Phone plans with international calls included

If you regularly call overseas, there’s a good chance you are already aware of Lebara. With a strong reputation in low-cost international calling, Lebara has been one of the go-to choices for Australians with international relatives.

Recently, Lebara has made some significant adjustments to its SIM-only mobile phone plans, and now boasts a range of plans with competitive domestic rates with the option to add international calling credit as an optional extra.

Lebara also offers it's unique Unlimited International Plan with unlimited calls to international mobile numbers in 37 countries and calls to fixed lines only in a further 19 countries.

Full rates to all countries can be found here.

Vodafone's latest Red Plan refresh delivers the goods for international callers, with several plans now including Unlimited international calls to the 10 most popular calling destinations.

If you're looking for a cheaper option, all RED Plans of $40 and over now include up to 120-minutes of international calls every month to any one of 70 eligible countries, at any time of day. If you need more time on the line, Vodafone now charge a flat $6 extra for an additional 60-minutes of talk time once you reach your plan limit.

Families benefit even more when they choose a Share Plan option. Your international call minutes on all connected Red Plans will pool into a single minute total. For example, a family of four, each with 120-minutes of international talk time with have 480-minutes to use across all devices.

A few months later, but no less welcome, Optus now also include some international calling minutes in its post-paid mobile plans — otherwise known as My Plan Plus.

Customers who choose any but the cheapest My Plan Plus options will have either 150- or 300-minutes of international calls every month, depending on the plan level. Calls can be made to 32 countries, listed here.

If you choose the cheapest plan level you have the option to add an international calling bolt-on, which gives you calling minutes to the same 32 countries. $5 for 50-minutes or $10 for 150 minutes..

In the past few months amaysim has gone from being a poor choice for customers looking to make calls to overseas, to being one of the better options.

All amaysim plans, starting from $24.90, now include unlimited international text messages, which is great if you're on a tight budget. It isn't the same as being able to chat for hours with family back home, but it might be enough.

If you're looking to make calls, it's Unlimited 5GB Plus and Unlimited 8GB plans both include 300-minutes of international calls to 32 destinations, including New Zealand, USA, UK, China and India .

You may not have heard much about Hello Mobile yet, but it is one of the better options for people who call overseas quite a bit. The telco offers two plans for the same $39.90 fee — one with 1GB data and 250 minutes of international calls each month, and another with 500-minutes, but only 500MB data.

There are 28 countries included in the offer, including calls to the UK and USA, Hong Kong, India, Thailand and China. You can find the full list here.

Outside of these select countries, the call rates to other destinations are also extremely cheap. There is a flat $0.30 flagfall on all international calls, but after that most calls are $0.50 per minute, or less.

Virgin has included an international calling component in its top plans for quite a while. At the moment, you get $200 worth of international calls on an $60 Plan, and $300 worth of calls on its $70, $80 and $100 Plan options.

So, how many minutes does this give you? It will vary depending on where you will be calling, with the cheapest options being $2 or $3 per minute, plus a $0.40 flagfall. For example, if you were to call the UK once for an hour, it would cost $48.40, or one-quarter of the international calling allowance included in the $60 Plan.

Full rates for all countries can be found here.

International text is an extra charge, but is reasonable at only $0.45 per message.

TPG recently switched from the Optus network to the Vodafone network, and the change saw a big shift in the price of international calls -- for better and worse.

Previously, TPG customers could use their included call credit for international calls. Now, all international calls are billed on top of your standard monthly fees.

The good news is that the cost of calls is now much cheaper. For example, a 5-minute call to the UK used to cost $7.90; now it costs just $0.70.

Full rates to all countries can be found here.

All of Telechoice’s mobile plans let customers use any part of their included call credit for calls to overseas numbers, but what is interesting about Telechoice is that its most expensive plan is not your best option for overseas calls.

The Live Starter 55 plan includes 100-minutes of dedicated international calling credit, which is great, but it isn’t going to keep you on the phone for very long.

Alternatively, the Live Starter 45 plan includes $3000 value to be shared between national calls and text and international calls. If you're happy to sign a 24-month contract, the price of the plan comes down to $40 per month. Depending on how you use your phone, this could be a great offer for calling home frequently.

Full international call rates can be found here (PDF link).

Telstra was last of the majors to include international calls in phone plans, but now allows customers on its $135 Go Mobile Plan to make up to $150 worth of calls overseas.

If your budget allows, customers on the $195 Premium Mobile Plan to make unlimited international calls to all countries class as either Zone 1 or Zone 2, which accounts for 42 countries including our Top 5 destinations.

If you'd prefer to be on a plan with a lower monthly fee, Telstra also offer international calling add-ons. There are $10 and $15 options, depending on where you want to call.