HI

Calling cards are fine, but dont tend to give the correct rates or minutes. A lot of my friends use a company who give cheap calls by dialling an access number that is a set rate. This then lets you dial a whole load of countries for that price. I now use it and it works fine. Its www.cheap08.com  i call all over from mobile and landline. It announces that call rates at the start and then when i get my phone bill it is the same price..no rip off like cards can sometimes be. I use the 0844 access number in my inclusive minutes on 02 and get a call to USA included. I also call India on an 0844 909 0808 number inclusive. I think this is a great way of calling all the people at my church use it.

Thomas

Yes, but the various networks have their own international call charges and there's no comeback to your network when there's a hitch with a calling card.  I work for a network (I'm not saying which one) and got a customer calling the other day to say we'd charged her for a call overseas which she used a calling card for.  I checked her call history and she hadn't been charged for ANY overseas calls BUT there was a charge to the 07744 number that the calling card gives as their service number to get the whole thing set up.  We charged her at the per minute cross-network charge just to ring that number to get it set up - she was on the line for quite a few minutes and that particular call cost her nearly £3. (with most networks, an 11 digit number beginning with 077 is classed as a mobile number, and moreover as a cross-network mobile number!) .  Calling cards are great if you know what you're doing but if you make an error, it's between you and the company issuing the calling card.  As it's always easier to get in touch with your network, the network are the ones that get all the 'flak'.  Nowhere in the Terms & Conditions of ANY mobile network does it say "our International call charges are £xyz per minute but you'll probably get it cheaper if you use a calling card".  Any problems incurred through involving 3rd parties and you're on your own.  By the way, the customer who called to complain was calling an overseas country which was very cheap indeed on our network's own tariff - and she didn't even know this!

The best resource for using international calling minutes are International calling cards available from your local convienience store

Tesco Mobile have an economy tariff called Tesco Value which won't support MMS, GPRS or Roaming but allows international calls from the UK to a lot of overseas countries (as well as very competitive inland cross-network mobile and landline calls) and for Ireland at 20p per minute when calling from the UK, Virgin Mobile are very reasonable too for calls to the Irish Republic from Britain - 15p per minute.  Both of these networks tariffs are Pay As You Go - just buy a SIM and put it in your phone, if your phone's unlocked.  Many O2  Contract handsets are unlocked anyway!

Hi

I'm currently in an O2 contract, £30/month, with international boltons. I tend to make a lot of calls to Ireland so bills range from £50-£100/month.  Which networks has the cheapest deal on international calls?

Regards

Paul