A big communication barrier

[The_Sage1 2]

My wife and I in the US cannot find any reasonably affordable way to talk to her family back in the Philippines. It seems everything is a rip off. I'm not willing to spend a bunch of money just to chat on the phone especially since we already have phone bills anyway. My localphone account, which acts like a calling card is 12 cents a minute, which is way too much. My original communication plan fell flat on the ground. I bought her family a netbook and set up their skype account for 3 dollars a month unlimited calling to the US and payed for them to have internet and phone. I found out later they stopped paying their internet bill so their service was cut off, so there's no use in trying that now. How can we call their cell phones and not get charged a fortune?

[belinda63 2,981]

Have you checked into magic jack?

[Atencio 43]

$0.12/minute is best I have found that works all the time to a cell phone.

Internet really is the only cheap way to go. If they are going to spend the money

you send on internet for something else then I would just tag it as their loss.

Only other option would be if the internet provider will take a years payment in advance

and then you pay directly. I paid my inlaws cable bill for a whole year. What a bargain.

$70.00 to install and provide service for the year.

[Indy90 21]

My wife and I in the US cannot find any reasonably affordable way to talk to her family back in the Philippines. It seems everything is a rip off. I'm not willing to spend a bunch of money just to chat on the phone especially since we already have phone bills anyway. My localphone account, which acts like a calling card is 12 cents a minute, which is way too much. My original communication plan fell flat on the ground. I bought her family a netbook and set up their skype account for 3 dollars a month unlimited calling to the US and payed for them to have internet and phone. I found out later they stopped paying their internet bill so their service was cut off, so there's no use in trying that now. How can we call their cell phones and not get charged a fortune?

Are there internet cafes where she lives? My wife has internet in her house, so we just do skype to skype calls, which are entirely free, but sometimes she goes to an internet cafe, which costs like 80 cents a minute, to call me skype to skype. Maybe that is not an option there.

[TOM&Riz 4]

My wife and I in the US cannot find any reasonably affordable way to talk to her family back in the Philippines. It seems everything is a rip off. I'm not willing to spend a bunch of money just to chat on the phone especially since we already have phone bills anyway. My localphone account, which acts like a calling card is 12 cents a minute, which is way too much. My original communication plan fell flat on the ground. I bought her family a netbook and set up their skype account for 3 dollars a month unlimited calling to the US and payed for them to have internet and phone. I found out later they stopped paying their internet bill so their service was cut off, so there's no use in trying that now. How can we call their cell phones and not get charged a fortune?

If they are not responsible enough to pay the internet bill every month (what P995) then it's thier own fault if they can't talk to ya'll

alternative method is to get a globe internet account and pay it yourself online wired or wireless PhP995 per month and you can do automatic credit card payments online

[Norm and Grace 0]

My wife and I in the US cannot find any reasonably affordable way to talk to her family back in the Philippines. It seems everything is a rip off. I'm not willing to spend a bunch of money just to chat on the phone especially since we already have phone bills anyway. My localphone account, which acts like a calling card is 12 cents a minute, which is way too much. My original communication plan fell flat on the ground. I bought her family a netbook and set up their skype account for 3 dollars a month unlimited calling to the US and payed for them to have internet and phone. I found out later they stopped paying their internet bill so their service was cut off, so there's no use in trying that now. How can we call their cell phones and not get charged a fortune?

I havnt tried it yet but give these a try.

--http://evaphone.com/

--http://www.tel3advantage.com/content/triple.jsp?countryid=203&agentnumber=828781&campaignid=12427&campaignpageno=163&

--http://www.nobelcom.com/phone-cards/calling-Philippines-from-United-States-1-227.html&nm=4&nh=1&clkt=160&jca=1954? ef_id=1211:3:c_b6f5cb431760548e8ab3d4ecec93bd43_2877201241:TDptEwqoEEQAAFyClB4AAMO6:20100712011707

[The_Sage1 2]

I just spoke to a user here about Magic Jack and he explained to me how it works. It's an excellent deal but I can't force my wife's family to pay their internet bill to use it. The globe internet account is a wonderful idea though. If I can pay it myself, then I can hook them up with Magic Jack.

[floridadave 195]

I use Skype on a yearly subscription with phone number. About $72/year. I purchase credits in $10 chunks to call China which is about 2 cents/min. I'll call China for 30-40 minutes at a time, can't even feel it. To save my cell minutes I use Skype a lot for daytime domestic calls. If you go with Skype yearly subscription, be forewarned, they will automatically renew your subscription and email you a notice to this effect. You can cancel at any time, but it will not go into effect until after your current subscription expires. Anyone else have a cheaper plan? I'm always game for saving money! But I don't want to sacrifice voice quality as my Skype is pretty decent.

Oh yes, I also do video chat with voice too. That's free. Most, if not all laptops/desktops sold these days have the camera and mic already built in. If you can set it up on both sides you'll have unlimited voice/video chat at no cost--assuming the equipment is already in place. And you can still type to your hearts content if you like.

UPDATE: I now see Skype is pretty expensive for the Philippines. Don't know why. Sorry. I'll leave the post here though as the info may be helpful to someone else.

[inloveVEN 46]

Hi

Using MagicJack,she can call you from everywhere.

She just need to go with the device to a place with internet like a cyber,a friend home, any job.

Is the best way to get in touch. You just need the device ( this is an small devive ) plus an headphone with microphone.

It should work for you both to keep in touch and talk about everything you want it.

[The_Sage1 2]

There is a big money saving loop-hole to skype though. You can set up the person in the Philippines' account on skype to be a US account and then put your card information in for $3.00/month unlimited US/Canada plan and the person in the Philippines can call any landline/cell phone in the US for nothing but the 3 dollars a month that you pay. The downside is that you still don't have the benefit of calling them, unless they are on skype that is.

I checked Globe's website and they have a 1 megabyte per second plan for 995 pesos a month. Is this sufficient in speed?

[inloveVEN 46]

Hi, i am sorry, i misunderstood you, thats why i told you my las reply.

there are many kinds of calling cards, that are really cheap and based on the country you can find some useful card. that combined with a flat phone plan you can save a lot of money.

you can budget how much money you are allowed or willing to pay because normally those calling cards advice about how much money and time is still available in the card and you can calculate how log it last. so it is easy for you to follow a budget and fix limits to that expenses.

[lostinlove03 2]

I am not sure if VonageWorld includes where they live. But, I use it, it's $25 a month you can get on your cell or landline. If you get it on your cell, it has to be a iphone or blackberry.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

I am not sure if VonageWorld includes where they live. But, I use it, it's $25 a month you can get on your cell or landline. If you get it on your cell, it has to be a iphone or blackberry.

No it doesn't include the Philippines.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

My wife has been using Yahoo Msgr to talk to her family and friend via a web cam and rarely if ever uses the phone. If her family has trouble paying the internet bill, I'd recommend setting up an account in your wife's name and pay the service yourself. You'll save a ton of money in the long run. Be sure to get them decent internet service with a high enough speed for video conferencing. According to my wife, the cost could be $20 to $40 a month, which is way more affordable than calling them directly, even using phone cards.

[lbounds 16]

http://www.pinoytawagunlimited.com has unlimited calling to PH for $40 a month. I've been thinking about changing to this for a while. Right now I just use my normal phone service which is 16 cents a min and too much.