How to Call South Africa from UK Cheap

This site presents information about how to make a cheap call South Africa. It is our aim to organise the website to allow you to access the relevant information as quickly as possible, so that you don't waste your time on unnecessary clicks and waiting for irrelevant pages to load. Please watch the video and read accompanying description in help section, How to Find Cheap Calls to South Africa from UK, to learn about different ways you can use the information on this website to find access numbers to South Africa the way which is faster for you. Once you're comfortable navigating through the website, these are the steps to make a cheap internation call to South Africa

1. Lookup South Africa in the table to find the corresponding access number. There is a number of ways you can find the best access numbers to call South Africa.
   Related help topics:
   How to Find and Make Cheap Calls to South Africa - video tutorial.
   Cheap calls table on South Africa page
2. Dial an access number for South Africa. Once you picked the cheapest and most reliable access number, pick up the phone and dial the access number. The number is usually a non-geographic number (NGN) which is charged at the rate, stated in the table, plus the access charge (your phone line operator charge).
   Related help topics:
   Call charges for access number to call South Africa
3. When connected, enter the full international phone number in South Africa, starting with 0027, and finish with the hash-key (#). After you dial the access number, you will be connected to automatic voice message, which will prompt you to dial the number. Please wait until the recorded voice message starts, before dialing the number in South Africa. Most providers allow you to start dialing the moment you hear the voice, so you don't have to wait till the end of the message. By pressing the hash-key (#) at the end of dialing, you speed up the process of connecting to the number in South Africa. If you don't press the hash-key (#), you will be connected after some pause. Note, that you will be charged from the moment you hear recorded voice message and not from the moment someone in South Africa answers the call.
   Related help topics:
   Call charges for access number to call South Africa
   Problems with connection when calling South Africa using access numbers

You may be able to call South Africa absolutely free of charge. No service charges to pay, no connection charges to pay - zero cost in total. Some of the access numbers start with 0845 or 0870 and can cost anything between local rate to 15 pence per minute. However, if you have inclusive minutes package to 0845 and 0870 numbers then your calls to South Africa are very likely to be free (please read about cost of inclusive calls and caveats in help section How free are inclusive minutes to 01, 02, 03, 0845, 0870 access numbers to call South Africa). If you have a valid package with inclusive calls, then you would want to see those inclusive access numbers to South Africa at the top of the search priced as 0.0p/min, because that's what they cost to you. You can do this by clicking on Optimise search for inclusive calls to 01, 02, 03 numbers or 01, 02, 03, 0845, 0870 numbers. located in the top left corner menu and in the text above the rates table on South Africa page. The selected mode will also be shown at the footer of the page next to all_inclusive icon. Once you're comfortable navigating through the website, these are the steps to make a cheap internation call to South Africa

1. Select inclusive calls mode, as explained in the paragraph above. The mode will be shown at the footer of the page next to all_inclusive icon.
2. Lookup South Africa in the table to find inclusive (free) access number. If you don't find any inclusive access numbers on All Destinations page, then there are no access numbers available for calls to South Africa that match your inclusive calls package. There will be no inclusive access numbers available on South Africa page either. You can pick the cheapest reliable access number instead.
   Related help topics:
   How to find free Calls to South Africa with inclusive minutes to 0845, 0870 numbers
   How to Find and Make Cheap Calls to South Africa - video tutorial.
   Cheap calls table on South Africa page
3. Dial free access number for South Africa. Once you picked the free access number, pick up the phone and dial the number. The number is usually a non-geographic number (NGN) which is free charge with inclusive calls package, subject to fair usage policy of your phone line operator.
   Related help topics:
   How free are inclusive minutes to 0845, 0870 access numbers to call South Africa
   Call charges for access number to call South Africa
4. When connected, enter the full international phone number in South Africa, starting with 0027, and finish with the hash-key (#). After you dial free access number, you will be connected to automatic voice message, which will prompt you to dial you number in South Africa. Please wait for the recorded voice message start, before dialing.
   Related help topics:
   How free are inclusive minutes to 0845, 0870 access numbers to call South Africa
   Problems with connection when calling South Africa using access numbers

When you select one of the inclusive calls mode adjustment options in the menu, the search will be optimised for that call package, either inclusive minutes to 01, 02, 03 numbers or inclusive minutes to 01, 02, 03, 0845, 0870 numbers respectively. This action will reprice all access numbers to South Africa, which are included in your package, to be 0.0p/min. This means that calls to those numbers are completely free, subject to fair usage as defined by your landline provider (please also see a general help section Inclusive calls explained. for more detail). Usually, you will not be paying either access charge or service charge. So, by optimising the search according to your calling plan (or call package) on this website you will be presented with prices for calls to South Africa that are true to your circumstances. Note that this optimisation setting stays on as you navigate between All Destinations page and South Africa page. The mode of optimisation is shown at the footer of the page next to all_inclusive icon. To navigate from All Destinations page to South Africa page, please expand South Africa row on the main page then, click on more_horiz at the bottom of the expanded South Africa row).

The time in South Africa now is 03:12. Sometimes it is easy to forget that not everybody is living by the same time as you. Before calling South Africa, please check the time there. Call Rates Scanner website shows the current time for each destination, including South Africa. On the main page, the current time for each destination appears in one of the table columns. On South Africa page, the current time appears in the header of the page (on the right hand side). It may be worth thinking, before calling South Africa, if the person would be thrilled to get a call from you at this time :). It pays to be organized and know your time zones. You can plan your phone calls using a plethora of tools that support time zones, Google Calendar being one of them. There is a huge resource of tools and information about time zones on www.timeanddate.com including the Meeting Planner which can help you to find the best time to call across different time zones.

There are several reasons for the connection being dropped, or for low sound quality (choppy audio, echo, latency, etc.) or failure to connect at all. One of them is that some networks can be more busy than others, during popular events; the connection problem may go away when you try calling a number in South Africa again. Sometimes, calling a number in South Africa can take more than one attempt to connect. Please note that you are charged the moment you call an access number and not when someone picks up the phone. Another factor may be that, not all providers of cheap international calls, listed on this website, maintain the same quality of service. Even though the connection is terminated with analogue phone lines, the connection in between is supplied by VoIP. During busy times, providers may be tempted to squeeze more calls through the same internet bandwidth, thus reducing the quality of the audiowhich results in various digital artefacts of the sound, mentioned earlier.

Call Rates Scanner is devoted to ensuring that the information about cheap international calls to South Africa is accurate. We strive to provide impartial and free evaluation of cheap call providers that are compared on this website. When you open the page with cheap calls to South Africa , you will be presented with the table that not only lists call the rates of a given provider, but also the call quality and reliability of information presented by this provider. Please refer to general help section About information in the table on country pages., or a relevant link in related topics below, for more detail. Sometimes it is worth dialing a slightly more expensive access number, which is proven to be more reliable. Although, we try to monitor providers regularly, please note that the information about the connection reliability is not updated daily, unlike access numbers and prices. In addition, only a random subset of access numbers and destinations is used to evaluate each low cost call provider, in order to establish the sound quality of the call. This is due to the limited resources that Call Rates Scanner has at its disposal. If you find that the sound quality or the accuracy of information for a specific provider is different from that stated here, please inform us, stating which destination in South Africa you called and which access number you used. It will help other people like you, who are looking for cheap and reliable international calls to South Africa. Our contact details can be found at Call Rates Scanner Contact page.

Related help topics:
Call charges for access number to call South Africa
Cheap calls table on South Africa page