There are loads of options that allow you to keep in contact with friend’s and family whilst your holidaying or working overseas. One of the most expensive ways is to use your everyday home phone or a more costly still, a mobile phone. If you would like to go this route then your on your own, I’m going to tell you the free ways and the cheap ways to keep in contact with ease using a program called Skype.

Skype

“Skype is software that enables the world’s conversations. Millions of individuals and businesses use Skype to make free video and voice calls, send instant messages and share files with other Skype users. Everyday, people everywhere also use Skype to make low-cost calls to landlines and mobiles.”
-Skype

One of the great features of Skype is it’s ability to allow users to communicate between computers anywhere in the world for free, this includes, text, voice and video based communication. If you and the person you wish to contact have access to a laptop or a desktop computer with a broadband connection as well as a webcam then video through Skype is going to be one of the best ways to communicate, and remember I did say it was FREE! If only one of you have a webcam or if neither of you have one then Skype is still great for audio and text based conversations, webcams are very cheap these days so it is probably best investing in one though.

Skype is extremely easy to setup, all you have to do is go to the Skype website and download the client program for your computer, both Windows and Macintosh computers are capable of using Skype. Once you download Skype you need to create an account, all you need now is to add the other person’s Skype username to your contact list and you are ready to start communicating across the globe.

If one person has access to Skype and the other does not, do not fret, it is still possible to have voice conversations together through Skype, these however do cost but they are at relatively cheap prices. You are able to make unlimited calls to landline numbers in Australia for a few dollars a month. This information can be found on the Skype website

Don’t like Skype for whatever reason?

Here are some alternative programs that allow you to do practically the same thing:

GoogleTalk,
ooVoo,
and iChat