Hey Guys,

For a while I was using various phone cards that can be bought in the stores. You all know the drama...dropped calls, unclear lines, can't get through, they say 32 minutes and you really get 20 minutes, etc....

Since then, I was introduced to pingo.com. I think its ok so far. Its cool because I don't have to buy paper phone cards anymore and I am able to recharge my minutes online $20 plus tax ($21.68) gives you a little over 200 minutes.

BUT, I don't have anything to compare pingo to, so I was wondering what kind of phone cards you guys use to call Ghana, how it works and how you feel about it.

Maybe we can help each other save some money and make the best of our $$$. Because as we all know, a long distance relationship, not to mention this process can be VERY expensive....

I have been using pingo.com since February and I am sticking to it. I love love love that I don't lose minutes when I don't get connected and not having to punch in a PIN is nice too.

I haven't really found anything else that matches up to that.

Well....if you think its cool....

I can honestly say that its cool especially when you have to travel, but I was just wondering what else is out there....

i was using penny talk, but it turns that it suck, as they charge for domestic connection time. anyway. better than verizon.

my hubby and i use webcams. it is the best, cheapest, closest way of communication so far. i get to see him every day!

Because of lights off, my fiance and I don't even send e-mails to each other as often. With the time difference combined with lights off, it really limits the time we have to connect using the internet

So true

I wish we had more options for comunication other than calling, texting and e-mail. My fiance and I stick mainly to just calling and texting. The unreliability if the internet/electricity makes it kind of pointless to go out and pay for internet service. Maybe the $55 billion to make internet universal in Africa will help out. But that is another topic for another thread

Ive heard good things about pingo, but we havent tried them yet. We've used IDT.net 's Global Calling cards and they are a very good value. 1-second rounding, no charge 'till the other party picks up, never had a dropped call, always clear connection, etc. Nothing but good things to say about our experiences with IDT.

Lets start that thread, girl!!!!

I have verizon wireless and I get killed with the text message charges. They don't have any international text packages so, I pay 25 cents outgoing and 20 cents incoming texts. It surely adds up! Before pingo, I was texting like crazy, my text message portion of the bill would be about 70 to 80 dollars a month!!!!! After months of $200 cell phone bills, I was glad to find pingo. Now, I just call instead of texting when I can. It works out to be much cheaper!

I use union telecard and they have many different available options on their by country. I chose a card that's about 18 cents a minute but I chose it because I don't have to pay maintenance fees or for calls that don't connect. The connection quality is always perfect and there are local connection numbers that I can use as well as an 800 number. I canprogram in Bassi through the computer so when I call the number I can automatically connect to him, which I like. It works for me especially since I'm impatient and don't like looking at lots of different plans to choose what I like.

My brother,

Go to this site and you'll find the best card ever to call africa. also you will be able to manage your account and also print your call log. zoganom.pushline.com

I use Pingo, well not much any more since my husband is here. He's the one using it, now! I like it for many reasons, especially because we could print out the call logs, which was very helpful for the interview. As with calling cards you don't have a record. From what I understand it is a big plus to have calling logs for the interview. I got real spoiled with pingo and didn't want to go back to calling cards, I love getting through the first time dialing, clear calls, pinless. There's a lot of plusses. I'd keep using it.

My husband just started using Nonoh...and he gets very very good rates and even text messages are not that bad. When he calls Nigeria he gets .06/landline and .11/cell phone. There is no crazy fees involved.

I use jajah. Its a voip thing. It cost me .16 a min to ghana cell. I add min online and can text very reliably (online) to my husband at .6 a text. you have the computer make your connection for you and then your phone rings and it says to wait while your phone is connected. you can print out a very detailed log. Sometimes the connection is not so great but Ill hang up and call again and its fine. You know whats funny? I think a lot in ghana use because one time I called my hubby and got crosswired to another man in ghana and we were both clueless. But that only happened once. what i love is there are no pins and I save his numbers to my website and i just click and it dials. I have internet on my cell phone and will connect to jajah.com on it and that lets me dial a call from my cell. I wish they would allow me to text on my phone. cause at&t charges me .20 and there is no way around that cause international text arent part of yr unlimited text deal. I think i will check out pingo to compare it though. I see that that is 14.5 to ghana. I gotta see if you can text from the site though. I love that feature with jajah and how it is so cheap and reliable.

Asante, maybe you are charged cause you live in same state as the company. I dont know if jajah NEVER charges tax but I am in cali and it doesnt charge me tax. and you dont lose your min if you dont connect but be careful if you dotry because sometimes it will connect but its a bad connect and you will hear just silence but the min are being used. just hang and try again. Im doing to try pingo and compare.

Never had crossed lines on pingo and I don't believe you can text through their service. I like them though

When printing the call logs from pingo, it opens up to an excel spread sheet but its not on any type of pingo letter head...is this still considered acceptable at the embassy? Because the only way that I see that I can get the pingo logo on there is if I print each page one by one, which wastes time and paper...not to mention more costly to mail because of the weight!

OR am I just not seeing another way?

I actually spent a bit of time printing those call logs out. Mine didn't open to the excel spread sheet, but I selected the section that I wanted to print and printed on both sides of the paper, lol. It did take time to do, and it was better to use up both sides, much less paper. Also, when I selected the portion I wanted to print, it didn't have pingo's name anywhere on it. I did just the portion in dark and light blue, so maybe you could print out the spread sheet, during the interview they didn't ask anything about the call logs.

We use pingo.

I think you will be satisfied with the service.

I have signed up and used pingo this last week. It does sound clear and I do like it but I might keep using jajah, cause they do sound the same in quality but jajah allows me to text for .06 a text to my husband. you can call jajah to jajah for free but not all countries have it Im thinking of using both. Jajah allows u to print out your log too and it shows yr sms activity too.




I have signed up and used pingo this last week. It does sound clear and I do like it but I might keep using jajah, cause they do sound the same in quality but jajah allows me to text for .06 a text to my husband. you can call jajah to jajah for free but not all countries have it Im thinking of using both. Jajah allows u to print out your log too and it shows yr sms activity too.

oh ok.

Pingo is great. the connection is unbelievable. I love it

Pingo! Pingo! Pingo!! I like it because I can use it from anywhere as long as I have the access number. I have the number programed in my cell and on my home phone. Even when I was stationed in Italy I was able to use it from work with no problem. I had vonage at home, it of course it was no problem. My husband uses it now to call home. I will admit that sometimes we have to call several times before we can get connected, but I think that has to do with the phone lines in Ghana, not Pingo. We also used the spreadsheet printout for my husband's interview with no problems. We included 3 months worth of calls. There were so many calls listed that I assume they don't think we sat down and made that whole thing up.. It's okay if it doesn't have the Pingo logo, it still looks like a phone log. Just wanted to add my two cents...

Thank you sooooo much Sankofa!!!! I was concerned about the spreadsheet, but glad to know it won't be a problem. Thanks mama!

oh my husband never got my text messages in brazil nor i got his here. so we don't text any more

but we use msn messenger. brazil has pretty good internet service, THANK GOD.

i feel sorry for you African couples!!!!!!!! that would be the just horrible, not to be able to communicate to my husband at length. phone is soooooo expensive. argh.

keep your phone bill records!

i started to print our emails, and in just over 1 year, we have more than 600 emails! that doesn't includes msn conversations and phone calls. incredible what power love has.

You are so right. I bet you if someone would have told you years ago that you would be sending that many e-mails and going throught his process for love, you would have highly doubted it. I know I would!

We use Pingo I used it before he got here and he uses it now to call friends and family. I discovered a little trick. My Husband usually makes the calls from his cell phone...yikes the minutes, if you call and dont get connected we were being charged, 1 min 1 min 1 min GRRRR! We have T Mobile 5 Faves, now you cant put an 800 number in your faves, they wont let you...but I found a local access number put that in the faves...now he can use the Pingo network and it does not count against his cell minutes, we only pay to charge up the Pingo!!

wanted to add... I printed out call records from Pingo for our interview, they did not have a problem with those.

i used several different ones and am pleased with pingo

Thank goodness my SO just got a landline....mannnnnn those calling cards were breaking my pockets....seriously! I use these phone cards called africa sky or somethingl like that...its lime green...I get em from gas station....best bang for ur buck. You can call naija mobile phone and talk for like an hour and 10 minutes for five bucks. I buy that when i wanna talk to my SO for long, but any other time I try and buy through this site called Pushline UK. Anyhoo...it allows me to track calls...and will allow for easy printing come interview time. Amazes me to see how much i've spent on phone calls during the year....things we do for love.

We also just started using yahoo messenger....saves us lots of money as well!

That sounds like a very interesting thread ZeeNusah... what is that all about?

I used to use Pingo but I had major connection problems with that. Now I use Peezy.com It's better and sometimes the rates are less than pingo, sometimes more, it fluctuates. Onesuite.com is ok too but again with the connection problems. Although I'm sure a huge part of the problem is the networking issues in Nigeria.. and def. the lights off is a problem even with the phone. When he goes very long w/out power he can't charge the phone.

with pingo.. and onesuite and even peezy, i open the call history on the website and copy and paste it to word. Only peezy won't allow me to copy the logo. When its in word I can play with the margins and the size of the table and i'm able to print it out more cost efficiently. I hope that helps.

Hmm, since you are the second person who asked I am going to start the thread

Cool! thanks.


Its about time!!!!