>>Does the cheapest/easiest way for us to keep in contact simply involve
>>her buying any old USA pay as you go mobile phone and then me calling
>>her via a voice over ip service?
>
>
> using 18866 or the like could be cheaper, depending on rates offerred
> by the VoIP provider for calls out to US numbers.
>
> Prepay is far less common in th eUSA and mobiles have standard area
> code numbers.

Thanks for all your advice so far guys, everyone that replied to my
questions.

I do have broadband, though she won't have internet access when she's
over there I don't think.

I like the idea of something like the pre-dial service, that seems
pretty cheap, and I could call their access number using the free
landline minutes I get with my '3' mobile contract here in the UK.

You say that prepay telephones arent that common in the US, are they
available anywhere at all? She doesn't have a triband phone... She'll
be working in or around the ocean city area in maryland... can she pick
up a prepay mobile there do you think?

Cheers.