Home phone Guides

Cheap calls to France

Updated: Thursday 19 January, 2012

By Anthony Hill - anthony.hill@consumerchoices.co.uk

Want to say "bonjour" to your friends in France but are worried about how much it’s going to cost? Take a look at the table below and read our guide on cheap calls to France to see if you could save money by switching provider.

Provider	Package name		France call rate (per minute)		Monthly package cost		Line rental cost
	Vonage V-Plan 2		FREE		£8.99		£9.99	Go
	Talk UK Anytime		21.4p		£6.21		£13.80	Go
	Anytime Saver Offer		3.2p		£2.95		£11.22	Go
	Primus Home Phone Max		3.9p		£2.79		£10	Go

If you’re frequently calling friends and family in France, your monthly phone bills are probably quite expensive. Did you know that by comparing home phone providers and switching to a tariff that suits you, you’ll be able to dramatically cut your costs?

Before switching, you need to ask yourself these questions:

• Do you call other countries, as well as France?
• Do you call French landlines and/or French mobiles?
• How long do you usually chat for?
• How much do you usually fork out for calls to France?

Use your most recent phone bills to work out how much you’re spending on calls to France, and then compare packages to see if you could save money by switching to a cheaper deal with another provider.

Cheap calls to France with your home phone provider

There are a few providers that offer customers free calls to French landlines, and plenty that offer discounted or cheap rates on calls to France as well as calls to UK local and national numbers. Consider switching to an anytime package from Post Office (www.postoffice.co.uk), which offers free calls to 36 international destinations, including France, Australia, Canada and the US.

Primus and YourCalls.net (www.yourcalls.net) also offer competitive deals for calls to France. The Home Phone Max package from Primus, for example, offers free calls to UK local and national landlines and charges customers 3.9p per minute to call landlines in France - a saving of 17p per minute compared to BT’s international rates.

Cheap calls to France using your broadband connection

If you’ve got broadband at home, you can use your internet connection to make cheap calls to France. Using an internet phone provider (VoIP), such as Vonage (www.vonage.co.uk), can help you significantly reduce your phone bills.

Internet phone services, or VoIP as they’re also known, work in just the same way as a traditional phone service - you can use your existing touch tone phone to make calls from your landline to other home phones or mobiles. The difference is that with VoIP your phone is plugged into an adapter, which is connected to your existing broadband router or modem. This converts the call to an internet call.

If you sign-up to the Vonage V-Plan 2, you can make unlimited free landline calls to 15 international countries, including France. All Vonage-to-Vonage calls are also free, though a minimum set-up fee, monthly subscription and line rental charges do apply.

You could also try using Skype (www.skype.com), which offers a similar service. You can even make video calls to friends and family in France for free if you’re both using Skype, and take advantage of cheap call rates to France if they’re not online or using Skype.

Choosing a phone provider to make cheap calls

Whichever countries you call, whether it’s India or Australia, Pakistan or the US, there are plenty of home phone calling plans to choose from that will suit your needs and help you reduce your bills. You should also consider VoIP calls, as these can be free for some destinations.

Use the Homephonechoices.co.uk postcode checker to find the packages available in your area, then compare call rates for France and see if you can save money on your phone bills.