UKC

Insurance companies you can contact via WhatsApp.

I have been traveling in India and nipped up to Nepal and had to increase the cover on my insurance. Managed it via email so all well and good.

However it got me thinking about if I wished to make a claim and wanted to speak with them.

Phoning uk lines from Europe on roaming packages is one thing, but from India it could all get a bit prohibitive.

I wondered if any companies accept WhatsApp calls as you can do them over wifi, or is it possible to phone uk numbers over WiFi.

This issue really showed the advantage of an App based bank over and old style.

Neither of my cards would work in ATMs in India, and the only way to contact Halifax was via a uk phone number, but my App based account was dead easy via chat from within the App, once signed in it was like being in the bank, no security questions or that palaver, because I had already passed security to be in the App.

One option would be to see whether you can enable "WiFi calling". It's complicated because it has to be supported by your provider, enabled by them on your account and also available and enabled on your phone (with availability sometimes depending on software or firmware versions as well as phone model). You'd also need to make sure that your normal mobile reception was turned off while using it, to avoid unforeseen call charges if the WiFi dropped out or your provider used the connection to detect that you were abroad. But if you can get it to work then you could call any number as if you were in the UK. It's also worth having within the UK as I find these days there are some places with great WiFi but intermittent or mediocre mobile signal for normal calls.

Depends on the country, but Skype calls aren't usually that expensive 

Does this work abroad? Wifi calling is a strange beast, it's not like WhatsApp or Skype, minutes are charged for (albeit most people have essentially unlimited UK minutes).

Thank you for that informative reply. I now recall I have looked into wifi calls before, and my phone does not support them.

I do not want to buy a new phone, but the next one will be dual sim and perhaps wifi call enabled. Having said that I like my current moto 7 power for the battery life.

Skype, that could be worth looking into, thanks purpleme.