Cheapest way to call a mobile in New Zealand

Stringy · 9 Sep 2009 at 15:59

Ahoy,

Does anyone have any advice for cheaply calling a foreign mobile overseas? The options I have considered are 1)Landline 2)Mobile 3)VOIP (skype) and 4)Phone cards.
I discounted immediately the use of a landline or my own mobile due to cost. I looked on the Skype website, and compared the price to International Phone cards and was surprised to find that phone cards are apparently cheaper (about 11p/min vs 17p/min). I have no experience of using phone cards, are they really all one and the same? Also are there any other avenues that I haven't explored? If anyone cares or asks for the sake of asking it is for making personal calls to family over there, and yes I know calling a landline is cheaper.

Any advice or pointers would be appreciated, cheers.

Phage · 9 Sep 2009 at 16:13

Phone cards are usually the cheapest. If you shop around you'll be able to get one that specialisses in Australia/NZ and drive that cost down even further.

They're a small pain due to the necessary entering of PIN and card code, but a lot cheaper !

syke · 9 Sep 2009 at 16:15

99p/£ shop used to sell phone cards we used to call family in NZ, 1p = 1min, landline wise, so probably a bit less for mobiles.

!bluetonic! · 9 Sep 2009 at 16:17

If you mean New Zealand near Calne, Wiltshire, you should get that as inclusive minutes.

If it's the other one, I use sipgate as a VOIP provider. They charge 19.80 pence/min to a mobile phone in New Zealand.

Head over to MoneySavingExpert. Probably some sound advice on the cheapest way to call there.

apatia77 · 9 Sep 2009 at 16:21

Check SKYPE if you have broadband connection and a microphone, calls can be very very cheap to anywhere in the world.

Mikoyan · 9 Sep 2009 at 16:59

teletop is good..also check money saving expert..

We use teletop most calls 0.5p! costs 5p connection so if they have a bad line you may have to redial but its cheapy!

Rich_L · 9 Sep 2009 at 17:03

18185.co.uk is what I use to call the USA, although NZ is a bit more expensive.

It's dead easy though and they invoice you at the end of every month so you don't have to keep topping up.

12p a minute to call NZ mobile, only 1.5p a minute to phone a landline though - maybe investigate if they can have some form of landline->mobile call forwarding system there

mattheman · 9 Sep 2009 at 17:04

voip =calls to AUS landlines are free and mobile 6p a minute. have fun.
voipraider http://www.voipraider.com/en/index.html

[TW]Fox · 9 Sep 2009 at 17:06

Rich_L said:
18185.co.uk is what I use to call the USA, although NZ is a bit more expensive.

Been using this as well to call an NZ mobile. They charge me 12p a minute and calls to the 18185 number come out of my inclusive minutes.

mattheman · 9 Sep 2009 at 17:07

apatia77 said:
Check SKYPE if you have broadband connection and a microphone, calls can be very very cheap to anywhere in the world.

SKYPE is rubbish much better and cheaper voip providers out there.

Rich_L · 9 Sep 2009 at 17:09

[TW]Fox;14848653 said:
Been using this as well to call an NZ mobile. They charge me 12p a minute and calls to the 18185 number come out of my inclusive minutes.

Ah yeah that's the other plus point I forgot, it's an 0208 number to call so comes out of inclusive minutes (or for me, is part of my 'unlimited landline calls' add-on, handily). Even better when you set up the numbers with a built-in pause and entering the number to dial so it's just as easy as calling anyone on your phone

[TW]Fox · 9 Sep 2009 at 17:11

Rich_L said:
Even better when you set up the numbers with a built-in pause and entering the number to dial so it's just as easy as calling anyone on your phone

Yea I worked out how to do that today, the day she boarded a plane back to the UK, after absolutely ages of having a bit of paper in my pocket with the number on :rolleyes:

Rich_L · 9 Sep 2009 at 17:14

Nice one

Cybergangster · 9 Sep 2009 at 21:47

Stringy said:
Cheapest way to call a mobile in New Zealand

Can they call you? It's pretty cheap to call the UK from NZ. They could pick up a 2degrees sim card and some credit and it'll only cost them 44 cents p/min (that's 18p).

There's plenty of other deals available here too - I pay 18GBP per month for unlimited calls to the UK from my land line.

G-MAN2004 · 9 Sep 2009 at 21:52

I use my mobile, on O2, to call the US and sometimes NZ. Pretty cheap.

http://www.o2international.co.uk/callingabroadfromtheuk/InternationalCallerBoltOn.aspx

EDIT: Oh, 35p a minute for NZ mobiles. Probably not what you want.

[TW]Fox · 9 Sep 2009 at 21:55

Cybergangster said:
Can they call you? It's pretty cheap to call the UK from NZ. They could pick up a 2degrees sim card and some credit and it'll only cost them 44 cents p/min (that's 18p)

18185 is cheaper - didn't realise 2degrees (Which also roams on Voda!) was that cheap until today when it took 6 minutes of call to my mobile to burn the remaining $2 credit. Also Voda PAYG NZ has ridiculously cheap international calls - as in, so cheap its almost free for some reason.

Stringy · 10 Sep 2009 at 12:19

Money Saving Expert for the win!
Found a plethora of websites on there where you can call for about 6p/min from a BT landline by dialing through another number. Look kosher enough, so will be giving them a try.

Thanks for all the pointers!

Sootie · 10 Sep 2009 at 13:06

Used to use Dialaround which was cheap for landlines, not so cheap for mobiles

darubio · 10 Sep 2009 at 13:50

everytime i call my cousins abroad i use Phonecadsbyphone

good thing about is u can purchase various amount of cards from £5 £10 and £20 so its quite reasonable

Stringy · 10 Sep 2009 at 20:00

Further to my last, any cheap, easily accessible (e.g. from my HTC Hero) method with which to send free or cheap sms? Currently Orange commit daylight robbery at 20p per text, which is ok for the odd text but could mount up. If it matters it is to Vodafone NZ. I have tried all the usual "google it" gubbins, but with limted success, just want to know if anyone has any personal experience.