Orange Call Abroad / "Camel" [renamed thread]
 

Anyone know how you keep this card active? When will credits expire? Can you use it outside the UK? Is this the best PAYG to call back to the US. I travel to the UK about 30 days a year.

AFAIK, it should roam in the US. Just send and sms or use a little bit of data to register some activity.

Actually, orange call abroad recently reaised its rate to call the USA to 7p/minute and I think it is rounded up to the next highest minute. Still a very good rate but...

Right now, I think the best bet for calling from the UK to the USA is T Mobile UK....you can couple that with an outfit called yourcallworld (www.yourcallworld.com) and calls to the USA and most other foreign destinations (landlines only but of course to the USA and canada it doesn't matter) is 3p/minute...the site explains how you can get a T Mobile UK sim card for next to nothing (provided you have a UK mailing address) or I have found an offer on ebay for less than $10 shipping included to the USA.

You can also purchase a bundle on T Mobile UK for £2 which will allow 50 minutes of calling to the USA which will not go through calling an auxillliary number as is the case with yourcallworld.....by my math that comes to 4p/minute although it has limited validity (60 days).

Both Orange and T Mobile UK do subcribe to eu euro tariffs for use in roaming in Europe outside the UK...I think it is 34p/minute to make a call a 19p/minute to receive a call within the eu.

And unlike the French thieves, it is very easy to keep the cards active. If set up for data, every 3 months just download a free ringtone or something like that or send, a bit more expensive, a text message from the USA which counts as an activity and keeps the sim card active.

Matha:

I have a friend with a U.S. T-Mobile phone. If he goes to the UK can he just use the Your Call access numbers, or will they only work with a UK T-Mobile SIM?

Can I get a T-Mobile UK SIM or 50 minute bundle before I leave the US?

Forget the possibility of T Mobile USA...you pay an arm and a leg to roam with it in Europe.

As towhether you can get a T Mobile UK sim card while in the USA, well we had a thread either here or in the Europe section a couple of weeks ago. T Mobile UK is always giving away sim cards either for free or for very little but to fill out the order form, you need a British address. Somebody explained how he could get around that by filling in any valid British postal code and then in the city section putting in a US city, state, zip code and the package arrived several weeks later.

Doing an ebay search today, I found a merchant selling a new T Mobile UK sim card for $2.49 with $3.99 for shipping!

Also note T Mobile UK sim cards do not come with any calling credit although you will know the phone number. The card is not really activated until the first top up which you would do upon arrival in London by using the swipe card include in the package (looks like a credit card) at most petrol, chemists (pharmacies), grocery chains which have the green top up symbol.

Hope that helps.

Good timing on this thread: we're about to go back to the UK, I have a t-mobile uk sim and my wife has an Orange, both prepaid.

I'd been thinking about converting her plan to Call Abroad but the 35p rate for other-network national calls is steep.

Last year I successfully used the T-Mob bundles to the US but now the T-Mob UK website says they are only available for postpaid accounts. Does anyone know about this change, because they definitely worked on PAYG last summer?

YourCallWorld looks like a good option with my T-Mob phone--has anybody actually used it? Is the rate actually 3p/min to US in total, or is that on top of the regular 15p to any UK network that's standard on my "Everyone" PAYG plan?

Thanks.

Believe it or not the rate is actually 3p/min to the US via the 07755 (and no you do not have to pay 15p/min on top of that). However if you wanted to call the UK it is 15p/min via them direct. Crazy! There used to be a time when you could call the UK via the same 07755, but then T-Mob stopped them doing that (understandably). Even after that block in place it is cheaper calling the 07755 then dialing a calling card in the US and then calling back to the UK. In the days of the Iowa callthroughs that was an easy wor-around. But you'll lose on quality.

You can pick up a new T-Mobile SIM all over the place here. They cost around 2 pounds in many newsagents. Also, many newsagents now offer other lowcost SIM's like Lebara, where it costs you 4p/min to call the US direct! (Again much cheaper than their rate to UK numbers... but thats where they make money)

I deleted this post; I now see the bundles indeed are only available to pay monthly customers.

Does anyone know how to top up a T-Mobile UK SIM? Can you do it from the phone also? I may be in area of the UK where top up cards are not readily available. Or are they sold everywhere?

I was checking their web site and cannot find a T-Mobile store in Harwich or Cork, Ireland. Can you also buy the SIM cards all over, or only from a T-Mobile shop?

If you register on the T-mobile UK site you can top up by credit card.