Well, i guess everyone in here have a finance or wife in Vietnam and you guys do communicate with them through chatting, phone card and email. I just want to know the best way that we can communicate with them as a cheaper rate like talking on the phone stuff (we still can receive the log to prove for evidence). Currently, i am using the vnfone ip phone. For her to call me, it costs 3 cents/min and 1 cent/min on ip to ip. The service is not that really reliable. I called her from my cell phone to her cell phone and it cost me 13.7 cents/min. I want you guys input on this. so we can help each others on saving the money on calling. Yesterday, I had my friend bring back to Vietnam a Vonage box to see it will work or not. I will let you guys know on this tomorrow.

13.7 cents/minute is a very good rate. I think I pay $0.19/minute using a land line.

Yahoo and Skype is free for PC to PC calls (with webcam).

Make sure you have a provider that will send you a monthly history of your calls - you'll need them for the interview.

Skype, Cell phone txt messages, Yahoo. The occasional phone call. All the solutions have logs or ways of showing that particular communication.

At first I used prepaid calling cards at around 20cents/min., then Yahoo chat for a while, then it has been primarily between Sightspeed and Skype since April. Occasionally, I also text msg to her on Sprint.

She can call my cellphone from her computer for about 2 cents/min..

The U.S. prepaid cards did not give me any logs. The rest I could get some sort of logs.

I use http://www.minowireless.com/ and have been very happy. You have to place the call from the internet, or from your cell phone's browser. The latter costs you about 1KB of data per call (regardless of length). Note that only the initiation (not duration) of the call requires internet, then MINO's servers take over: server calls you at the phone number you entered, you pick it up, then server dials the recipient's number, and connects the two of you. Rate per minute goes like 12.4 cents to Vietnam, and minutes are real minutes, not like a lot of scatchoff phone cards that cheat on minutes. And you do get a nice call log for your interview.

CK&Tydi's 13.7 cents/minute cell-to-cell is also very good. How did you get that?

I used a company called EOT. They let you use your own phone or cell phone to call Viet Nam. It's something like 13 cents a minute and you get an itemized bill everymonth. It's pretty cool. You call an american phone number, like, 1(206)...then, instead of someone answering, you hear a dile tone and enter the international number you wish to call. I liked that because I could call my wife on her cell phone, whenever. (888) 420 0300 is their number...

savingcall.com you get cheap rates to vietnam mobile/landline. I've been using since september. It's great.

Well, You guy can try to go to this website. www.vnfone.com.

I bought both of the IP Phones. One for her in VN and one for me here. This phone costs about 80 bux and $10 credit to your phone. This phone will work both with the internet or without the internet. It can hook up to the regular phone and Dial 1269 before you can make a call to the US. Remember, 1269 will cost you for the local call in VN. If she calls from Vietnam to here, it costs 3 cents/min and IP to IP is 1 cent/min. Also, they do provide Calling Card too. Calling from your cell phone to Vietnam. It costs 13.7 cents/min and to the land line is 11.7 cents/min. Also, they do have call logs provide it to you for the Interview.

The only problem i got with the IP phone service was it was not working 100%. Sometimes, my fiance have to try so many times to make a call. This i don't know because of my Fiance ISP provider or the IP phone service.
So it really bugs me on this. Beside that it does save me a lot of money on the calling because we do talk daily average 1 hours plus.


You guys can give it a shot..


Also, i activated the Vonage service a few days ago and i had the Vonage box at my fiance home. She could not get it to work yet. Maybe the ISP provider block the service. I will be back in Vietnam this coming Thursday and will figure out if i can get it to work or not and I will update to you guy here. If it works, will be good for all of us. Cuz you know your, when your fiance is here, she will call home a lot. It will costs a lot of money. If this thing work, you only have to pay under 30 bux a month and you can call it from your home fone as a local call.

Huan, I think it is the same provider but they are under different name. Anyway, i dont' know if you know you can program a quick dial number of your love one on it. Like her Cell, or home on the quick dial list. When you call the Dial in number then you only have to press 1# or 2 # depend on how you program it. This way you don't have to punch in those long phone numbers all the time.

Thank you for the tips. I didn't know you can do that.


Here are features I found useful on savingcall.com you can set:
-incoming phone number to be pinless (remember to show caller id for it to work)
-outgoing phone number quick dial number (1-9)
-view itemized call log

The calling card i got was from v247.us. It is the same company as savingcall.com. I have to use my friend agent account to go in and set my Speed Dialing access # and print the call logs. Anyway, the service on the calling card is not too bad compare with all the calling cards out there. They keep charging you on the connection fee and some hidden fee. End up you pay more per min then what they are advertise for.


On the IP phone is the deal saver if you call them from home. I think it is good anyway since the time different. Nite and Day. This will work if someone hate to use a computer.


I saw they have another service in Little Saigon here in Orange County. It cost 7.7 cents/min to call back in Vietnam. This company will provide you a Desk CDMA phone. It just need power to it then people in Vietnam can receive a phone call from the US. You have to pay a fix fee like $50 for 650 min. or $30 for 300 min. Use it or loose kind thing. It is short off prepaid phone service like your Cell Phone. It got it pro and con. WIth this service, people in VietNam can not call to the US, they can only receive a call from the US. Other hand you can bring this phone to any house in Vietnam and plug in to the wall and receive a call from the US.

Well, these are the two options i see that you can save some money for calling back to Vietnam. Both of them do offer call logs so you can print out and provide at the interview.


If anyone in here have better method, please provide it so we can use it.

Hello everyone!

Well, just a quick update on this item again. Finally, i am done with all the wedding ceremony stuff. I finally got some free time and got the VONAGE box to work. It was a little tricky to get the Vonage box to register to the Internet in Vietnam and get an IP address. But, I got it to work and the sound was so clear. I did a few test calls to the State and had my friend to call me back. Vonage does work in Vietnam. So who ever interest in getting the Vonage service to save money on the long distance call then you guy should give it a try.

Anyway, time to go have some lunch. Will keep you guy update again. I guess i have some free time. Need to pay a visit to the consulate to check on my Package 3. Wish me luck.........


Have a great day!!

Why did you use the phone card with that rate?? I found out the phone company with 9 cents/minute. Call 1-888-586-3988 if you want. This company can provide the phone list when you need evidence for the Visa process.

Well, it is depend on what company and the region of your state. Local phone company only work with the home fone. You can not use the discount rate when you call from our cell phone. Anyway, my point is the Vonage Service do work in Vietnam. that will save me alot of money in the long run. cuz my wife will use it to call her family when she arrives in the state. less than 30 bux a month then over few hundreds a month on the calling card or any other services.

I have signed up with Vonage and connected at my fiancee house on my Sept 06 trip to Vietnam.It worked great.

Yahoo Voice is "only" 9.9 cents a minute. I have yet to try it but I am going to. It does have the prerequisite "call log" and you can dial land lines and cells. http://voice.yahoo.com/phone_calls.php;_yl...jbUFPnUw7iy6.t3

Nah, yahoo is too expensive...... savingcall.com is much cheaper. for Land line costs only 6.7 cents a minute and to the cell is 9.7 cents a minute. give you really good detail on the call logs...... You dont have to deal with a computer. Just use your cell or home phone to call. and you can set your number to your account and you dont' need to put any Pin for it......

Add my vote for Saving call. I have been using them for about a year now for cellphone calling. For "home calling," I use skype phones between my house in the US and my sister's/wife's houses in Vietnam which only cost 99 dollars per device for the initial purchase and zero recurrence costs.

Since no one mentioned it...

I use Pingo. It's very straightforward, unlike PennyTalk and others I've used. 99/cent a month maintenance fee. No connection fees. Local numbers available. Rates to VN are 8 cents and 10 cents for landlines and mobiles, respectively. They offer complete billing history and call history that stays on the site for at least a year. Best of all, using caller id, you can program it to automatically recognize your account.

Wow, old thread

Yahoo Voice Stinks. I was in a pinch and decided to use them. 3 hours later and I have yet to reach my loved one. I DO NOT RECOMMEND USING YAHOO VOICE!

I used to use Yahoo Messenger and the phone feature in it and had no problems at all chatting with my friend in the Philippines

I use http://www.mywebcalls.com

Vietnam 0.084 USD
Vietnam Hanoi 0.070 USD
Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City 0.064 USD
Vietnam Mobile 0.085 USD

i use only Yahoo Messenger to call her from computer to computer. I find it is crystal clear and far superior to land line in every way. I can actually hear her and have no lag times, etc. Oh, its also free and has a log.

The point is you don't get tie to the damn computer......... Plus you can get call logs to print out for your interview. I tried all those internet phone cards on the net, either they lied and rip you off on the Minutes and Fee. With Savingcall you get charged by the minutes that you call and the sound is crystal clear........... YOu can call anytime any where from your home, mobile phone and even on your PC too. For my case, i dont' want to get tied to the computer all the times. The keys is Save $$$$$$ and have logs for interview.

For Vonage Service, this service still works.......

Maybe the tied to the computer thing is a generational preferance. . personally i would rather sit at a computer than walk around on the cell any day. but i've also been using computers since i was about 4 years old . Yahoo has all sorts of logs that I will be bringing along.

For random talking we just text back and forth. This has a log on my Tmobile service.

Good times .

LIke i said what ever work for you best........ Key point is to save money and convience .... I just want to point out some good services so people can use it. For my case, i do not want to sit on the damn computer for 10 hours plus at work then few more hours at home......... heheh. Don't want to be a computer freak........

So how is your case? Get all the paperworks prepare?..........

Yeah, packet 3 is complete and we are waiting on packet 4. I'm heading back there in Oct and we will finish getting all the evidences ready for the interview. She already has all the other paper work and documents collected and ready. She's also starting english classes on the 1st for 3 days a week to get her confidence up. She speaks and understands enough to communicate and get points across etc, but she has little if any confidence in her english. She'll be ready for the interview though, i'm sure.

I finally got it working. The sound/voice quality is not bad. I'm still a little ticked that it took so long.

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