Home phone Guides

Cheap calls to South Africa

By Becca Talbot - becca@consumerchoices.co.uk

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Have you got friends or family living in South Africa whom you call regularly? Switching to a new home phone deal could help you save money on expensive overseas calls… (Updated 3/6/10)

Provider	Package name		South Africa call rate (per minute)		Monthly package cost		Line rental cost
	Vonage V-Plan 2		5p		£8.99		£11.54
	Talk UK Anytime		49.4p		£4.49		£11.49
	Anytime Saver Offer		40p		£2.95		£10.99
	Primus Home Phone Max		10.5p		£2.89		£10.99

Calling family or friends who live in South Africa can be costly. For example, if you have BT’s weekend call plan, calling the “Rainbow” nation will cost you 59.2p per minute for calls made during weekdays (7am - 7pm) and 52.1p per minute at all other times. So a 10-minute call during the day will set you back £6.02, including the 9.9p one-off call connection fee.

There are cheaper call plans available though, and switching to a different provider could help you save money on your home phone bills. Before switching though, ask yourself:

• Do I call other countries, as well as South Africa?
• Do I call South African landlines and/or South African mobiles?
• How long do I spend on the phone?
• How much am I currently paying for calls to South Africa?

Take a look at your most recent phone bills and work out how much you’re spending on overseas calls, then compare home phone deals online to see if you could save money by switching to a better tariff.

Cheap calls to South Africa with your home phone provider

While there aren’t any home phone providers in the UK that offer free calls to South Africa, there are plenty that offer discounted or cheap rates on calls to South Africa, as well as cheap calls to UK local and national numbers.

Consider switching to the Primus Home Phone Max package, which offers free calls to UK local and national landlines and charges customers just 10.5p per minute to call landlines in South Africa during the day - a saving of 48.7p per minute compared to BT’s international rates. The Home Phone Max costs £2.89 a month, and line rental is £10.99 a month, if you sign-up online through Homephonechoices.co.uk.

YourCalls.net (www.yourcalls.net) also offers discounted calls to South Africa if you choose the country as your “Golden Destination”. YourCalls.net’s Golden Destination deal lets all customers choose one country which they call most frequently to receive a discount on call charges. For example, calls to South Africa usually cost 40p per minute during the day, however with South Africa selected as your Golden Destination, calls will cost just 6.11p per minute during the day, 5.5p in the evenings and 5.44p at the weekend.

Cheap calls to South Africa using your broadband connection

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

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

If you sign-up to the Vonage V-Plan 2, calls to South Africa are charged at just 5p per minute, all day every day. All Vonage-to-Vonage calls are also free, though a minimum set-up fee, monthly subscription and line rental charges do apply. So if your family in South Africa is with Vonage, you’ll be able to call for free.

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 South Africa for free if you’re both using Skype, and take advantage of cheap call rates to South African landlines if they’re not online or using Skype.

Choosing a phone supplier to make cheaper calls

Whichever countries you call, whether it’s South Africa or Australia, Pakistan or the USA, there are a variety of landline 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 South Africa and see if you can save money on your phone bills.

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