Home calling....

Just when you thought we (Africans, particularly Nigerians) couldn't get any cheaper when it came to calling home. Who remembers the phone card craze? Even when there were so many to choose from, we always knew or found the cheapest or to phrase it nicely, the ones with more 'value for money'.

It's quite amusing to know that as much as Nigerians love to show off (they are quite frankly the best posers of Africa), value for money is high priority i.e. being a cheapskate - why do you think 85% of us in the U.K. are on T-mobile and Three?! Anyways, whilst there are (unbelievably) thousands of phone cards to now choose from and where you can get about 3 or 4 cards for just £10 (usually at £5 each), with funky card names like Africa Mama, Go Mad for Bananas or Fabuloso New York (don't ask), the latest craze is using dial-direct service providers e.g. WorldSaver, JustDial, etc. Now, you can more or less call Africa free of charge just by dialling the access numbers (usually at national or cheap rates) and then dialling your number. There are no extra charges, no account setup required, no prepayments necessary and no time limits. Some of the services are even free of charge if one has free minutes (or cross-network minutes) on their mobile such as WorldSaver to Nigeria mobiles.

Being the milklady, I didn't stop there. I went on to the Money Saving Expert sent to me by a friend, to check out and compare different call rates by the different providers and found out I have wasted so much money in the past and can now call Nigeria for 1/2 a penny a minute! Please note that your main providers connection charge will apply as normal.

Telestunt - 9p/min (08713435151) (mobiles)

DiscountDial - 0.50p/min (landlines - 08442009595)

Click here to find out all the cheap rates (choose country and either tick box for mobiles or untick for landlines) and read below to see how the call checker works.

P.S. I'm sure we have services like this for the U.S but unfortunately I didn't find any. Please leave a comment if you know of any and watch out for my article titled "Nigeria Calling".


How does the CallChecker work? (culled from MoneySavingExpert.com)

Most people are wasting a fortune overspending on overseas calls. This free, non-commercial CallChecker provides a daily list of the cheapest way to call a landline or mobile in any country. Even better, most of the winners are accessible instantly without an account or changing phone line. (See the International Calls Article for a full explanation).
The CallChecker scans the cheapest providers daily to provide the most up to date call costs for calling all countries. Once you've found the cheapest provider for your chosen destination, dial the override provider's access number followed by the number you want to dial, remembering the international code.Please remember the information listed here comes from the providers automatically. Before making the call always double check on the provider's own website. MoneySavingExpert.com takes no responsibility for any expense caused by this data.

Please note that your main providers connection charge will apply as normal.

12 comments:

Onada - Fashion and Photography said...

you need to do more research on the cheap rates in the US this girl LOL haha..... i have to make all my friends in jand read this.

Mari said...

thats right, i agree with onada. we need some cheap rates here in the US.

I use T-plus from www.callingcardplus.com . Its $5 but you have to buy 2 cards. They seem to have improved on their service lately coz the $5 card is meant to give an hr and half plus to mobile phones in nigeria.
There might be better ones out there but this is the best I've come across so far.

1511th said...

Madam calling card. I never buy them cos I have no one to call in Nigeria but I know to get free calls to the states from 8am-8pm, NumiCall (i think) works magic ....:)

Anonymous said...

its funny. I have a similar post on my blog...

Anonymous said...

@Onada check my blog. I have some phone cards choices on there...

Anonymous said...

I don't use calling cards. From work I call Nigeria (landlines) using 08707940000 or 08707946099 (national rates).

If I need to call mobiles I use VOIP - The best one is VOIPStunt

Bella Naija said...

lucky u oo......i call naij everyday and it dries up my wallet like WOAH..
http://bellanaija.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Always used this site - http://www.mammasbell.pushline.com for calls to Niger from the US and it keeps getting cheaper....

culturalmiscellany said...

Bella - I am with you. I phone Naija daily and spend far too much money. I think I need to investigate this more deeply!!! I got sick of VOIP service as it was jittery and no romance in that - lol.

culturalmiscellany said...

Just checked out WorldSaver and its 20ppm to call Nigerian Mobiles. I currently pay 18ppm on Talk Talk using their access number.

Aramide said...

hmmm mayb worldsaver is not the best. Try all those discountdial etc. look on the table

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