Coping with the move from the UK to the US

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

We have Vonage with the UK virtual number. Been pretty happy with it EXCEPT whatever number they gave us used to be or is very similar to the access number for an international calling card service, probably to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (from what I have gathered from the people I chat to who call me). It is a pain in the butt because I get calls in the middle of the night from people who are really confused that they are speaking to a person in America and not waiting for the prompt to enter their PIN. YMMV, of course.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

We've had Vonage a couple of years. Love it. My husband had it in the UK for about 7.50 GBP a month. He kept it and brought the Vonage box with him. The box looks like a small router. It hooks up like this:

Cable modem-->computer router-->Vonage box-->any kind of phone plugged into the back of the Vonage box. We have the cordless kind with mutiple handsets.

So his family can call him by dialing a UK number. He's set it up to ring his mobile phone too, so even if we're out he gets his UK calls. I kept my Vonage too. Unlimited calling to a bunch of countries for $25 a month. Only drawback is you can't call mobiles in the UK for free since the mobile pricing scheme over there is different. I have no idea why we have both Vonage services but he wanted to keep his and it makes sense to have a US number for your house here. It's got some great features that are included. By all means let me give you a referral so we each get an extra free month over the standard offer.

Friends: Speaking from many years of experience, I think you'll find your friends change with your situation...sometimes it's where you work, or what your current hobby or interest is, or the parents who have kids in school with yours. I've got so many categories of friends where the closeness has changed but I have a helluva long Christmas card list.

And to Sundrop...I can't tell you enough times how important it is to get involved with your kids school or soccer or whatever activities. You know what's going on in your kid's world. You build a network of people early that will grow as your child does. By the time they are teens, they can't pull much on you because you've got this great network of parents that knows the scoop on anybody or anything or knows someone who does. It's a great investment of your time to get involved and stay involved with things your kids do outside the home. Somehow I see you being that type even though you indicated it wasn't your cup of tea.