Cheap phone calls (France to UK).

[Gwenhwyfar]

Just tried searching and can't find anything recent, any recommendations for cheap phone calls from France to the UK?

Thanks

[LesLauriers]

Calls to the UK are charged at the France Telecom local call rate by telerabais, 1.8cts a minute off peak and 3.3cts a minute peak, with a minimum charge of 1 minute at 9.1cts.

Examples of recent call costs to UK are 21m16s off peak costing 45.4cts and 27m 45s peak costing 98.7cts.

No sign up, no contract, use from any phone including call boxes, just dial 0811 65 31 31 then enter the normal 0044 Uk number.

Charges appear on your normal France Telecom bill (when using your home phone) as "Autre opérateur".

You can also call Uk mobiles by dialling 0826 10 30 30, more expensive of course, a recent 4m 15s call cost 63.6cts.

[Jonzjob]

The cheapest way we have found is using your PC. Have a look at www.skype.com . I have used it for a couple of months now and as we are on ADSL there are no overheads for being online. The calls are charged at 1.7 centimes/min (1.1 pence) to the U.K. and lots of other places. If you can get the person at the other end to go onto Skype then you can phone them on their PC for NOWT! I don't work for this lot, I'm retarded retyred not working cause I'm too brudy old! You pay-as-you-go so you can't run up any horendous bills! We even got a USB 'telephone handset'. Makes it feel like an ordinary phone call, or as we did, you can use a microphone and headset plugged into your PC motherboard. Works a treat and is cheep...

John.

[Kingdingaling]

We have always used

http://www.lesminutes.com/Redirect/Home.asp?partner=lesminutes_uk

not found a better one, registered our UK credit card, see your previous calls online, dead easy.

Although having just read 'leslauriers', that looks a cheaper option

is there a website for this company

 

Just looked at one of my calls, 31 minute call cost 1.63 euros, dont think theres any on/off peak difference

[LesLauriers]

[quote]We have always used http://www.lesminutes.com/Redirect/Home.asp?partner=lesminutes_uk not found a better one, registered our UK credit card, see your previous calls online, dead easy. Although ha...[/quote]

www.telerabais.com

 

[Gwenhwyfar]

Thanks everyone - I'll take a look at those

BTW I found this one for cheap calls from UK to France: www.18866.co.uk, looks good, now I've just got to persuade my Mam that it's not some sort of scam!

[Jonzjob]

"Just looked at one of my calls, 31 minute call cost 1.63 euros, dont think theres any on/off peak difference"

Hi Scoobi,  as a matter of interest your call with Skype would have cost you about 65 centimes inc the dreaded TVA.

John.

[Mr.HaricotAndrew M<br>Toulouse]

Hello, just adding to the discussion for anyone who has access to a broadband internet connection.

I have recently signed up with Gossiptel.co.uk which works out as 1p per minute to the UK. You also get a free 0870 national rate number that people in the UK can call. If your computer is not connected when they call,then they get a msg system that then forwards a voicemail to your email account.(You need to have a UK registered address/CC to sign up).

The system works using software on your computer and headphones/mic etc. The voice quality has been excellent since I have been using it.

Skype is also excellent, but does not work sufficiently well with older operating systems such as Windows 98/Me. I have been working on the 'if it ain't broke then don't fix it' attitude with my operating system and have therefore had to investigate an alternative.

I had a few difficulties trying to charge up my a/c with gossiptel and it may take a bit of perseverence. Personally I can never really understand organisations that actually seem to resist taking one's money.

All in all though it works extremely well.

[Russethouse]

Gwenhwyfar, Have you looked at Onetel for your mother, very easy and saves on most calls.

If I remember correctly there is quite a bit about prices on www.moneysavingexpert.com

[Gwenhwyfar]

Following the replies on here we decided to use Telerabius (cheaper than Onetel; Gossiptel haven't replied to my email about whether their software works on Macs; Skype software will only work on Macs with newer operating systems than mine.)

Anyhow, my question is ... what on earth did the Operator say to me when I tried to use it earlier??? Totally beyond my French at the moment. I dialed the Telerabius number (0811 65 31 31) then the UK number (0044 omit the first 0 etc.) but then the message and then it didn't seem to dial

p.s. thanks for the OneTel suggestion Gay. I looked at it for my Mam but 18866.co.uk is cheaper. Loads of useful stuff on moneysavingexpert though - thanks for the link

[LesLauriers]

The prerecorded Telerabais message tells you that you are currently paying FT local rate call charges and then goes on to advertise reduced prices to other countries. If you were unable to connect then it is possible that you miss dialled or that you dialled a mobile or special rate number. If you wish to call a UK mobile you should dial 0826 10 30 30 rather than 0811 65 31 31 for Uk landlines.

The message will ask you to press hash after you have dialled but I have never found this necessary.

I have miss dialled in the past and then dialled again successfully, try again it works, it is cheap, it is easy, no sign up, no pre pay, no contracts and you can use any phone. 

[Gwenhwyfar]

I just tried it again and was successful this time - I've no idea what I did last time but really pleased now Thanks so much for sharing this info. it's going to save me a lot of money!