. They are the cheapest as far as I'm aware - hope that helps.

natjay_2

I have an O2 contract costing £25.00 a month with 500 free texts, in dec 2006 a friend of our was out in the USA, they also have an O2 contract phone and when I sent them a text it was covered by my free text allowance and it was also free for them to receive the text

sibbahz

Texting roaming mobiles, as in UK mobiles taken abroad will come out of inclusive messages/standard rates as it is still a UK number regardless of where it is.

Only texting international mobiles, or ones with a non +44 prefix, will be charged international rate.

My o2 contract, the £30 a month one, discounted to £15 a month, also offers texts for 10p + vat, working out around 12p, so it appears international traveller service is included on £30+ tariffs.

venkat_2

o2 PAYG with internatonal bolt on charges 10p an international text.

international bolt on costs about £4.99 one-off payment.

imbigron

thanks for your answers, it seems that O2 will be my best option.

squawkbox

If you are able to access a computer, it might be worth considering the use of Skype for sending SMS abroad.

Rates: http://www.skype.com/intl/en-gb/products/skypesms/rates/index.html?currency=GBP

o sending a text message to the US is 7.1p. A UK one 6.4p. Germany 8.2p (all the prices are in the above link).

You can set the Skype SMS service up so that it shows that its come from your UK mobile number, so people abroad will not notice any different and they can still reply to your mobile when they reply to the message.

This might not be suitable for the OP, but its worth it for others who might sent a lot of international SMS and are near a computer.