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With Christmas and New Year’s Eve just around the corner, you’ll likely want to wish your close friends and family members happy holidays. While some friends and family might be local, others are perhaps situated in other cities or countries around the world – which means a phone call could be the best means of communicating.

However, calling all over the world during the holidays can be costly – not only because international calling costs more than your average phone call, but also because phone calls made to friends and family during the holidays are seldom kept short. By the time you catch up with everyone on the other end and wish them all happy holidays, you could very well have racked up a considerable phone bill. When you think about accruing similar types of charges with each international phone call, your phone bill could exceed way beyond your budget.

Despite an increase in the number of international calls you make during the holidays, it’s still possible to get a good deal – and it all starts with shopping around. Countless call service providers offer competitive rates on international calls – many of which could appear to be very similar. A closer look into such deals will reveal that some are, in fact, more competitive than others.

One of the most important points to consider when looking into international calling services is the rate for countries you plan to call most. Some service providers might advertise their service using their lowest international calling rates as an example. Those rates won’t do you much good if you don’t plan to call those specific countries. Enquire about rates to countries you plan to call, and use this point as a basis for comparison when looking at various service providers. You’ll also want to take into account whether you plan to call mobile phones or landlines. Rates usually vary between the two, so it’s important to choose a service based on your calling needs.

In addition to competitive calling rates, many call service providers will offer consumers extra benefits – like unlimited landline calls with a flat subscription fee. Such added benefits might help you make the decision between two service providers, so be sure to keep your eye out for them.

Finally, if you’re still worried that you might over-talk and therefore over-spend on your holiday calling, consider downloading a software application that enables you to make calls over the internet. Such applications usually enable you to purchase credit for your calls to a specific country – for example, to make cheap calls to Ireland – which means you’ll be able to keep better track of how much you spend on your holiday calls and effectively budget your holiday spending.