Phone Connections in Rentals
 

Can anyone advise me on what the standard set up is with regards to phones in rentals.

Will I need to pay for lines etc to be connected ? any idea how much ?

Is there any general concensus on which is the best company to go with up on the sunshine coast, baring in mind I will be phoning england quite a lot until my husband can get out.

Bumpty bump!:)

Are you going to have a PC with you and access to the internet???

Is your hubby / family in the UK going to have PC's and access to the internet???

If the answer is yes then look at www.skype.com

It is a great piece of software that allows VoIP (telephone calls via the net for the non techies) for free. All you need is to have the software installed on your PC, the PC's that you are going to talk to and thats it.

I have used it with family here before I go and it works a charm. I get to chat with them for nowt and the quality, clarity and latency is superb.

Just an idea

Re: Phone Connections in Rentals
 

There will physically be a line but Telstra will charge you $59 to connect. Aside from VOIP whcih I know nothing about, you may wish to buy a phonecard. These are available everywhere and you should be able to call the UK from about 2.9c/minute - must cheaper than Telstra or Optus.

Interestingly, if you don't want your number to be listed (called a "silent line") they charge you about $3 a month - to NOT publish it - how does it cost that???

Re: Phone Connections in Rentals
 

no you don't pay to get the phone/ existing lines connected.At least I don't think I have ever been charged just to initially get connected at a new address, or maybe jayr is right, but I can't ever remember getting charged to connect the phone in any of my previous houses when I first moved in... perhaps I was.. can't remember.

when you move into your rental the phone will be connected - i.e. you can dial 000 (emergency services) but you can't phone anything else until you phone up Telstra ( sort of equivalent to BT) and open an account. You can then decide to go with a carrier if you want after you get connected - It only costs big bucks when you have a house built and put in phone lines to the house for some reason ..cost me around $1000 to get Telstra to connect my new built home with 2 lines.. already had lines there, they were put in when the house was being built .. this was for putting the connections inside the house and connecting the lines by their computer somewhere. ( don't quote me on that exact figure, I haven't got the bill on me.. it may have been $800, but it's around that figure anyway... ridiculous price for about 5 minutes work. Telstra charges.. again Telstra owned lines.. bl**dy telstra.) .

we're with Optus ( the lines/cables are owned by Telstra) - not much difference between Telstra customer service wise, both I've had problems with. Telstra and Optus are the two main phone companies here, then you have a few other companies too. I can't remember the name of the package I'm on with Optus , they keep changing the names of the packages - i.e. the package I'm with international calls are just $4 for an hour, capped rate . if you go over the hour.. you are charged per minute, expensive rate .. so it's cheaper to put the phone down and redial if you've got family on the other end who like to talk to you for an over an hour!! :D ..

phone bills for me a month is usually around the $150 mark.. what stings mine is a few things, dialling mobile phone numbers usually. - this figure includes line rental access at $25 ( $50 for the two), so whatever company you are with.. your line rental will be this figure ( Telstra owned lines) ,, so even if I didn't use the two phones it would cost me $50 every month just to have access to a connected phone. .. or $25 for one

silent number is $2.60 something a month .. (does the UK charge to keep your number private? I don't know)
caller number display is around $5 something a month ( we have both)

Re: Phone Connections in Rentals
 

hi have just set up our phone in a rental i pay $40per month
with optus and this includes 100free local calls line rental and 10
hours per month on the internet....you can pay an extra $10
an have unlimited internet acess.Overseas calls are reduced but i still find the international phone cards heaps cheaper i use
shout about 4c per minute to uk

Re: Phone Connections in Rentals
 

I moved over to Optus and onto broadband and my total phone/internet bill is less than on Telstra. The broadband costs me $40/month (400GB limit) but I get 100 free local calls (which get used) saving about $17.50, I save my $15/month Telstra dial up cost and local telephone cost associated with dialing up, get something like $5 off my mobile phone bill too.

If you pick between Optus and Telstra for international then Optus is much cheaper. I got done by Telstra if you made a call over one minute you got charged $5.25, this was a cap for 60 mins which was cheap(ish) but a call of 1 min 1 sec also cost $5.25. Optus , I think, effectively charge you per minute up to their cap of about $4 for an hour, so 1 minute and 1 sec costs something like 30c.

Even relative to Optus at about $4/hour, most phonecards (I use Go Bananas) will be around 3c/min or $1.80/hour. Go for one with no connection fee (flagfall) as some charge up to 60c just to get connected.

Telstra will charge you when you takeover an existing line (I think I said it was about $50) I got hit when I moved to a new address too.

Re: Phone Connections in Rentals
 

We used GPS phone cards on our last visit - very easy to set up, you just buy it and dial a special access code and PIN from any phone. Calls to UK landlines cost 0.015c/min (about .6 UK penny/min) & mobiles .32c/min.

Anya.

Try Gotalk who are heaps cheaper than Optus or Telstra. Calls to the UK with them are currently 5.9 cents per minute

We have never had much luck using cards from pay phones, usually the 'cheap rate' number is engaged and we have to dial the premium rate line, or when we have used other cards we kept getting cut off after a few minutes.

Can you use phone cards from a normal residentail land line phone or do they only work from the outside phone boxes

Phone cards work from a residential phone line as well.

You DO have to pay to get connected to a phone company when you move into a rental as you are effectively opening a new account with them. About A$60 - A$80.