young teen son going to france for a few days-cheapest way for him to call home?

easy

As the title says.

He's on a tesco capped contract ATM (brill for his needs, would recommend to anyone).

He'll prob only make 2 or 3 short calls home anyway, but teachers give the kids their no's to call if they get lost while out on trips.

Soooo, should I just top-up his account by £20 or so before he goes (foreign calls can't come out of his contract amount, apparently ) or get a different PAYG sim for the trip?

Telling him to get one in France seems too complicated.

Cheers

grumbler

Have a look at http://www.togglemobile.co.uk/home/en, although it costs £5+£20(credit).

If you keep Tesco sim, see http://www.tescomobile.com/help-and-support/1084-international/1087-going-abroad/before-you-go-abroad. I guess you do need to top the account up before going abroad or increase the cap. And make sure mobile data roaming is switched off if it's a smartphone.

bignred05

does he have a smartphone???

various apps for free calls via wifi or 3g (try Viber)

I've just used this for texting someone in Spain, worked a treat

dealer_wins

How did we manage 30 years ago. I went on a school trip to France aged 12 for 2 weeks, and as mobiles had not been invented I had no way of speaking to my parents (can I claim compo LOL)

patman99

Depending on the phone, try 'Skype'. I put this on an old Samsung for my son when he went to the US for 2 weeks & he used that via the hotel's wifi to call me. Cost = £0.00

banger9365

try a phone box ,just like we did years ago

giraffe69

How helpful to go on about the good old days! I'm sure if said boy came back having generated a large bill there would be others saying how irresponsible/stupid/cavalier Dad/boy was.

The point is it isn't 30 years ago and we don't have to manage the same way nor is there still rationing, window tax or bubonic plague. Seeking the most cost effective workable solution seems to me what this site is supposed to be about.

tyllwyd

If the contract is capped, the easiest way would be to just top up his credit. I don't think a few quick calls to say hi would cost anywhere near £20 - or get him to text, that's more like 14p a text. I don't think it's necessary to fuss around doing anything else - once he's away, you'll probably be lucky to get anything more than 'hi' out of him anyway.

Also, check whether he is staying in a hotel with free wifi - if so, he should be able to use that.

adindas

easy wrote: »

As the title says.

He's on a tesco capped contract ATM (brill for his needs, would recommend to anyone).

He'll prob only make 2 or 3 short calls home anyway, but teachers give the kids their no's to call if they get lost while out on trips.

Soooo, should I just top-up his account by £20 or so before he goes (foreign calls can't come out of his contract amount, apparently ) or get a different PAYG sim for the trip?

Telling him to get one in France seems too complicated.

Cheers

I fully believe he must already have an android or other smar phone as this is now already very common to young people.

So ask him to go Mc Donald, KFC, Costa, Starbucks where you could get wireless Wify.

He could then contact you via Skype at home, very of charge.
You wil also need to be connected to internet to make the phone call.

Beside Skype could install other application such as Viber.

All you need is both of you:
Have a smart phone
Both of you connected to internet to make a phone call
-it is free of charge

NFH

Lycamobile charges €0.01/min for calls from France to UK fixed lines and €0.09/min for calls to UK mobiles. An alternative is Toggle Mobile which charges a flat £0.03/min, as Grumbler has kindly mentioned already.

adindas

NFH wrote: »

Lycamobile charges €0.01/min for calls from France to UK fixed lines and €0.09/min for calls to UK mobiles. An alternative is Toggle Mobile which charges a flat £0.03/min, as Grumbler has kindly mentioned already.

I am aware that you could from UK to other countries in the EU fro very cheap price Using Lyca, Lebara, etc and often less than 5p..

I have not heard it other way around. e.g. from EU to UK.
Is the SIM card to be bought in the UK (uk number) or in France (French number) ? If in the UK I very much doubt if they did not charge the roaming.