When living abroad or travelling regularly overseas, you will want to ensure you are connected to your friends, family and key contacts. Thankfully, the world has become a much smaller place over the last few years, with numerous technological advances and communication options now available – meaning that loved ones can now keep in touch at the click of a mouse.
The team at OverseasGuidesCompany.com looks at three top tips to ensure you remain connected:
Make use of online options
Social media
Social networks can be great for regular use – keeping you up to date with the activities of your friends and family, as well as ensuring they stay informed on everything you are up to.
Video calling
Video call programmes can be great for free long distance calls. Skype or FaceTime, for example, can be used when both parties have Wi-Fi and connectivity. What often works well is selecting a regular time when you and whomever you want to contact can spend some time on the phone, seeing each other’s faces as well as hearing each other’s voices.
Blogging
Another way to keep in touch with your old life is by creating a blog. This enables you to update loved ones back home on everything you are doing, and gives a forum for them to share thoughts and communicate back and forth.
Research telephone and broadband deals
If you have elderly relatives who are not online, or you can’t always guarantee a good enough Wi-Fi speed, you may wish to invest in a telephone deal to stay in touch. What’s important here is conducting enough research to ensure you find the right tariff to suit your particular requirements. International phone calls can be expensive, so you don’t want to be paying for something you will not use regularly enough to benefit from (or run up ridiculously high telephone bills).
Make use of online services for post and parcels
Sending international post can be complex and expensive – and will often take longer than you expect. If you want to send presents or other parcels to your friends and family back in the UK, our best recommendation is to make use of online shopping options. Using a UK-based store, such as Marks and Spencer, or even buying through Amazon will ensure you can be more certain about when gifts will arrive and often cheaper. You can even include gift-wrapping, saving time and additional expense.
Sending cards, letters or any other written correspondence can now also be done online quickly and easily – with companies like Moonpig particularly popular for greetings cards, which are posted in the UK to save you time and money.
