Anyone who makes international calls on a regular basis through traditional phone services realizes how quickly those fees can add up. As our world becomes more globalized, more of us are staying in contact with family, friends, and business associates outside of the UK. Traditional calling fees are not feasible when one has a large number of contacts. Cheap international calls are a necessity.

Fortunately, the Internet offers us some truly amazing ways to make cheap international calls. It is now possible to find professional companies who offer significant discounts when making calls abroad. People rely so heavily on their phones, but they can make cheap international calls by breaking a few habits and doing a little outside-the-box thinking. They will ask you to dial a telephone number prior to dialling your destination telephone number. The savings can be massive with some destinations only costing 1p per minute to call.

Some people make cheap international calls through an instant messaging (IM) services. Here is what is great about IM: It is free and relatively simple to use. There are options from Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo!, to name a few, and there is even software like Trillian that allows a user on one service to connect with a user on another.

However, you need to make the call through your computer and the person that you want to contact needs to be sat at their computer ready and waiting for you to call. If the person that you are calling does not have a good internet connection then the quality of the call can be poor. If you want a better quality of connection then you will be better to use a redirecting service through a phone company that specialise in cheap international calls.

Another online option for cheap international calls is services such as Skype. Skype is a lot like an IM service in some ways. Calls from one Skype user to another are absolutely free, which makes for some truly cheap international calls. Skype is also easier to use, makes it far easier to video conference, and has excellent customer support. Skype also allows a caller to connect from Skype to landlines and mobile lines, which is very flexible. However, these calls incur additional charges.