First of all, many thanks for your forum. You are doing a great job.
I have a Virgin Media landline phone and am based in Nottingham. Yesterday I phoned up Virgin Media and they told me that it would cost me 59 pence per minute to phone Malta from my landline number.

1.    I wonder if any of you can tell me of an honest reliable company that will charge me far less than this to make calls from England to Malta, using only landline phones and no computers.

2.    I am also on Virgin Media broadband and wonder whether it is possible to make such calls free like email is, if the other person has a desktop computer. I have a Toshiba pocked camcorder. I think the manual says that if I connect it to the computer I can use this as a webcam and a microphone.

Thank you everyone and God bless you all!

Trigan

Hi,


trigan wrote on Jul 25^th, 2012 at 8:50am:

1.    I wonder if any of you can tell me of an honest reliable company that will charge me far less than this to make calls from England to Malta, using only landline phones and no computers.

See here: http://callchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/intcallchecker/ - various options for you from 5.1p/minute + 14.94 connection fee.

Edit: This is an example of something that would be much cheaper from a BT landline due to its far lower charge for the 0844 numbers used - roughly 1p/min vs. 5p/min.


trigan wrote on Jul 25^th, 2012 at 8:50am:

2.    I am also on Virgin Media broadband and wonder whether it is possible to make such calls free like email is, if the other person has a desktop computer. I have a Toshiba pocked camcorder. I think the manual says that if I connect it to the computer I can use this as a webcam and a microphone.

No problem at all - Skype would be the most common software to use (other party would need it too) but there are others.

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~ Edited by Dave: Unticked the box "Check this if you wish to disable parsing of ubbc tags and smileys" so that Quote tags and hyperlink work.

Thanks, Dave!

kasg wrote on Jul 25^th, 2012 at 1:09pm:

See here: http://callchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/intcallchecker/ - various options for you from 5.1p/minute + 14.94 connection fee.

The thing to be aware of with this is that you pay from the moment that the 0844 call is answered.

Take Bestminutes as an example. You dial 0844 861 59 59 and then when it answers the charging begins. At that point it requests the destination number. So if there is no answer on the destination number than there is still a charge (made by Virgin Media, in this case).

Virgin Media bill per whole minute, and the charge for each call is rounded up to the whole penny.

For example, you ring the 0844 number and when it answers you dial the destination number (which takes 10 seconds) and then you get ringing tone for 20 seconds, before the party answers. You speak for 3 minutes and 20 seconds and then hang up.

The duration of the billed call is therefore 3 minutes and 50 seconds, which costs 4min×5.1p/min=20.4p. Add the Connection Fee of 14.94p gives 35.34p which is rounded up and billed as 36p.

Dave wrote on Jul 25^th, 2012 at 3:28pm:

The thing to be aware of with this is that you pay from the moment that the 0844 call is answered.

However, this could be avoided using 18185 or similar, which is accessed through a free 0808 number and has a connection charge of only 4p. The down sides are that the per-minute cost is greater at 8p and that you have to create an account.

If you have inclusive minutes on your Virgin Media Landline when you wish to make calls to Malta.

Consider http://www.localphone.com/call/malta 1.2p a minute. No connection charge. its a payg service. You get a free call to try it out.

Access is via a 01/02 Geographical Number which points direct at your Malta Target Number.

If you have/ get a 3,T-Mob,or Orange Payg Sim you can use a short code and dial Malta for 3p a minute. See: http://www.briing.com/cheap-calls/malta.php

Or if you pop into Tesco buy a calling card. http://phone-shop.tesco.com/broadband-and-home-phone/international-calling-cards/ ; Connection charge 4p calls 3p a minute via there Freephone Number from your landline.

Thank you bigjohn and others for your excellent suggestions. I can hardly believe that localphone.com can reduce the price per minute from 59 pence to 1.2 pence. How do they do it?

Regarding Skype, the other party must have the software installed in their computer though. Has any of  you used Skype with a webcam ? What are the pros and cons of trying to have a conversation being able to see each other through the webcam, using Skype? Is Skype totally free, apart from paying my Virgin Media broadband bill ?

Thank you all and God bless!

Trigan

Orange has a number of animal pay as you go offerings and Camel is the one with preferential international rates.

Orange Camel Rates to Malta are 10p per minute to landlines, 30p per minute to mobiles and 15p per SMS text message.

That page states "0.10p" which means a tenth of a penny. It would appear to be an incorrectly formatted price; the Pay as you go price guide (PDF) confirms this.

trigan wrote on Jul 27^th, 2012 at 11:03am:

Thank you bigjohn and others for your excellent suggestions. I can hardly believe that localphone.com can reduce the price per minute from 59 pence to 1.2 pence. How do they do it?

Ask not how they do it, but how Virgin Media get away with charging 59p!


trigan wrote on Jul 27^th, 2012 at 11:03am:

Has any of  you used Skype with a webcam ? What are the pros and cons of trying to have a conversation being able to see each other through the webcam, using Skype? Is Skype totally free, apart from paying my Virgin Media broadband bill ?

Lots of people use it like this and it's usually fine, subject to the broadband speed at each end being reasonable. To use it this way, yes, it is totally free, although you can use Skype to call ordinary telephones, which is not free.

Dave wrote on Jul 27^th, 2012 at 11:10am:

Orange has a number of animal pay as you go offerings and Camel is the one with preferential international rates. Orange Camel Rates to Malta are 10p per minute to landlines, 30p per minute to mobiles and 15p per SMS text message. That page states "0.10p" which means a tenth of a penny. It would appear to be an incorrectly formatted price; the Pay as you go price guide (PDF) confirms this.

Why pay 10p when you can pay 3p a minute via a mobile short code supplier. Heres another one http://www.dialacode.com/cheap-international-calls-to-Malta

You can also use from contract phones not restricted to payg.