USA for 9 nights this month, best value ways to use mobile to call home landline?

superman909

I am staying in the USA for nine nights later this month. I am currently on Giffgaff as a network provider, and use their "goodybag" top-ups each month. I don't have own a mobile with a contract. What would you say are my best options (as in value and reputation) for calling from my mobile phone to my home landline in the UK? I intend on calling once each day, and the duration would be up to say 20 minutes each day. If this is going to be incredibly expensive then I wouldn't mind cutting the duration and frequency down a little bit.

ConsumerGuy0016

superman909 wrote: »

I am staying in the USA for nine nights later this month. I am currently on Giffgaff as a network provider, and use their "goodybag" top-ups each month. I don't have own a mobile with a contract. What would you say are my best options (as in value and reputation) for calling from my mobile phone to my home landline in the UK? I intend on calling once each day, and the duration would be up to say 20 minutes each day. If this is going to be incredibly expensive then I wouldn't mind cutting the duration and frequency down a little bit.

If you've got access to internet, then it might just be a better idea to Skype.

d123

superman909 wrote: »

I am staying in the USA for nine nights later this month. I am currently on Giffgaff as a network provider, and use their "goodybag" top-ups each month. I don't have own a mobile with a contract. What would you say are my best options (as in value and reputation) for calling from my mobile phone to my home landline in the UK? I intend on calling once each day, and the duration would be up to say 20 minutes each day. If this is going to be incredibly expensive then I wouldn't mind cutting the duration and frequency down a little bit.

Get a Three PAYG sim, add a £15 add-on and you get UK charges in the US.

300 minutes included and then 3p per minute to UK numbers.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

Buzby

Forget mobile. Get a pre-Pay calling card and use ant public Payphone for the 1-800 call. It cost me 15c min to call the UK, and the card cost $10.

d123

Buzby wrote: »

Forget mobile. Get a pre-Pay calling card and use ant public Payphone for the 1-800 call. It cost me 15c min to call the UK, and the card cost $10.

That doesn't seem very "money saving", a quick tot up in my head makes that almost twice the price of a £15 add on for a Three Like Home cost.

15c x 20min x 9 days is $27 + $10 is $37, so around £24-25. Not to mention the discomfit of using a public call box.

How does family in the UK make contact with them in the case of emergency via the call box idea?

I really don't see the attraction or benefit over just getting a free Three sim, adding £15, converting it to an add-on and just using the phone to ring home (especially as it also gives the OP 25GB of data to use on the phone and unlimited texts back to the UK if they needed them).

superman909

d123 wrote: »

Get a Three PAYG sim, add a £15 add-on and you get UK charges in the US.

300 minutes included and then 3p per minute to UK numbers.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home

This sounds perfect to me, seems almost too good to be true at only £15 for 300 mins to UK home and mobile numbers, plenty of texts, AND 25GB data?! Thank you for this, I probably wouldn't have found it otherwise and this gives me plenty of time to receive my free Three sim card in the post. The only thing that may be a "problem" is that my mobile is almost certainly locked to O2. It is a Nokia Lumia 520..... It is less than two weeks until I leave, what is the quickest/best value way of getting my mobile unlocked so it will accept my new Three sim card? Thanks

Roger1

I agree with d123 that Three is a good option and I use it in Feel-At-Home countries.

Better for me in the US - and perhaps worth considering by superman 909 - is Toggle: togglemobile.co.uk.

It's contract-free and operates in more countries with charges of 3p/minute to landlines and 3p/9p per minute to mobiles when using local numbers, details on the website.

An added advantage in his case is that local calls would cost 3p/minute in the US if wanted, unlike Three which would be at roaming rates.

A disadvantage for some could be the minimum £20 top-up.

d123

superman909 wrote: »

This sounds perfect to me, seems almost too good to be true at only £15 for 300 mins to UK home and mobile numbers, plenty of texts, AND 25GB data?! Thank you for this, I probably wouldn't have found it otherwise and this gives me plenty of time to receive my free Three sim card in the post. The only thing that may be a "problem" is that my mobile is almost certainly locked to O2. It is a Nokia Lumia 520..... It is less than two weeks until I leave, what is the quickest/best value way of getting my mobile unlocked so it will accept my new Three sim card? Thanks

If you are a contract customer O2 will unlock it for free, if PAYG then they charge £15. They claim a maximum of 3 days to unlock.

Details at http://www.o2.co.uk/help/phones-and-devices/unlocking-your-iphone-and-using-it-on-another-network

System

A Giffgaff text at 30p per time (£2.70) to ask people to call your US hotel number?

3 sim card is a good option but is not 3p per minute after the 300 minutes run out - it is 15.6p per minute in the USA but free to receive calls.