Cheap ways to call the US from the UK
 

I believe I've mentioned that Mrs. Dallas is off to Buxton, England for the Gilbert & Sullivan Festival. She's leaving at the end of this week.

Do any of our UK Dwellars (or anybody else) have suggestions for good ways for her to call home cheaply? We investigated renting a mobile phone, but that seemed like overkill. Really, all she needs is to call home occasionally during the two weeks she's there. In the course of making various arrangements for the trip and the performances, she had to call the UK sometimes, and she found a prepaid calling card that lets her make US -> UK calls for a couple cents a minute. But we've been unsucessful in finding one that works in the other direction.

Any suggestions?

Skype.

This assumes she'll have a non-public computer available. But the connection is way better than a phone line, and computer-to-computer is absolutely free.

Hmmm... highly unlikely .... but I'll check on the possibilities.

Will Mrs Dallas be using a UK landline? like from a friend? That works out at 2p/per minute.

If Skype isnt an option and Mrs D wont have access to a landline.... there is Pingo

Yeah, she should be able to find a landline.

I don't think Mrs Dallas is a lesbian.... or was that link for Mr Dallas?

I cant believe it took over 24hrs for someone to come up with that

Hey, I've been busy.

My sister goes to England a lot, and although she probably either has an international enabled cell phone or uses her company's phone cards, she has travelled there for vacations and weddings and such ... I've emailed her to ask.

What about just using a payphone at the hotel/conference site and just billing to a credit card?

Good question. I don't know what the rates would be like. (You'd have the credit card currency conversion fee just for starters.)

Thanks for the link, Ducks! I've found some other things.. it occurred to me to search for USA calling cards on google.co.uk, and came up with much more useful results.

Dunno what the prices are on what you've found..but Skype should be a realistic alternative????

I'm in Australia, and it works best 4 me in keeping in touch with the European vagabonds....

Due to circumstances, she'll have no computer, and no easy/consistent access to one.

Yes, there are lots of calling cards. you can buy them at local stores.

I wasn't born too far from Buxton. Used to bike and walk there all the time. traffic's a nightmare! Pretty place, though.

My sister's answer was

My cow orker, who lived in Britain for several years while attending gradual school, said that phone cards are available nearly everywhere, and are a great alternative to using the overpriced hotel room phone. If the timeline weren't so short, she could have lent MrsDallas a British pre-paid mobile that may still have minutes remaining on it. Cards to recharge them are available nearly everywhere, even in small corner shops.

Not sure where to buy 'em (prolly get 'em online) but there are some International call cards for mobile phones. They look somewhat cheaper than hotel rates.

Newsagents sell them. So to supermarkets. you call an 0800 number (or equivalent), key in your card number, then the phone number you want and hey presto. You can get calls for a few pence a minute. The higher value of card you get, the better rate you get, usually.

That said, all this is from when we sourced them out for MIL a few years back, but she still seems to be doing it this way.

Well, what happened was that the people she's travelling with rented a phone from Verizon. (We investigated a rental, but at $30/week it didn't seem worthwhile for what we needed it for.) Cost: Outgoing calls to the US, $1.60. Incoming calls, free. So she borrows their phone, calls us, hangs up before we answer, we see the caller ID, and call her back on the Philadelphia-area mobile number (which forwards to the one in the UK).

Oh, so you're not cheap, you're a control freak.