Cheap International Calls From Your Mobile

Given how globalisation is getting into our daily lives, probably the majority of you by now had to ever make an international call. Unfortunately, major mobile network providers are still charging us a hell to make a phone call outside the country – especially international mobiles. My family lives outside the UK and I have only two free options how I can contact them – it is either through Skype or Viber application on my smart phone, alternatively I could be making a phone call from my mobile that O2 would charge me at 40p/min, which is A LOT.

Get an International SIM card

It would obviously depend whether you would be calling within EU or outside. However, below are a few suggestions from not well known network providers. The best thing is that all of these run on their “parent” networks such as O2 and Vodafone, so the reception quality does not suffer at all.

The below table sets out the prices for international calls using our recommended network providers. Please note that the countries have been chosen intentionally representing the highest percentage of immigrants from the particular nation. All you need to do is to order a free sim card by filling in the online form.

In most cases, if you need to make international calls, the best overall value package is offered by the Vectone Mobile, but if you have reception issues, GiffGaff offers better UK coverage as it operates on a large O2 network.

Install Viber on your smart phone

Statistically, 27% of mobile phone users in the UK use smart phones. Viber is an application that you can install on your smart phone. Viber lets you use your smart phone to make free calls and send free text and photo messages to other Viber users, on any device, network and country.

With Viber, your contacts on your device are also your Viber contacts, because Viber automatically detects your contacts who already have Viber. All you need to do is click on a name and start talking.

It was originally designed for an iPhone, however, it is now available for such platforms as Android and Windows.

International Calling on Skype

Obviously to have Skype you have to either have an access to computer or smartphone with Internet on it. However, with Skype credit you can call mobiles and landlines at low per minute rates.

For example:

A call to Polish landline would only cost you 1.4p/min and to mobile 14.5p/min – what is much cheaper than a call from any major mobile network provider who usually charges you at least 17p/min. The prices vary for each country and you can get really amazing deals – all calls to India at 4.7p/min! Whilst 1.4p/min to United States (3p/min to Alaska – for some reason)! You can either pre-pay to buy credit allowance (pay-as-you-go) or pay monthly to get specific allowance if you use this service regularly.

To buy Skype credit or get a subscription follow this link. You can either use PayPal or your debit/credit card to make a payment.

What I use

I have an O2 Simplicity contract which I am generally quite happy with (except the low 500mb allowance for the internet). I am currently enjoying unlimited (nearly – 3000 minutes a month) calls to 3 different landline numbers in the EU country that I have chosen. What I have is a bolt on called International Favourites. Just recently they have added an another bonus that is 100 minutes to chosen mobile phone numbers, however, you would have to loose one landline number to set up a mobile one. The 100 mins promotion runs until 03/01/12 unless it gets extended. All of this for an extra £10 a month and can be added to any O2 monthly and pay as you go plan.

Calling Cards

The last option is to use an international calling card. It is only useful if you have a contract sim already and do not want to have a separate one for international calling. I would still prefer adding one of the international bolt-ons (just check what is available with your existing operator) as you always need to carry that card with you, dial special number, then enter pin code and you may not get excellent rates – just too much hassle…but that just my preference ;)