Pink Ritas and Lip Gloss

There are times when stubbornness in my family is good and there are many times when it is bad. Right now is one of those bad stubbornness times. My dad will be heading back to England next week to try and pin down a start date for the project he’s been assigned to. This whole project has turned into a much larger ordeal than any of us have imagined but it is dependent on another company who is building a plant in England so nothing my dad or his company can really do.

Now to the stubborn part that is driving Mike and I up the wall. My dad refuses to think about what he will need once he moves over there for his assignment. He does not understand that our US cell phones will not work over there and if they do he will incur a large roaming charge. So we have tried a few different suggestions: internet service, VoIP, local phone landlines. Nothing seems to work. So we are just going with the obvious: phone cards and hoping for the best.

After the experience of trying to use a regular AT&T phone card from Wal-Mart in Belgium (disaster), I did some Googling and found a website that specializes in international phone cards. I have a feeling that my dad could use these much more easier if we got a specific one that works with outgoing calls from England to the US. The rates I found are comparable to other cards - some are even cheaper - so I think this could be a good alternative. I think my game plan will be to go ahead and order one now so that it will come in time before he has to go on his next visit/meeting so he can try the card out and see if it is a good answer to this dilemma we are facing for 6 months while he is overseas. Everything else has huge fees for setup and cancellation so it seems silly to try something “permanent” for a temporary time period. The more I think about it the more I think these phone cards might be the way to go. Does anyone have any personal experience with this? Any advice to share?