QUOTE (Vonderahe @ May 18 2012, 03:53 PM)

Does anyone know of any free text / talk options to communicate with my familyin the U.S. while I am in England next week? AT&T quoted me $1.39 a min!
The best option is if you have a phone that will place calls over wi-fi. But definitely check with your provider to make sure they won't charge you when you do that overseas. Just because it does not cost them a cent does not mean they won't try to charge you for it...
Another option (not free, but dirt cheap) is to use Google Voice on a computer.
Then there is a combined option: with an iPhone or Android phone you can use
Talk-a-Tone to place a Google Voice call using your phone. Again make sure you never data roam internationally, only use wi-fi connection unless you want to get a very large bill.
Vincent