Cheap Ways to Call Home

As you can imagine, calling the States can be really expensive.  Want to reduce your phone bills?  Here are a few alternatives.

Phone cards

You can get there are pretty any off license in the city.  They tend to be pretty inexpensive.  A tenner can get you up to 500 minutes which isn't too bad.  The downside is that the card may run out in the middle of a conversation and trust me, no one wants to have to walk down to the off license at 11pm to get another one! 

Callback services

This is a method of making a cheap international calls via a third country.  The way it works is that you'll be given a unique number to call that will trigger the return call.  Once you get the call back, just dial the required number.
 Most of these services are based in the US, so you'll have to use the US format (011 + country code).  GlobalTel is one of the bigger call back services.  Its free to sign up for the service.  You just have to provide a credit card for your call charges.  Their London call rates are $0.03 per minute which is great.  But if you're calling from other places in the UK, their rates can be as high as $0.30 per minute.  So be sure to check to see if the service is worth it.

Skype

As long as both you and your family are on Skype then all  calls are free.  Its also free to sign up.  You may need to get a headset but if you have a new laptop then you probably have an internal microphone.  (If you're not sure, just install the program and do a voice check.)  This service is great for communicating with family.  But if you need to talk to your bank or someone not on Skype it can be a bit of a pain.

You can make international calls using the service.  Calls to toll-free numbers are free which is great because if you call from any other UK number they aren't!.  However calls to the continental US are 1.7 €/minute (excluding tax) which really isn't that bad.