Moving abroad changes almost everything about your daily life. You adapt to a new currency, a new healthcare system, new tax obligations, and a new culture. But one thing most expats don’t think about until it becomes a problem is how they will make phone calls back home.

Not video calls to friends through WhatsApp. Not scheduled Zoom meetings with colleagues. The calls that catch you off guard — the ones to your bank when a card gets declined, to a government agency when a form needs clarification, to an airline when a flight goes wrong, or to an insurance company when a claim needs authorising.

These institutions operate domestic phone numbers. Many use toll-free numbers that simply don’t connect from outside the country. And when they do have an international line, calling it from a foreign mobile carrier can cost anywhere from $1 to $3 per minute — before you’ve even cleared the hold queue.

With the shutdown of Skype in May 2025 and Google Voice remaining restricted to the United States, many expats have found themselves without an affordable, reliable way to make these calls. This guide looks at what options are available in 2026 and how to set yourself up before you need to make an urgent call from overseas.

Why International Calls Are Still Expensive

When you place an international call from your mobile phone, the call passes through multiple carrier networks between your current country and the destination. Each carrier in the chain charges a termination fee. By the time these fees are passed through to you, plus your own carrier’s markup, a simple call to a customer service line can cost $30 or more for a 15-minute interaction.

Toll-free numbers (0800 in the UK, 1-800 in the US) present an additional problem. These numbers are funded by the receiving company and are designed to be free for domestic callers. From outside the country, they either won’t connect at all or will route through at premium international rates.

This creates a frustrating paradox for expats: the institutions you most need to reach — banks, HMRC, the IRS, the NHS, Medicare — are often the hardest and most expensive to call from abroad.

The Options Available to Expats in 2026

Mobile carrier international calling. The simplest option, but by far the most expensive. Most UK carriers charge between 50p and £2 per minute for international calls, depending on the destination. US carriers like AT&T and Verizon charge $2 to $3 per minute without an international plan, or offer day passes at $10 to $12 per day. These rates make long hold times financially painful.

International calling add-ons. Some carriers offer bolt-on packages that reduce per-minute rates for specific countries. These can bring costs down to 10p to 30p per minute but require advance setup and often come with monthly fees regardless of usage.

VoIP mobile apps. Services such as Viber Out and MyTello offer competitive per-minute rates through dedicated mobile applications. The downside is that they require downloading and configuring an app, creating an account, and purchasing credit — all before you can make your first call. For regular callers this works well, but for the unexpected urgent call, the setup friction can be a barrier.

Browser-based calling services. A newer category that has grown significantly since Skype’s closure. Services such as Dialaroo allow users to make international calls directly from a web browser — Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge — without installing any software. You visit the website, select the destination country, enter the phone number, and the call connects through the phone network. The person you’re calling receives a normal phone call and needs no special app or setup on their end.

The rates for browser-based services are typically the lowest available. Dialaroo, for example, charges $0.02 per minute (roughly 1.5p) for calls to the US, approximately $0.04 per minute to the UK, and varies by country for other destinations. Credit is purchased on a pay-as-you-go basis with no subscription, and unused credit does not expire.

The browser-based approach has a practical advantage that is easy to overlook: it works on any device with a web browser. This includes a laptop at a coworking space, a tablet at a hotel, or a phone connected to Wi-Fi. There is no app to maintain, update, or re-install if you switch devices.

Setting Up Before You Leave

Regardless of which option you choose, a small amount of preparation before departure can prevent significant frustration later. Here are the steps that experienced expats recommend.

Compile your critical phone numbers in international format. Every number you might need to call from abroad should be saved in your phone’s contacts in full international format. For UK numbers, this means +44 followed by the number without the leading zero. For US numbers, +1 followed by the full ten digits. This ensures the number will connect correctly regardless of which country you are calling from or which service you are using.

Find the international contact numbers for your bank. Most major banks publish dedicated international numbers that are different from their domestic toll-free lines. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, and NatWest all have non-freephone numbers specifically for customers calling from abroad. In the US, Chase, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo do the same. Save these numbers before you leave — finding them while abroad with a locked account is considerably more stressful.

Set up a browser-based calling account in advance. Create an account and add a small amount of credit while you are still at home. Make a test call to verify that everything works — that your browser’s microphone permissions are correct, that the audio is clear, and that you are comfortable with the interface. A two-minute test call at home prevents a twenty-minute troubleshooting session at a foreign airport.

Understand your home carrier’s international policy. Know what your carrier charges for international calls, whether you have any add-on that reduces the cost, and whether your plan works at all in the country you are moving to. Many expats discover too late that their UK SIM stops working entirely after a prolonged period abroad due to EU roaming regulations that require “periodic” domestic use.

Consider a virtual phone number. For long-term expats, having a virtual phone number in your home country allows institutions to call you back on what appears to be a domestic number. This is particularly useful for receiving call-backs from banks and for two-factor authentication codes delivered by phone call rather than SMS. Several services, including Dialaroo, are adding virtual number capability to their platforms.

The True Cost Comparison

To put the numbers in perspective, consider a scenario that is common for British expats: calling HMRC to discuss a self-assessment query. The average wait time for HMRC is reported to be between 15 and 25 minutes, followed by a conversation that might last another 10 to 15 minutes.

Using a UK mobile carrier from abroad at £1 per minute, a 30-minute call to HMRC would cost approximately £30.

Using a carrier international add-on at 20p per minute, the same call costs £6 plus whatever monthly fee applies to the add-on.

Using a browser-based service like Dialaroo at roughly $0.04 per minute to a UK number, the same call costs approximately $1.20, or just under £1.

Over the course of a year, an expat who makes even a modest number of calls to institutions back home — perhaps 10 to 15 calls averaging 20 minutes each — could spend anywhere from £40 to over £600, depending on the method used. The difference is substantial enough to be worth the five minutes of setup time.

Receiving Calls and Verification Codes

Making outbound calls is only half of the communication challenge for expats. The other half is receiving calls and SMS messages from institutions back home.

Two-factor authentication has become standard for banking, government services, and many online accounts. These systems frequently send verification codes via SMS to your registered phone number. If that number is a UK or US mobile that you have cancelled or that does not have service abroad, you cannot receive the code and may find yourself locked out of your own accounts.

The emerging solution is virtual phone numbers — a number in your home country that forwards calls and texts to you over the internet. When your bank sends a verification code to your UK mobile number, it arrives in your browser or app rather than on a physical SIM card. Several providers are now offering this service, and it represents the next step in solving the expat communication problem.

Making It Work Long Term

The expats who manage international communication most effectively tend to assemble a small toolkit rather than relying on a single solution. A practical setup might include a local SIM for everyday data and local calls, a messaging app for communicating with friends and family who also use it, and a browser-based calling service for reaching institutions and phone numbers back home.

The cost of maintaining this setup is minimal — a local SIM typically costs a few pounds per month, messaging apps are free, and a browser-based calling service only charges when you use it. Together, they cover virtually every communication scenario an expat encounters.

The key is setting everything up before the moment of urgency arrives. Nobody wants to be creating accounts and troubleshooting microphone permissions while standing in a foreign hospital trying to get insurance authorisation. A few minutes of preparation makes all the difference.

Dialaroo is a browser-based international calling service offering pay-as-you-go calls to over 200 countries. Rates start from $0.02 per minute with no subscription or app download required.