Cheaper calls from Germany to the UK

AndrewC_3

My son is in the army in Germany and would like to call home (UK). Unfortuantely he only has a UK Vodafone mobile and German Pay-As-U-Go .

Does anybody know of a cheaper way to call from abroard using a mobile?

andy88_2

Some German mobiles have free 0800 calls. Vodafone D2 certainly, and maybe T-mobile D1. I'm told e-plus only free on contract, O2 don't know.

This means you could use a calling card account. Some may not work though. German providers don't seem to have so many of these with 0800 numbers.

I have an Alpha Telecom account that costs 13p a minute from there. There are a couple of American ones around 9p, Enjoyprepaid and UniversalCaller but I reckon there should be better around, and I don't know if they work or access is blocked.

http://www.billiger-telefonieren.de/ has comparisons and links to all the German providers.

I'll look a bit more tomorrow

boatman

Here are a few to be getting on with. Some of the links are for home phones. I'm sure that amongst this lot you should be able to find a few cheap deals from a mobile.

01077 seems to be the cheapest at 1.7 cents a minute from a home phone, not sure about mobiles.

http://www.01077.com/index2.php
http://foxyphone.tarife-fuer-ferngespraeche.de/
http://www.teledump.de/english.php
http://www.teltarif.de/a/

This is useful for translating websites.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

andy88_2

That is the problem, that most of these call-by-call and call-through operators are from landlines with prefix codes.

andy88_2

I have looked at most of the calling-card details on
http://www.billiger-telefonieren.de/tarife/tarifliste.php3?anzeige=callback

Call prices are in the range 2c to 10c to call UK, but with a surcharge for use from a Handy of 15c to 25c, giving a total of 19.9 to about 29.5. These translate to 14p to 21p per minute.

That is the penalty of the 0800 number from mobiles; the calling card company presumably agree to pay the mobile companies part of the charge. This is why your son would be best to use an ordinary landline with a calling card (phonebox use is surcharged as well).

If not, an unrecognised foreign calling card is probably the next option. I got my brother in Germany to try the 2 American access numbers a while back and they were busy or unavailable.

I can suggest a rather more complicated arrangement involving 2 phones and 2 or 3 companies that allows calls at 7.7p, but I really think the landline route is where you should go for long chats. If you get a 1899 account, the present price to Germany is 3p connect, 0p per minute

boatman

Provided you can use the 0800 numbers for free from German mobiles , then GoTalk offer a price of 6p - 8p a minute(1/2/3p rate + 5p surcharge)

http://www.gotalk.co.uk/travel/abroad.asp

You need to set up an account, it a prepay service.
I have used them for a couple of years.

andy88_2

Well, boatman, we got there between us; I knew there were a couple I couldn't remember the names of ...

Vodafone D2 certainly has free 0800; and check T-mobile D1 prepaid

andy88_2

Unfortunately, the 2 American access numbers are blocked from Vodafone, as is the GoTalk number 08001802269.

If your son is on D1, get him to find out if 0800 is free and try
08001802269
08001801719
08001815118

If the middle one works, it will be possible to call for ~2.4c US per minute

or use from a landline

The AlphaTelecom one still works 13p