Home phone Guides

Making cheap calls to Australia

By Leah Boundy - editorial@consumerchoices.co.uk

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Making cheap calls to Australia is easy, as there are some great home phone deals available. You can even use your broadband connection to make free calls. (Updated 7/1/10)

Provider	Package Name		Australia call price (per minute)		Monthly package cost		Line rental cost
	Vonage V-Plan 2		FREE		£8.99		£11.54
	Talk UK Anytime		FREE		£4.49		£11.49
	Anytime Saver Offer		3.20p		£2.95		£10.99
	Primus Home Phone Max		4.00p		£2.89		£10.99

When choosing a phone provider to make calls to Australia with, consider how often you make these calls and for how long. Ask yourself:

• Should you base your home phone choice purely on these calls?
• How long do you spend on the phone?
• Do you want the freedom to talk for longer?
• How much money do you normally spend on calls to Australia?

You need to take a look at your bills – what proportion of the final amount can be attributed to these calls? Could you save money by switching?

Cheap calls to Australia with your home phone provider

There are some good deals available if you want to sign-up to a home phone deal based on your calls to Australia. For instance, the TalkTalk (www.talktalk.co.uk) Talk UK Anytime deal gives you a per-minute rate of 0p for your calls, but charges a monthly subscription fee on top of your normal monthly line rental. Talk UK Anytime also gives you unlimited UK landline calls, as well as calls to 36 international destinations.

The YourCalls.net (www.yourcalls.net) Anytime Saver tariff also gives customers cheap calls to Australia, as does the Home Phone Max package from Primus Saver. Both of these offer a cheap per-minute call rate but charge a monthly subscription of a few pounds.

Cheap calls to Australia using your broadband connection

You can use your existing broadband connection and regular home phone to make cheap calls to Australia through Vonage (www.vonage.co.uk). Your computer doesn’t even have to be switched on to make and receive calls, and you can make unlimited free landline calls to 25 countries (including Australia) using V-Plan 2. All Vonage-to-Vonage calls are also free, although a minimum set-up fee, monthly subscription and line rental charges do apply.

Skype also offers a similar service, where you can call and video call an Australian friend if you’re both using Skype, and benefit from cheap calls to Australia if you’re not. With Skype you can pay-as-you-go or pay monthly.

It’s worth looking into getting Vonage or Skype if you’ve got a broadband connection. If your contact in Australia is staying there long-term, persuade them to install the Vonage or Skype software and you’ll both enjoy unlimited free calls. You can use your computer’s built-in microphone and speakers, or improve the sound quality by buying a headset.

Choosing a phone provider

Whatever your circumstances, there’s bound to be a home phone tariff that’s right for you. Cheap calls are easy to find, but Homephonechoices.co.uk recommends comparing carefully to make sure you don’t sacrifice low UK call charges for the sake of saying g’day to your mates in Australia.

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