If you have friends and family in Saudi Arabia and are currently living in the UK, then you will know that keeping in touch with them can be expensive. There are several methods you can use to call a loved one in Saudi Arabia, but which of them offer the best quality service, at the lowest possible price?

Landlines

Of course, one option is to use your landline. Many UK landline providers have responded to the developments of internet companies by offering rates that are close to competing and while they may not be as cheap, they often provide excellent quality.  You should check with your operator as specific deals can be arranged for certain countries, like Saudi Arabia. 

Mobile Phone Operators

Secondly, you have the option of your normal mobile phone, but these costs tend to be even higher than landline costs.  Indeed the cost of prices for international calls has been subject to scrutiny from the EU due to what is perceived as unfair charges levied against customers by certain telecommunication companies.  Simply put, there are much cheaper options out there than your regular mobile phone contract.

Calling Cards

Calling cards are also popular but are also one of the most unreliable ways to call and can often be perilous.  Hidden costs, such as connection fees and minute ‘rounding’ mean that your call-time is usually considerably less than the fee you thought you had paid for.  While online reviews can help to decipher which companies are the more reputable, the market is swaying away from calling cards due to technological advances of recent years… Internet technology now means that there are cheaper and often better quality service providers on the market.

VoIP services

VoIP (which is a techy way of saying internet based) providers are able to undercut traditional calling services by using digital technology instead of satellites.  This is much cheaper to maintain and it is the consumer who receives the cost saving.  Companies like Skype, Vonage and Tango are great examples, but it is Rebtel who offer the cheapest way to call Saudi Arabia from the UK , regardless of whether you are using your landline, or mobile phone to make the call.

Rebtel lead the way

The Rebtel service provides you with local phone numbers for all of your international contacts, meaning that you can simply dial that local number from your landline, or even a public phone box, while Rebtel do the ‘internet part’ in the background to ensure that you get the cheapest rates possible.

Once signed up you can take advantage of Rebtel’s industry leading low call rates of 6.5p per minute to a landline and 9.7p per minute to a mobile. There are also deals for unlimited calls over certain time periods that drive the prices even lower.