taylor2kay

Hi Guys,

I have been told lots of different ways of keeping in touch with friends and family back in the UK when we finally arrive in Vancouver.

Buy an Iphone and keep in touch with free video calling, have to buy family iphone too to keep in touch!
Skype, haven't a clue how it works, any advice would be greatly appreciated
Buy add ons for canadian mobile package

I have no idea but not being with family for xmas and new year, it's important we stay in touch but don't want to blow our budget on calls.

All your advice would be appreciated

DandNHill

Skype is great. The advantage is that you can use skype at your end and call a landline. That costs but still much less than if you phone from your home phone to one in the UK.
Best way for you to find out about it is to look it up. I set mine up on my own so it can't be that difficult. Make sure your mic is working as we have been having the strangest of conversations with some friends in the UK as they are still trying to get their mic working so we speak and they type!!!

jericho

We use Skype also, and cannot complain- it's free and very easy to use.

There are other free video calling options too- google has one, there's one built in to mac (iChat), facebook has video calling now....

Dashie

We buy the prepaid international calling cards. The number to call from here is free (unless you're using cell minutes) and then it's just as per the card. We tend to get the ones from Shoppers - they might be a little more per minute (but we're still talking less than a cent difference usually), but they have no minimum connection charge, and have a 6 month life, many others will charge you a set minimum for leaving a message, or expire after about 3 weeks. We've also found that they don't change their rates at the drop of a hat.

It might take an extra minute to make the call, but we found that the card rates were significantly cheaper than the Rogers 'preferred' rate we were paying extra for! Certainly much cheaper than adding anything on to your cell package too. We don't have a landline anymore either, and try and keep our calls to the weekends when we have unlimited minutes. That doesn't work if you have a lot of people calling you during the week though, as incoming calls count towards our minutes too. We briefly looked at the add ons for our cell phone package and moved on as they really weren't much cop.

taylor2kay

Thanks Guys

I'll get learning on how to do these

jericho

Skype also has an option where you can "buy" a UK phone number, so that when your family call, they're only billed for local calling (eg. they just call a UK number and it gets routed to you in Canada).

I cannot remember the cost, but it's pretty cheap. You can also make phone calls through Skype- you just have to purchase credit, which again, is pretty cheap compared to any other calling plan.

dbd33

Write letters. Sometimes add a card.

TheThornes

A thumbs up from me for Skype too. Yes, dead easy to set up from what I remember. I agree about the microphone issue though. Our microphone has always been OK as it is built in on our laptop and starts automatically with a Skype call but a couple of people we call have to turn them on separately and we've often started conversations looking like a game of charades! LOL

Also, look into the packages provided by your home phone provider too. We pay a flat rate monthly fee which includes all calls across Canada and USA and 1000 minutes per month to various other countries including the UK. We've only gone over this and had to pay extra a handful of times and then its only cost us a few extra cents so can't complain.

magnumpi

Face book, msn messenger, email, and get a call card from the local store.

We use the first 3 and we also have a plan with Bell for cheap uk calls. Some people in the UK also have free int calls so check with them and they may be able to call you for free.

theDIV

Hi, I used to use skype, but now I use comwave. They are good if you just want to use your land line from home, there is a small monthly fee, and the rate for UK calls is 2.5c per minute.

This is the deal I have:
http://www.comwave.net/residential/home-long-distance/

Hope that helps.

Tangram

We use Skype or iChat or Facetime ( depending upon the caller ). Have no complaints about either

gillyd65

We bought internet ready, skype ready tv, Rogers provide the internet connection. Our computer is linked up to the tv so we skype, watch uk tv and do all computer work through it. We don't even bother subscribing to Canadian cable tv. Great to see family and friends on big screen and we share meals and a drink together when its birthdays and will do same when its Christmas. Miss them sooo much this helps us through the homesickness! some people may think 'sad' but it works for us. Also our landline with Rogers costs us 2c min to call UK, but don't use that much as we skype most people.

Aviator

E-mail

taylor2kay

WICKED

Thanks everyone, guna have a busy weekend

margaretmwilson

Hi, we have skype installed on our laptop and we pay $5.00 per month for unlimited calls to the UK and free skype to skype calls. We bought bluetooth last week and its great, I can still do my housework, cooking and ironing while chatting to family & friends for hours on end.