The Crafty Traveller:

After a long investigation into rip-off charges for roaming - the term used to describe using a mobile abroad - the European Commission has imposed price caps. Now, the maximum phone operators can charge us to call a UK number from another European Union country works out at around 38p per minute and to receive a call in an EU country cannot cost more than 19p per minute.

Yet these charges are on the whole much higher than those for using your mobile in the UK. In addition, the cost of roaming in any country outside the EU is unaffected by the new regulations.

With charges as high as these, it's all too easy to rack up astronomical bills by making just a few calls to check up on the cats or your gran. So, here are a few Crafty tips to help keep your roaming costs down.

Contact your mobile operator earlier you go to see whether it has to activate your phone to make it usable abroad, or whether there's anything else you need to do. Phoning customer services from abroad may so then be charged at the high roaming rates.

Look into roaming discount packages - many operators now offer lower call rates, usually on the oher side of the coin for an extra monthly fee. For instance, for £2 a month Orange's Frequent Traveller bundle cuts the cost of making calls from Australia by near a third, and of receiving calls Down In accordance with by 50 per cent.

Month for O2'

Pay £10 a month for O2's My Europe Extra, and you not only get discounts on making calls nevertheless received calls are free in most European countries. Vodafone's Passport tariff, usable in 30 countries, is a good option if you like long chats. You pay an initial 75p for each call you make or receive, but at that time your usual UK rate - and there is no monthly charge.

Shop around - charges can vary significantly between operators. For instance, on its standard pay-monthly tariffs for Spain, 3 charges 25p to make and 10p to receive calls per minute, during Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin and Vodafone all charge 38p and 19p to make and receive calls. Use www.onecompare.com to see at first different operators' roaming rates by country.

Buy a foreign pay-as-you-go SIM card - this is the little microchip card in your handset, containing your account details, including the phone number. By replacing your UK SIM with one for the country you're visiting, you avoid roaming charges altogether. For instance, by using an Australian SIM card bought through supplier 0044, rates plummet to as little as 7p per minute to call the UK and 16p per minute to phone an Australian number.

Fraction of roaming rates

These charges are a fraction of roaming rates, and incoming calls are on the whole free if you use local SIMs. So, if you plan on being in one country for a lengthy period, or you visit a particular place on a frequent basis - for instance, if you own a second home - getting a local SIM is then worth considering.

However, it's not for everyone. Firstly, there's an initial outlay to purchase the card - with 0044, it's £20 to £35, with some call credit. Secondly, you broadly speaking have to have a new phone number. Thirdly, you may need to unlock your handset, for which there could be a charge. And when all is said and done the new, lower roaming tariffs in the EU inevitably mean savings in Europe are less dramatic than elsewhere.

Alternative

As an alternative, round-the-world or frequent business travellers might be interested in a global SIM card, which can be used in dozens of countries.

However, charges for making calls on global SIMs are higher than on countryspecific SIMs, and in many destinations you all in all pay to receive calls.

For UK-based suppliers of SIM cards, see www.0044.co.uk, www.sim4travel. co.uk, www.gosim.com and www. uk2abroad.co.uk.

Consider which network you use during overseas. Some operators have flat rates, regardless of which local network your phone links up to when abroad, however others have variable charges. For instance, with Vodafone, it can cost £1.25 per minute to call Britain from the US on the Cingular AT& T network, yet £1.49 per minute on other networks. Your handset should let you manually select a network.

Ask callers to ring your mobile back because it's much cheaper to receive than to make calls. Better nevertheless, and this is what I do when possible, if you have access to a land line ask them to call back on that line. Even at normal BT rates, the cost of the conversation will be much less than it would be on your mobile.

Pricey business when roaming

Voicemail is a pricey business when roaming. You are mostly charged international roaming rates twice over - for receiving the message and at the time for listening to it. So make sure you answer your phone or, if you don't anticipate getting any urgent calls, set your phone to divert all incoming calls - by doing this, you should avoid voicemail charges.

Use text messaging. Charges for sending texts from abroad have not been capped by the European Commission, so they are high. Nevertheless they're for all that a lot cheaper than chatting away on your mobile and, unlike receiving calls, receiving texts when you're abroad is free.

Few years ago I stayed at a hotel in the Caribbean and

A few years ago I stayed at a hotel in the Caribbean and, in just five days, managed to run up a bill of £350 - absolutely from telephone calls. This was largely because, to check my email, I had to dial up the office computer in London with an internet connection so slow tortoises were speeding past it.

Shortly afterwards that I acquired a wifienabled laptop and a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) connection and have not given any hotel a penny for phone calls since.

The extreme cheap calls via the internet

VoIP - Voice over Internet Protocol - allows you to make free or in the extreme cheap calls via the internet. All you need is a headset with a microphone - a cheap one costs about £6 - that plugs into your computer to allow you to communicate.

The best-known VoIP provider is Skype - now owned by eBay - which offers free calls to other Skype users. Free calls!

Think how much you can save ringing loved ones in Australia or Timbuktu - and if you both have webcams you can enjoy video calls too.

I have signed up with VoIPCheap which allows calls for a few pence to any regular phone in a huge range of countries from Australia to the United States. It as well allows you to send text messages to mobile phones.

I have VoIPed from all over the world. When I was in Antigua a couple of weeks ago, and connected to some dodgy wi-fi networks, the VoIP connection was always rock solid.

Now I have BT Total Broadband Option 3, which comes with a home VoIP phone that for an extra £4.95 per month allows free calls to local and national UK numbers at any time.