Calling cards...

[mmmab]

First of all, you can buy a Philippines SIM, in the UK, online - visit the 'callingnow' website.

Secondly, whichever company SIM you buy, her SMS will only cost 1 peso.

I'm going to visit that site now and get myself a Globe Sim, at least it would save her a lot of money texting me back and forth, thanks for that PeterB

Not true! It costs absolutely nothing to receive a standard SMS, wherever you are in the world. You will, however, be charged for receiving voice calls!

Thanks for that too, finally have found a cheaper way of texting her via skype and she can now also text me for only one peso via the Globe Roaming Sim, thanks a lot for that, I really appreciate it!

[PeterB]

... thanks for that PeterB

You're most welcome. This forum is all about offering advice based on our experience. The roaming SIM/Skype method was the one which I found most workable, and allowed us to keep in contact when Ruby couldn't get to the Internet cafe. It also allowed Ruby to contact me on a matter (literally) of life and death - in the very early hours of the morning in UK.

[Plonker]

I use "O2 your country" sim card, the sim card is free from any O2 shop as long as you top it up atleast £20. I top up every month with £30 with that you get 200 free mins and you actually get 200 mins to call anywhere in the world not just philippines. Plus the £30 paid credit which gives you a total of 230 mins at a cost of 7.6p per min. It sounds a bit exspensive but it works for us cause we only talk around 10 mins everyday whilst I'm at work, the good thing is the reception is fantastic and crystal clear. On weekends we just use ym.

I used phoned cards before but I still cant figure out how they deduct minutes, so you dont get what you pay for with phone cards. And sometimes it takes many goes just to get a connection, so frustrating. Which is why I dont use them anymore.