PLANNING to phone friends and family abroad over Christmas?
Watch out for bill shocks as some major mobile and landline networks have huge charges.
An hour-long call to the US or Australia could cost almost £235 if you’re with one of the firms with the worst foreign call fees.
But there are smartphone apps that let you call overseas for free.
If you’re not online, you can still dodge rip-offs with cheap SIM deals from some lesser-known mobile firms.
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TALK AIN’T CHEAP: Smartphone users will be familier with using the FaceTime and WhatsApp apps to make free voice or video calls to the UK and abroad.
But if you or the person who you want to speak to are not online you’re stuck with using your mobile or home phone.
Lisa Barber, at consumer group Which?, says: “It doesn’t seem right that customers are faced with paying rip-off charges to call people who aren’t as tech savvy.”
Our research found EE mobile customers would pay £3.91 per minute to call the US or Down Under, unless you have a special call plan or add-on.
A ten-minute chat would be nearly £40, an hour’s catch-up £234.60.
Calling countries within Europe is 22p per minute on the network but that’s still £13.20 for an hour.
Vodafone, O2 and Three charge £3 a minute to call the US or Australia so an hour’s call is £180.
They charge from 19p to 22p for calls to Europe — up to £11.40 if you’re on the line for an hour.
A landline can also be pricey. Calling Australia or the US from a standard BT line is £1.17 a minute — £70.20 for an hour.
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With Virgin Media it’s up to 48p a minute, or £28.80 an hour for the same call.
All the providers above offer international call packages which greatly cut these costs if you regularly calls someone abroad.
But there are ways to save even more cash.
BEAT THE CHARGES: Some smaller mobile networks do great deals.
Ru Bhikha of comparison site Uswitch says: “Firms like Lyca and Lebara offer pay-monthly options that are far cheaper.
“Some deals include an unlimited number of free international calls to a long list of countries. Use our site to find the best or see our picks in the table above.”
With a Lyca SIM you can get limitless texts and calls to the UK and international numbers for 89p a month for the first three months and £3.90 a month thereafter.
It’s a pay-monthly tariff but you’re not locked in for a set time. It offers free EU roaming, handy for holidays or visiting family abroad.
You don’t need a fancy phone to benefit — Amazon sells basic ones for just £15, or buy secondhand.
If you’re just looking to make a few calls abroad and only need to ring one particular country, getting an international call card from a newsagent or phone shop might help.
You can use on any landline or mobile, to ring any landline or mobile number overseas.
Some elderly find these cards as easier than fiddling around with different SIMs, but the Post Office stopped selling in September.
To use them you must dial the phone number on the card and PIN code before the number of the person you want to speak to.
BUNDLES: You can add international call bundles to your existing plan with your mobile or landline provider, but these tend to be poor value, warns Which? You pay an extra sum every month to have cheaper calls overseas.
BT’s International Freedom package costs up to £11.23 a month on top of your normal landline bill — which is £134.74 a year.
This brings calls to Australia and the US down to 7.8p per minute.
Yet the Lyca sim-only mobile deal works out at just under £38 a year and all calls abroad are free.
O2 offers an international monthly bolt-on for £3 a month. It cuts calls to Australia to 12p a minute if you’re ringing a mobile number or 2p if it’s a landline.
For the countries in Europe it’s 9p for mobiles, 2p landlines. With EE’s £2-a-month add-on, call charges start from 2p a minute for 65 countries.
WHAT THE FIRMS SAY: Virgin Media O2, which is now one group, says its pricing is competitive, and that it’s the only major provider to offer free EU roaming as standard on its mobile plans.
BT, Vodafone, EE and Three all say that they offer a range of international add-ons to bring down calling costs and that they are clear and transparent about pricing.
Nationwide glitch cause shop chaos
FURIOUS Nationwide customers were left unable to buy Christmas presents and food this week after a tech glitch blocked thousands of pounds’ worth of payments.
Anxious customers took to social media to complain about the building society on Thursday evening, worried about how they would pay for last-minute shopping.
Nationwide said the problem was a temporary delay to some payments into and out of customers’ accounts, which was quickly resolved.
But on Friday morning, other customers were complaining that they couldn’t transfer money between accounts or pay for their supermarket shops.
One customer on X (formerly Twitter) said: “Nationwide is not allowing people to move money from their savings to spend today. I have presents to buy and food.
"You cannot withhold our money like this on the last two days of shopping – this is disgusting.”
Another commented that a similar problem had occurred at the building society in the run-up to last Christmas.
And a different shopper complained she was stuck in Asda with her autistic son and unable to pay for her groceries.
Nationwide said on Friday evening that the two issues were separate but that all services were now working normally again.
It has yet to reveal whether it will make any compensation payments for the disruption.
But independent consumer expert Martyn James said: “If you’ve lost money because of a glitch like this you can make a claim to your bank or building society to pay back any costs you have incurred.
“Provide evidence of any expenses that you’ve had as a result of the issue – for example if you’ve had extra charges because you missed a bill.
“Then, if you’re not happy with the way they respond, you can take your case to the Financial Ombudsman Service for free.”
You can fill out an online complaint form at financial-ombudsman.org.uk or phone 0800 023 4567.
A Nationwide spokesperson said: “A number of customers experienced a short delay in making and receiving faster payments on Thursday evening, and internal transfers on Friday morning.
“These were separate issues and both resolved quickly.
“All other services were unaffected and customers could still use their cards in order to make purchases and withdraw cash.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused at what is one of the busiest times of the year.”
