British Expatriate Network

Alrighty. I have used this site quite a bit of late. If you live in the US you just place a call to the Iowa number given on the site.

No it don't cost you anything, and even better you don't need to sign up for anything nor give any information at all.

It works and if you have an unlimited calling plan your calls to the UK are basically free!

http//www.futurephone.com/

Here is another one although to be honest I have not used this one

http//www.callchinaforfree.com/

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Looks good, thanks

Cool.

It would still cost me to call Iowa and funnily enough, I think it costs me more to call Iowa than to call UK direct on my plan (TTI National).

Not bad though if you have a cell phone - I'll keep it in mind if I ever get one again.

For those that pay for calls check out Broadband phone. There are many out there like Vonage, Packet8 to name a few.

If you have DSL or cable at home you can pick up an unlimited calling plan that includes your local and long distance for under $20 a month. I hear you about it costing you as much to call Iowa as calling the UK if your using your old phone company.

Infact, here is another idea. Sign up for Skype you can place free calls within the US. Go to Bestbuy and pick up a decent headset and then enjoy your free calls to the UK.

That way all your calls US and UK are totally free.

http//www.skype.com/

Those are good ideas but here's the thing - I generally call UK from my work phone, with a calling card that bills the calls to my home phone at around 7 cents a minute. The reason I call from there is the time difference being 8 hours so a call when I get home from work would not be appreciated quite so much!

I don't believe in paying a monthly fee, on the off-chance that I MIGHT call someone so any plan with a fee is discarded immediately. I also don't make that many calls anywhere (not a big fan of the phone - never have been) so I have a metered, local line and the bill for that is around $21 including taxes and my long distance fees are around $10 including taxes so these other schemes are probably a bit wasted on me.

Some good info though and I'd give it a go if I had a cell phone.

Fair enough. Its a great deal for those with unlimited calling plans though. Either way at least was of some use to you.

For Pilgrim, check out 10-10-297: http://www.1010297.com/ 39 cents for the call + 3 cents per minute + 24 cents if you are calling to a UK mobile phone, no agreements, etc.

The same 39 plus 3/minute applies here in the states as well.

Not bad.

I've tried a few of those 10-10 schemes and found most to be a bit of a con - once they add in the taxes and connection charges, you're paying more than some standard dialing schemes.

I've used TTI National for several years now and it's a no-frills service (not even sure they take new customers any more since WorldCom's demise) but they've been very fair and you get what you pay for - no more, no less.

http://www.onesuite.com, 2.2 c a minute to call the UK from a landline or cell phone, it doesn't make any difference. I have been using it for about a year now and its great. I have no land line at home so I use my cell there and use the work phone during the day as I dial a local number to access..marvellous

That looks decent. I used to use pre-paid to call US when I lived in UK and was happy with it.

No local number for OneSuite in my area. Can't beat 2.2 cents a minute though - that's great - I really only call for about 45 minutes twice a month so if they let you keep the minutes you buy for several months, it's a great deal. I'll keep them in mind if TTI ever annoys me.

Sunrocket VOIP, 100 mins of calls to UK plus unlimited US for $16.58 per month. Call the Iowa numbers from Sunrocket and basically get free calls to UK, plus kick the MaBell tax lords in the nads !!!!!!

I heard about another way to make cheap calls the UK fromthe UK Yankee forum and it's really really good!. It's a website called Jajah (http://www.Jajah.com). You call using your computer. I know there are other ways to call by using yahoo messanger and others but this site lets you use your phone - you don't need a headset for your computer.

Here's how it works You type in your phone number, then the number you want to call and hit "call". It dials your phone first and when you pick up it starts calling the other person.

Most of my husband's family in the UK only have Mobile phones so it costs us a ton to call them. He has made two 1-hour long phone calls to his brother and it has only cost $1.50 each hour long call - this is calling a mobile in the UK!!! It is really really cheap! Only .025 cents per minute!! Also, if the other person is a Jajah customer you can have 1 hour free a day between you and another Jajah customer. My husband's bro doesn't have internet so that won't work for them - but the cost to us is so much cheaper than using calling cards.

The site also lets you try it before you sign up. I've purchased minutes on it now and have been using it to call my family here in the states that live a few hours away. We have made about 10 phone calls on it and so far the voice quality has been good for all but one call. For that one call I think I was having connection problems with my computer at the time so I don't think it was the site's fault.

Anyway.... just thought I would mention this site since I know many of you would probably call home more if it wasn't so expensive! Some on the other forum have been using it for over 6 months with no problems.

(sorry so long!)
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