How to Avoid a Large Phone Bill When Travelling

How to AVOID A LARGE PHONE BILL when travelling From: Sally Cavill long keep in contact with her. I know that if phone charges are expensive she will neglect to call home and I don't want to spend a fortune calling her. What is the cheapest way to keep in contact with her? Hi, my daughter is going on a month to the USA and I would like to A:Dear Sally, Sally Cavill We completely sympathise with your situation. There is nothing quite as scary as letting your child travel and constantly having to worry about what may happen. Coupled with the fact that children rarely ever call home, you have a recipe for sleepless nights. To put you at ease, we've compiled a summary of the cheapest ways to stay in contact. With money-saving travel plans from the big five mobile service providers, VolP (Voice over Inter- net Protocol - calls made over the internet) and call cards, there are plenty of options. Editorial, Essential Travel Ltd. wo. essential travel BEFOREyour daughter LEAVES she should do the following: CALLING PLANS Check that her phone is Visit her service provider's website Enable international roaming and voicemail by contacting her service provider compatible with foreign networks If your phone is quad-band it will work everywhere. Dual and tri-band phones may not work on some net- works. To find her phone's band type go to the manufacturer's web- and get familiar with call and text charges for her destination site Phone bill SAVINGMETHODS International Favourites programme for travelling abroad. The programme offers 3000 of call time to three predefined minutes international numbers It comes with a foreign number that people may call you at and only pay their local rates. If your daughter buys a local SIM card this is a great way to sidestep international call charges www.o2.co.uk Vodafone Passport charges a 75p connection charge and then vodafone normal rates apply on calls to the uk www.vodafone.co.uk World Traveller programme charges a small monthly fee for discounts on intermational calls up to MOBILE OPERATORS orange www.orange.co.uk 3.0% depending on where O you call discount from T-mobile has a detailed breakdown of costs from over "180 destinations -Mobile: Their WorldClass tariff is a free add-on that offers low international www.t-mobile.co.uk call rates across the board 3 offers Skype enabled mobiles that provide all the benefits listed below For normal calls, International Saver has the best rates. Rates vary depending on which band your desti- nation fits into. Band O countries (EU contries) pay a third of the rate of Band 3 countries (like Morocco) www.three.co.uk The largest international long-distance provider offers an ünbeatable price skype All calls between Skype users are FREE. You can also switch to SkypeOut, which allows you to make international calls to anyone with a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Net- work) phone or a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) phone anywhere in the world, at local rates to landline to mobile Skype www.skype.com PC to PC Skyis edit FREE This service offers similar functionality to Skype FREE O PC-to-PC YAHOO! Messenger calls are free but there is no way to make calls to mobiles or landlines. If you take already have a Yahoo, Facebook or Google account this service is a login away uk.messenger.yahoo.com VolP SERVICE PROVIDERS no software O download You can make calls directly from your web browser using your smart phone -perfect for those travelling without a laptop. Jajah also allows you to tweet and Facebook call another Jajah member. This may embarrass your daughter, but that's what parents are for All VolP calls are free in-service (i.e skype-to-skype) excluding data fees jajah www.jajah.com Fring is an exclusively mobile VolP (or a MVOIP) Fring's killer feature is offering the same feature set as Skype. Video and voice calls are free, but your phone needs to have the bells and whistles for the more advanced features 4-way video chat fring Now the whole family can join in m.fring.com Story offers two convenient services International calling cards Story allow you to make cheap calls from the UK. The calling cards work with landlines and mobiles telecom www.storytelecom.com Travel SIM cards The TravelTalk roaming SIM card gives great discounts without the hassle of changing phone settings. The pay-as-you-go feature makes sure that you're always in control of your spending CALL and SIM CARDS The Global Call prepaid calling card allows you to call international numbers from your UK mobile phone at discounted prices. IDT Ypu can use this service from five different mobile landline numbers www.idt.net Cheapest to MOST EXPENSIVE method for calling the USA Skype Jajah ..> FREE VolP Yahoo service providers FREE but... > no outbound service Fring SkypeOut | £ 0.14/min JajahOut | £ 0.2/min Call and SIM cards Story | £ 0.1/min IDT| £ 0.025/min Orange £ 0.77/min £ 0.99/min 02 Mobile operators T-Mobile Vodafone £ 1.2/min £ 1.35/min £ 1.4/min Interesting FACTS First TransAtlantic Call 1926 NEW YORK LONDON 7. March Top5r Fixed Line Call Destinations From UK to 34% USA 20% Germany 18% France 9% Italy 8% Spain In2009 statistics showed that ngggov 17% of UK Households, use VolP (5%, VolP People in the UK are subscribers 663 reports million users at the end of 2010 and almost 40% skype increase from 2009 Free skype cạlls rose from 113 to billion minutes SOURCES: Infographic by: OfCom International Communications Report 2010, p. 391 Ofcom International Communications Report 2010, p. 275 http://www.telecompaper.com/news/skype-grows-fy-revenues-20-reaches-663-mln-users essential travel 6666 E 右 石 石 石 石 6666