Fuzzy Duck

We have just got back online after having "Helstra" come around and charge us $125 for the pleasure of 2 minutes work "connecting" a phone to our rental. The line was already there and all the engineer did was connect it :scared: $125 AARGHHHH.

Anyway, rant over.

We now need to know how we can avoid giving telstra anymore of our money when we make our regular long phone calls to the UK. We are on the homeline plus option and living in Brissy, we have heard phonecards are the way to go but which one and where to buy them?

A few James Squires tonight to ease my pain over the $125 I think.

HUP

Definitley the way to go. Very hard to recommend one as there are so many. Look for one with low call costs to your desired country (UK about 1 - 1.5c per minute) and also try and get one that dosn't charge a local call. We use Go Bananas.

You can get them in a lot of service stations and milk bars.

walla

Daybreak is the one we use from Post Offices and Newsagents. We pay 30 bucks and it lasts a lifetime, about 1.5 cents per minute....

gedge

We usually buy our phonecards from the local post office or newsagent. Tell them what you are using it for and they can tell you which one does the best deal at the moment.
We currently use a card called "it's green".
Telstra do also have a deal where they charge a flat rate per half hour. You have to dial a special code to get the rate.

Don't drink all the amber ale, save some for me!

jayr

I'd also recommend Go Bananas as the way to go but based on slightly different advice.

Go Bananas call cost is about 2.9c/minute, but there is no flagfall (connection charge). Other cards will offer say 1c/minute but have a flagfall of say 70c. I suspect all of them require a locall call first - depending on your home phoneline plan this will cost about 17c, or you may have something like 100 local calls free each month.

So, how to decide which card is best?

Lets say one has 0c/flagfall and 3c/min
and one has 70c/flagfall and 1c/minute

and both require a local call to initiate

for a 30 min call the first would cost 90c; the second would cost $1

In this example both cost the same at 35 minutes, thereafter the one with flagfall becomes cheaper.

So... if most of your calls were less than 35 mins you'd go for no flagfall; if most are over 35 mins then you'd go for the flagfall.

Don't forget that if you make short calls - like hitting someone's answering machine, the flagfall soon adds up. It costs 71c to hit an answering machine if you have flagfall but only 3c if you don't (again ignoring the local call cost).

jayr

And what a con it is too! You dial 0018 instead of 0011 and pay $5.25 for the first 30 mins, the next 30 mins is free. However,if your call goes over 10 minutes you get charged the $5.25, that is it costs 52c/min for a 10 minute call - about twice their standard international rate. Similarly, you end up tring to get the rellies off the phone before it goes to 1hr 1s when you get another $5.25 slapped on.

At least Optus do it sensibly (though much more than a phonecard). They charge you a stanard rate which then hits a cap at about $4.50, thereafter it is is free until it hits a later time when again you go back to a stanard per minute charge.

I chanegd to a phonecard when I realised how expensive Telstra's 'deal' was. On month I had numerous short calls to the UK - the Telstra bill was $85. Based on each call duration I priced it against a phonecard - cost was $10.

JackTheLad

Another thing you can do is go to your local chinatown area. (if your in Brisbane area try fortitude valley or sunnybank). All the shops sell phone cards and they are pretty clued up on the best ones.

We use GPS phonecard, which gives a 10% bonus when you re-charge it. I don't know if its the best to the UK, as we needed the best one for both HK and UK. But I do know it lasts forever on a $50 dollar charge (well over three months over the xmas period with loads of phone calls home each week)

Cheers,
JTL

JackTheLad

The other thing I meant to say, getting the cheapest card isn't always the best route to go. We had cards previously, where it would take 5 or 6 attempts just to get connected, and then have an awful line with lots of echo and tunnel sounding voices.

Its best to get a reliable card that you know will work first time and give a good clear connection.

If anyone can recommend a card that does that, and is one of the cheapest, then that would be the way to go.

The GPS card we use always connects, but it went through a spell a couple of weeks back of giving us bad connections, so bad we had to cut off and redial. It always worked second time though, and its behaving itself again now.

Cheers,
JTL

Flying Banana

I've been using the 'Say G'Day' Telstra prepaid card that a friend left with me after holidays, seems to have lasted ages.

Another option for free calls, if the perosn you are calling is on broadband, get SkyPE (www.skype.com) it's a bit like MSN Messenger but for voice communication, invest in a cheap headset or just use a microphone and your PC speakers. The sound quality is v good, most of the time there is hardly any delay at all.

If you call PC to PC it is absolutely free, you can dial out to a landline or mobile but need to prepay money onto your account for that, but... it is a flat rate wherever you call worldwide, I think from Aus it works out about 1 UK penny a minute.

I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and it is very good, much better than the voice comms with MSN or Yahoo messenger.

gedge

Noboby has mentioned the two tins can and long length of string method yet?

fraser

I used one from global gossip the internet cafe seemed to last for ever and also say G'day

brisnick

take a look at www.phonecardselector.com.au. they deliver the cards to you.

some of the cards let you buy a pin code online.

i always use 'tell me too' as it has no flagfall, so it's good for short/medium length calls. it also is the cheapest to mobiles

also note, not all cards have local access numbers outside of the metro areas

jayr

I've found it difficult getting a 16,700km roll of string from Crazy Clarke's.

ozzieeagle

Skype, is fantastic, very good VoiP, Best Internet Method I've used so far. Previous to that I was using my Cousins in England preferred method of AoL, but the whole thing was so Trojan and virus ridden that I got rid of it.

Thanks for the tip about the Go bananas card, As I've been using some low cost per minute cards, which are ok once one is connected, If however you hit an answering machine, or the person is out, You've blown 70 to 80 cents, in flagfall. I got to the stage, where I would phone up check if the person was in and then redial using the phone card.

Best deal in Aussie today, for ones connections needs would be in my opinion.

TPG 30 Gig Internet Adsl 1.5 mb account at 49 bucks per month coupled with the Optus 39 buck home phone deal, for long distance and mobile and local calls to the value of 129 bucks, with back up of an Orange Mobile, at 18 cents per minute call, and maybe this Go bananas card now ! May not even need the phone card, if one uses the Orange mobile, exclusively for Mobile calls, and the Optus for Long distance ISD and locals.