Mobile Roaming: Cheapest Calls When You're Abroad

teakbank12

theradfords wrote: »

What is the best SIM to purchase, we are currently on Tesco PAYG.
We want to call either a UK landline or a UK mobile each day from our cruise, just to check that all is well.
What is the cheapest way of doing this please?

thanks

Firstly like with any mobile provider make sure you check the SIM's not barred international, if its the Tesco Economy SIM it cannot be used abroad so check the tariff you are on.
I am going to the channel isles in a few weeks & have worked out that Tesco & o2 are both reasonable to use (i have both SIMs spare in old phones). I plan to leave my normal mobile switched off to avoid numerous calls whilst away as too many people know the number!!
Dont forget you pay to receive a call as well as make a call.

redux

theradfords wrote: »

What is the best SIM to purchase, we are currently on Tesco PAYG.
We want to call either a UK landline or a UK mobile each day from our cruise, just to check that all is well.
What is the cheapest way of doing this please?

thanks

Quite a few cruise ships have their own mobile coverage onboard, connected via a satellite link, provided by partnerships with or offshoots of networks such as Jersey Telecom, Manx Telecom, Siminn (Iceland) or Telenor (Norway). Because of the satellite link, this can be quite expensive, maybe £3 or £4 per minute.

So it would be worth avoiding using this, doing a manual network search and only logging in to land networks.

If it's only European countries, well mainly EU actually, the roaming tariffs are now fairly good, about 18 or 19 pence a minute incoming and 35 to 38 pence a minute outgoing.

For other UK SIMs, you might consider optional add-ons such as Vodafone Passport, which when it is on a partner network charges a connection fee of 75p, then incoming calls free outgoing same as home tariff. There's only one partner network per country though, so you'd need to make a list of these before you went.

Or there's O2's My Europe Extra, which for a £10 a month fee has incoming calls free, outgoing 25 pence a minute. This applies while roaming on any network in the listed countries, so is probably more flexible than the Vodafone deal.

Or there are some global roaming SIMs, which have free incoming calls in plenty of countries, outgoing at from about 20 p/min back to a UK landline.

newUK

Hi all, I'm a newperson here. I only have a mobile phone (T-mobile, MDA IV) and use it as a moderm to get into internet. Is there any cheapest way that I can call to Vietnam from UK. Please help me! Thank you!

overcharged

Hi

My partner is off travelling to USA, Thailand, Cambodia and New Zealand in a months time. I volunteered to get her phone sorted for her and I'm getting rather confused. I'd truly appreciate any ideas you can offer.

What I would ideally like for her to have is a phone I can order here in the UK, she can bring with her with SIM already installed and sorted, and then once she's travelling she can use a data connection for VOIP and any SMS's. So, I guess the ideal pre-paid SIM should have a certain data allowance that she can pay for in advance, and then top-up online when she's traveling.

Ideally she wouldn't have to resort to 'normal' phone lines and just use the VOIP all the time, which hopefully would only cost a matter of pennies as it's via the internet.

So far I like the look of a global sim for her http://www.storytelecom.com/traveltalksim/), perhaps combined with the 'Rebtel' (https://www.rebtel.com/) service (both services recommended on this site) under 'Utilities/Phones'. She didn't like the idea of using a local SIM for each country. An iPhone might be good also since she will be traveling with a small Macbook.

Is anyone here aware of something like this with pre-paid data that could be done, or am I living in the clouds?!

I had the idea because I use Vyke for SMS's on my mobile (recommended on this website) once my o2 allowance runs out and it's been a godsend in terms of avoiding the costly 12pence (approx) that O2 charge once you exceed your limit.

Anyway, thanks for hearing me out. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and could really help out a lone lady traveller in the middle of foreign lands!

redux

overcharged wrote: »

Is anyone here aware of something like this with pre-paid data that could be done, or am I living in the clouds?!

But not all of them have data anyway, and the rates are such that it would work out more expensive than just using the SIM's call tariffs.

Note that so far, even global SIMs don't have cheap roaming in USA, though some are saying they are about to launch dual-ID versions that will have. So, if those haven't arrived by then, it would be worth looking for a US SIM as well, and arranging cheap forwarding to it. Similar for Thailand, as some global SIM rates there aren't good either.

overcharged

Thanks redux much appreciated.

Have 'thanked' you and am currently reading through this thread from front to back.

"could be worth looking for a US SIM as well, and arranging cheap forwarding to it"

Can you recommend a service that could do the cheap forwarding please?

Btw she'll be in New Zealand for about 8 months solid after her initial country-trekking. I suppose the best bet there would be to also get a local New Zealand sim then?

redux

newUK wrote: »

Hi all, I'm a newperson here. I only have a mobile phone (T-mobile, MDA IV) and use it as a moderm to get into internet. Is there any cheapest way that I can call to Vietnam from UK. Please help me! Thank you!

Welcome to the site

Do you have an unlimited internet package on that?

If so, you might use voice-over-internet calls, if it's possible to find a client to install on the phone. I suspect you might be able to use Fring, which you use in conjunction with an account from another provider. Needs a bit of research ...

If it is not an unlimited or flat rate data package, then the data cost could mount up a bit.

Instead, you can make ordinary calls via the mobile, via an access number. The choice of what provider to use would depend on whether you have a contract with inclusive minutes, or are pay-as-you-go.

If from inclusive minutes, then MSE has a Callchecker for looking up the best international phone tariffs.

Ignore the providers with 0844 and 0871 numbers, as the tariffs only applly from landlines,and from mobiles they are more expensive. You want one of the providers colour-coded blue, where you'd set up an account with them, then dial a landline e.g London access number, then dial the destination. Don't press the send key again after entering the destination though.

If it's from a payg T-mobile phone, then look at the callthrough provider Yourcallworld. Their system works without you needing an account set up, and T-mobile just charge you at the YCW rate. For Vietnam it seems to be 8p/min

redux

overcharged wrote: »

"could be worth looking for a US SIM as well, and arranging cheap forwarding to it"

Can you recommend a service that could do the cheap forwarding please?

One or two of the global SIMs have free forwarding to some destinations, and USA would certainly be included.

However, not all global SIMs come from mobile inclusive minutes here, so some people calling from here would use cheap calls provider tariffs to call the global SIM or a USA SIM. But not everyone knows how to make cheap int'l calls

Instead, call forwarding via a VoIP account is fairly easy to arrange. Some will give you a free landline number with the account, some charge about £2 a month for the number. Then forwarding would be arranged in the account, with rates to USA at about 1p/min or less.

You might use one of the Betamax VoIP brands, which give a period with some free calls per top-up. But they don't have their own numbers available at the moment, so you might get a number from Voiptalk which can be forwarded to it. Or there are plenty of others; I might suggest Localphone, which does give a free number for the VoIP part of their account (they do callthrough as well).

overcharged

Brilliant redux that's just what I needed.

Thanks a million for your kind advice.:T

overcharged

Hi

Can anyone recommend where I could buy an unlocked Quad Band Phone (suitable for New Zealand, Cambodia, Thailand)? - I've tried Google and Amazon but they haven't turned up anything remotely solid. I'd like to be able to have a choice of phones. I also tried the Mega Shopbot on this site but it only turned up one phone on Amazon which isn't well reviewed.

I guess I want to choose from a selection of quad-band unlocked phones that have good reviews.

Thanks in advance, and have a great weekend!