Making international calls cheaply - any good providers?

[LittleMyDancing]

We currently use Virgin for our phone, broadband and TV. They're very good except their international calling rates are really steep.

I would like to sign up with a service that would allow me to make cheaper calls to Europe (France and Holland particularly, sometimes Finland). Virgin does this for a monthly fee, but I don't call regularly enough for this to be worth it. Does anyone know of a good service for this that doesn't mean changing providers?

TIA

bump

My parents always sing the praises of 18866 (think the website might be www.call18866.co.uk, or similar). Not sure about calls to Holland and France, but they use it for calling Norway and Thailand regularly and say it is v v cheap. Worth a look maybe?

I use 18866 too, really recommend it,

We use 18185 - same company as 18866 (also 1899) but rates a bit better last time I checked. 1p a minute to French landlines, 8p to mobiles; Holland the same; Finland 1p to landlines, 14p to mobiles. Calls to UK landlines are 0p (+ 5p charge), mobiles 6p peak, 4.5p offpeak.

You do have to remember to dial the code every time - I have them all saved in the house phone's memory but DS2 is always ringing his mates by copying their numbers out of his mobile & he never remembers to put the code in, our BT bills are creeping up again, think I will start charging him )

Do not ever use them for 0845 or 0870 though, BT always cheaper.

Just checked, 18185 is still cheaper for all 3 countries than 18866 and 1899

Oh, and you can send text messages from your house phone at 1p each (but of course they can't reply to your house phone, so that's a bit useless, but it's sooo nice to type them on a keyboard )

Thank you! Will check them out!

My last call to France cost me £22, so I thought I'd better do something radical fast...

we use superline www.superline.co.uk/
dial a prefix number and they bill it to your credit card

We use prefix numbers from telediscount.co.uk - you don't have to subscribe to anything, just dial the number, wait for a mechanical voice to "call charges are Xp per minute" then dial the international number you want. Comes up on your phone bill as the prefix number.

0844 861 0001 then 0033whatever gives me French landlines at 1p per minute.

Asda calltime is good, because calls are prepaid so nothing extra comes up on your bill, calls are cheaper too.

nothing is cheaper than 18185 so far...

www.05pence.co.uk/ try this,very very cheap

Why not just use Skype from your computer?

one of the people I'm calling is my dad, who has trouble with normal phones as it is, so not sure I can get him onto Skype without tears!

You don't need him to be on Skype - you can use it to call a normal phone.

oh really? I shall look into that. thank you!