My in-laws like to be able to call us on a landline - then they know we are home, as opposed to cells where we could be anywhere. Sometimes I also prefer to be able to have an actual conversation on a phone as I'll often then do something else at the same time, whereas if I'm on Skype it tends to be an hour of sitting.

We use a mix of both Skype and phone calls with my husband's parents, and I did the same with my mom when I lived in the UK. Sometimes just a phone call was more convenient, sometimes it was nice to sit on Skype to chat instead.

Can't complain about 1c/min to call my in-laws, though. And our Canadian and US calling is free.

Ahead.

Um, just install the app on your smartphone. And get a Skype number. You don't have to sit down to use it.

Well aware Skype has that functionality also. Was just trying to illustrate a landline vs a video call.

We have 30 international minutes a month on our Koodo cellphone, there are 3 of us and DS certainly doesn't use his (he Facetimes of course lol!) so that's an hour and half if we need it. We also have a landline as my dad won't speak to is on the cellphone for some reason, I noticed it was only $2 for 40 minutes on the last bill so it certainly doesn't break the bank (on Shaw). Luckily I can FaceTime my best friend in the UK and Shaw hasn't charged us for DH speaking to his sister in the U.S. or his uncle in Van. I guess we're lucky at having a small circle of people that we need to speak to on the phone. As I'm unsociable I tend to email my friends in the UK lol!

We have used Vonage for more than 8 years. We used them when we were in the UK and now in Canada. We have a UK phone number and a Canadian phone number on the same account. So the Canadian family/friends could call us in the UK using our Toronto phone number and it didn't cost them anything. When we moved to Canada, we switched to a Canadian Vonage account (because we couldn't call 911 if we kept our account as a UK account) and were able to keep our same phone numbers. So now the British family/friends can call our UK number and they only have to pay local rates. We don't have a Bell or Rogers land line, just the Vonage line.

^ When I was in the UK, my mobile phone was with O2. I paid 10quid a month for their International Favourites plan. It allowed me to call any 3 numbers I set up internationally (which about 99% of calls was to my parents) and then gave me a call-back number anywhere I wanted, so I set up a Toronto number. It was technically capped at 3000 minutes per month, which worked out to 5h/day of calling. So basically unlimited.

So I just paid my flat rate, and my whole family in Canada could call me for free. We didn't have a landline in the UK, so this was brilliant to make calls from my cell whenever and wherever I was.