The following is a guest post from Andrew on behalf of Dial to Save.
In today’s economic climate it is prudent that we all take good care of our money, both in a personal and business sense. So the time has come for us to take a long hard look at where we spend our money and ways in which we can economise and make savings.
We live in a very diverse society today, both in family matters and business and a direct result of this is that a large majority of us now spend an awful lot of our money calling friends, family, work colleagues, and of course business partners and associates who are in a different country. So, if you happen to have family or friends, or business associates in foreign lands, you may be looking for ways to make cheap international calls, or even better, free!!
The best option here is to check out all the telecommunications providers, there are quite a few offers on at the moment. If you have a landline, there are special one off monthly payments you can make where you can make cheap calls to Australia, or other listed countries (the telecommunications providers will supply you with a list) and you can dial abroad, stay on the same number for less than one hour and that call is then free for that hour.
With this system you can re-dial the number within the hour stay on again for less than one hour and the call is still free and so on.
There are also some great mobile phone deals that operate in a similar fashion. So if you have the use of a mobile phone such as the new Samsung Galaxy Ace or HTC Gratia, check out your network provider’s policy and deals to see if you can get those cheap calls to Pakistan, or any other foreign country.
The revolutionary way to make your international cheap calls to India and other countries is SKYPE. This is a Voice over Internet Provider service where your internet provider not only allows you to speak over the internet provider’s line but also see your call recipient at the same time and the cost of these calls are minimal, if not free. The only downside to this is obviously the monthly cost of your internet and you will need a laptop for SKYPE service that is set up with an internal camera or external fitted camera. You can get VOIP service via your internet to make voice calls only from your telephone and in the same manner, but the quality of the audio can be a little poor.
Of course, cheap calls abroad may not be the only way you are looking to save money in your budget. On a personal level you may want to save money on car insurance, your weekly shop or a special item. The best way to do this is to get on the internet and access some of the best comparison sites that are around to find the best deals available. It will save you money on shoe leather at least!
Crystal’s Comment: My uncle uses SKYPE from England to call us all here in the U.S. Have you ever used SKYPE?
My wife and daughter use SKYPE all the time to talk with the grandparents. They live about 3 hours away by car, so this way they get to see the little one a lot more.
I’ve been using calling cards or just Tracfone. Tracfone has a program that you can call international numbers with no additional cost.
Skype sounds like a good alternative too.
@MikeS, awww…too cute!
@retireby40, my mom used Tracfone for a while too.
I’ve been using skype for a while now and it is fantastic. It is definitely insurance for your budget and the quality is pretty good most of the time. If you have really good internet, the calls are great. And, you can video chat as well which is fun. It can lead to some pretty fun conversations.
I’ve used Skype several times and loved it! And I believe that it is free to call other Skype users correct?
The only time that charges are incurred is if you call people on their personal phones.
Jane, there’s actually 1 free (up to 10 minutes) call for every new account to a cell/stationary phone. But even after that, at least in my case, I find it much more cheaper to use Skype, than regular phone for calls abroad. Great post!
[...] in the Fun Stuff: SKYPE – How to be Frugal when Calling Abroad – I’m a fan of SKYPE (and Google voice), but haven’t gotten around to post about [...]