Stan J

Just in case people haven't realized these days it can be cheaper to telephone from Australia to the UK than it might be to call from Brisbane to Gold Coast (an hour's drive) likewise it can be cheaper to phone England to Australia than England to Scotland or Liverpool to Manchester.

How, why ? How is to but an international third party phone card available from selected newsagents. These often give a local rate or free call number after which you key in a scratch off pin code followed by the international number (starting 0061 UK to OZ or starting 001144 OZ to UK).

There are various brands about but if I remember correctly $20 'Unidial cards' would give more than 300 minutes call time to the UK (on top of the flat rate Brisbane local call) ...

Dialing from the UK to OZ doesn't seem quite as cheap but my first £5 Nice One card gave me £7 of credit (fluke ?) which allowed half a dozen decent length transglobal phone calls.

Much cheaper than dialing with the standard 'telco'.

jerome.pearce

I agree. I use a Telstra Pacific 'Hello' card, and that costs me 5c a minute. I often call England for hours at a time now, and the connection is better than when they ring me!

Jerome

Don

Australia was really early into great phone cost competition and when I was last there 1999/2000 scuba diving out of Cairns etc, I was already only paying 4c a minute Aus-UK with a phone card.

Cheers - Don

Ceri

I used to use World exchange here in Aus, (I think they go under a different name now) I think phone calls were around 7 cents a minute at the time I used them. If you search the net there's a few telephone companies offering really cheap international calls, it's just a matter of dialling a code number before the international dialling code... you get billed separate from Telstra or Optus (usually once a month billing). I'm now with a main phone service provider - optus/ I have a package including the net, cable tv, and with this package my international phone calls to my nominated UK number are capped at around $4 for an hour, pretty cheap,(freetime)(about one pound 50 pence an hour I think that works out to be)

cheers

pommiesheila

I bought a "Say G`Day" card from Aust Post which was quite cheap, but now use "Go Talk" - very good - means I can natter to my Mum in the UK 2/3 times a week without feeling guilty! (P.S. I also bought her a similar card via the Internet before we came over here, which also works out very cheap for her to use when she phones me, but for the life of me I can't remember what it's called - must be all this Aussie sunshine - it`s fair frazzled my brain!

keel

Something to be wary of, at least for similar cards in the UK, there is sometimes an expiry date on them.

I bought a card for £20 when I returned to the UK in July and only used about £2's worth, when I tried to ring the relations in Perth at christmas I found it had expired. Thats when I read the instructions on the back (always too late, when will I learn) it said that the card was only valid for ninety days after the first call.

Not all of these card are like this but I think the one that seem to have the best deals will be.

pommiesheila

Just remembered the UK one - called "Speak 'n Save" - this is very good, but does have the 90 day expiry period.

Beach Bums

Ozcall cards cost $10 (other values available), are rechargeable by either calling the freecall number on the card or going to an Australia Post shop. Calls made to the UK using this card are charged at 1.9 cents/minute plus a 64 cent connection charge. Not bad eh?

Mandy Bale

We get the Apple calling card from the local 7/11. We got a $50 one last time and it actually said we had $55 dollars on it, bonus! That gave us 1100 minutes on a call to UK! No complaints with this one although we haven't tried any others, this ones convenient for us as the 7/11 is just up the road.

Mandy