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Cutting holiday costs - your mobile
We all know that using your mobile phone abroad can cost a lot. Roaming charges increase the overall cost, while most networks will also charge you for receiving calls as well as making them. But there are plenty of things that you can do to avoid returning home to find an enormous phone bill. Here we take a look at a few mobile cost-cutting ideas.
Making use of the internet
If you have internet access at your destination, then you can make calls completely free using an online phone service like Skype. To use Skype, you will need a phone or mobile that is compatible with the Skype software. These can now be bought cheaply, and most new mobile handsets are already Skype-enabled. Whoever you are contacting back home will have to have Skype set up too, but this is simple and free to arrange. Then all you will have to pay to call them is the cost of connecting to the internet.
For those who don’t have Skype set up, or who don’t own a Skype-compatible phone or handset, there are other services available that work in a similar way. Jajah is one such service that allows you to make reduced, or free calls over the internet using standard mobile phones and landlines, meaning it can be used in conjunction with your hotel phone.
Using your hotel phone
While making calls from your hotel room may cost you a small fortune, your friends and family back home can talk to you more cheaply by calling your hotel. Using one of the many specialist cheap international call services, or an international phone card, your relatives can reach you on your hotel landline from as little as 1p per minute.
Other services
Another handy tool that you can use for cheap calls is one of the international SMS Callback phone services. Services like Vyke allow you to phone most countries for the price of a standard text. You usually have to top-up one of these services with a minimum of £10 to start, then all you have to do is text ‘call’ and the number you wish to contact, remembering to include the international phone code. You will then get a call back from the service, and when you pick up you will be connected to your chosen number at a discounted rate.
Your own provider
Most mobile phone service providers now offer some form of discounted international call package, while Vodafone have done away with their international roaming charges altogether for this summer. You should check with your existing provider as to what discounted international call packages they offer before you jet off - it could be that your own provider could already be offering as good an international phone deal as you’ll find anywhere else.
Visit Vodafone’s online shop to view their comprehensive range of smartphones, including the new BlackBerry.