7
the best companies in the UK are Vectone and Lycamobile calls about 9p per minute, texts 12-13p each, more expensive than Skype or Yahoo messaging obviously. Those SIMs are free, the best way for them to reply from the Philippines is for you to have a SMART roaming SIM card, which has to be activated in the Philippines. SMART SIM's are about 40 pesos and have to be activated an hour before the SIM leaves the country by texting ROAM ON to 333. You can get them to buy one, activate one, and then airmail it you so it gets to the UK from the Philippines in about 2 weeks. When you have SMART roaming, this means that they can text you exact same way as when you are in the Philippines by texting you for 1 peso or when they are on their UNLI-type deals. Otherwise, it costs them 15 pesos per text, this means you will never receive any texts from the Philippines. But if you have roaming you will get dozens every day.8
Internet systems are cheapest... good advice above.. From a UK landline try Telediscount - details on www.telediscount.com ... around 8p/min to a Philippines landline, 10p/min to a CF.
