How can I best contact the UK while I'm away in Australia?

Question

Hi,

I'm going away to Oz next month, but would like to keep in contact with my girlfriend in London while I'm away. Clearly, cross network mobile to mobile would be incredibly expensive (I'm o2, she's Vodophone). She has a land line, but cannot use it too much. I know you can dial a number and get cheap calls to Oz from the uk, but are there any other options? Thanks

Matt

By the way, I'm only going for a month and don't think I'll have access to a PC as I'll be in hostels or hotels. At least, I won't be able to install any software on it if I can get access to one.

Answer 1

I now live in Australia, but last year my husband was in Australia and I was in the UK. These were the methods we used to keep in contact daily.

You can get a phonecard from any newsagents. For $10 you get about 500 minutes, each minute being 0.2 cents. You can use this to contact England at any time of the day (as there are no restrictions).

MSN - There are tons of internet cafes everywhere in the major cities - really cheap to use. So, you could always take a webcam and plug one into one of the internet cafes (some even have these set up). Or you could use instant messenger on MSN to type talk to each other.

Email - as I say, there are tons of internet cafes.

Oh, and don't forget snailmail. Its always lovely to receive a postcard or a letter.

Its usually cheaper for you to ring Oz to UK, rather than UK to Oz.

: - )

Answer 2

There are lots of types of phonecards you can buy. The best that I have tried is called a Daybreak Phone Card. They come in $10, 20 and $30. You can but them at 7/11, BP, Shell, Supermarkets and most cornerstores.

I call friends o/sea's and $30 can give me around 8 hours of talk time and there is no connection fee.

You will need to put a few coins in the public phone unless you have access to a landline in Australia.

Answer 3

I would think email would be best. My bro went travellin round the world and was in oz for nearly 2 months. He was stayin in hostels and still managed to get access to a computer. He did phone every so often but email was the main form of contact.
good luck and have fun!

Answer 4

You will have access to a PC in Australia unless you are going to be far away from civilisation. If you are that far away, you will need a satellite telephone anyway. There are internet cafes everywhere. There is free access to the internet in every public library and in many other places as well

Answer 5

Purchase a phone card, they are so much cheaper so you will save heaps of money there.

The best one I found is the " Greek City" card. You can call the UK for 2.5cents per minute.

You can even buy the card on line or purchase anywhere really in Australia. Like newagency, 711 etc

Here is the link if you want to get it on line

http://www.telephonecards.com.au/Default.aspx?tabid=29&redz_phonecard_id=GCITY

Answer 6

Get your phone unlocked and buy a sim card over ther. My sim cost me $49 and I got all that as credit. I think texts home were 40 or 50 cents so it lasted me the 3 weeks I was there

Answer 7

the phone cards you get here from the post office you can buy there too !!! i think they are about $10 , best way (you can use any phone ) just dial the numbers on the card then the land line you want

Answer 8

You can get phonecards once your here and you can call the U.K for like 1 cent a minute. Very cheap!!!

You might want to consider communicating via email or VOIP aswell.

Answer 9

Do you both have use of a pc ? I have family in sydney and i use skype talk.its free and its computer to computer,you just need a mic and headphones.You can set up webcam too and see each other.

Answer 10

Phonecards.
Text msg.
email
Yahoo messenger
Landline phones

all cheap (or free) options.