Cheap/Free long distance calling

[Amyyduck 20]

So I know a lot of people use Skype to talk to their fiances or spouses overseas but my fiance has a terrible internet connection and our schedules are so busy that the only time I'm really able to call him is on my lunch hour at work. I don't have skype on my work computer (we aren't sophisticated enough to have cameras and mics, lol) I also don't have a super fancy phone that has skype capabilities on it.

Anyway, I use this service called Rebtel. (www.rebtel.com) You can sign up for free and what happens is you put in two phone numbers (my US cell and his UK cell #'s) and it spits out two new numbers. One that is "local" to him and one that is "local" to me. So I dial this new "local" number and my cell phone thinks I'm making a regular call. It rings on his end and shows up in his caller ID as a number local to him. He picks up the phone, hangs up, and then redials that same number that showed up on his caller ID so our two lines connect in cyber space and the call is 100% free and the quality is good and I can call him on my lunch break from my cell phone! It sounds a little bit complicated describing it here but its really not at all once you save the numbers in your phone. You speed dial fiance's rebtel #, he hits send, end, then send again (from a cell) and you're connected! It's like voip I think, but you don't have to pay for any landlines or anything like with vonage or whatever. The only cost with Rebtel is the cost of a making a regular call. I have Verizon Wirless for example but I have unlimited minutes so it costs me nothing. If you only have free nights and weekends you could use it then and it would still cost you nothing. If you pay as you go, it will cost you the same as just regular local phone calls.

The catch is that you can only get the free calling like this in (I think) about 50 countries. For the rest of them you have to pay but they have pretty good rates from what I've seen and its free to sign up and you can load money onto your account using a credit card or pay pal. And the best part is that, unlike when you use a calling card, your account automatically saves all of your call records and for some consulates, I know how important those can be.

Note: I don't work for this company, I'm not trying to sell anything, and I don't receive any benefit or anything from shamelessly promoting them. I just love the service because it means I can make unlimited free calls to my fiance from the conveniece of my cell phone and I'll have pages and pages of records to prove it, when my interview time rolls around. So spread the word!

Edited August 30, 2010 by Amyyduck

[nab 74]

how long have you been using them?

[Amyyduck 20]

Since March of 2009. They used to be called Talkster, but Rebtel bought them out. Nothing changed but the name, although my records only go back to Jan of this year because the others were lost in the transition. But thats still plenty of records, because we talk a LOT!

[nab 74]

Since March of 2009. They used to be called Talkster, but Rebtel bought them out. Nothing changed but the name, although my records only go back to Jan of this year because the others were lost in the transition. But thats still plenty of records, because we talk a LOT!

are you able to do a copy/paste of the countries that are free? or perhaps a screen shot if it doesnt allow copy/paste?

it looks really similar to OneSuite.com (i've used them since 2002) but they dont have the free thing. gratis es bueno!

[MsNaNa 0]

He picks up the phone, hangs up, and then redials that same number that showed up on his caller ID so our two lines connect in cyber space and the call is 100% free and the quality is good and I can call him on my lunch break from my cell phone! It sounds a little bit complicated describing it here but its really not at all once you save the numbers in your phone. You speed dial fiance's rebtel #, he hits send, end, then send again (from a cell) and you're connected! It's like voip I think, but you don't have to pay for any landlines or anything like with vonage or whatever. The only cost with Rebtel is the cost of a making a regular call. I have Verizon Wirless for example but I have unlimited minutes so it costs me nothing. If you only have free nights and weekends you could use it then and it would still cost you nothing. If you pay as you go, it will cost you the same as just regular local phone calls.

Why is this part necessary? If you are using your minutes (which are unlimited) why does he have to call back?

[sdfghjk 0]

there is also magic jack you p^lug into your computer and its a one time fee for the actual magic jack and then you can call anywhere free my dad and mom use it to call me since they are long distance from where i am.

Edited August 30, 2010 by Jason and Ashley

[Amyyduck 20]

@nab: The free countries are as follows:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech, Denmark, Dominican Repulic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hongkong (I'm not sure why this is listed separate from China) Hungary, iNum (I don't know what that is, I'm only copying a list from the website) Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Peru, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, US

@MsNaNa: I have unlimited minutes through my cell phone provider (Verizon) however those minutes are limited to local calls only. Long distance would cost me extra. This service provides you with 2 new phone numbers, one local to you and one local to your fiance. To call each other, you can dial the new local number that was given to you and it tricks your phone provider into thinking you're dialing locally. I don't really know why the other person has to pick up, hang up, and then call back but that is how the two phones connect with each other in cyber space and its what makes it free. If my fiance were to simply answer the phone after I had dialed his Rebtel number, it would cost me money through the site. Rebtel and my phone provider are two separate entities that have nothing to do with each other, and no agreements with each other.

Unfortunately, it looks like Jamaica isn't on the free list so this program is probably not the best for you anyway. I checked Jamaica on their site, the rates are (in US$) $0.099/minute to a landline and $0.199/min to a cell. But hopefully that answered your question!

[snooky007 0]

Seems good. I tried to sign up but I can't find the feature where I can add my fiance's US cell. Will appreciate your help. Thanks

So I know a lot of people use Skype to talk to their fiances or spouses overseas but my fiance has a terrible internet connection and our schedules are so busy that the only time I'm really able to call him is on my lunch hour at work. I don't have skype on my work computer (we aren't sophisticated enough to have cameras and mics, lol) I also don't have a super fancy phone that has skype capabilities on it.

Anyway, I use this service called Rebtel. (www.rebtel.com) You can sign up for free and what happens is you put in two phone numbers (my US cell and his UK cell #'s) and it spits out two new numbers. One that is "local" to him and one that is "local" to me. So I dial this new "local" number and my cell phone thinks I'm making a regular call. It rings on his end and shows up in his caller ID as a number local to him. He picks up the phone, hangs up, and then redials that same number that showed up on his caller ID so our two lines connect in cyber space and the call is 100% free and the quality is good and I can call him on my lunch break from my cell phone! It sounds a little bit complicated describing it here but its really not at all once you save the numbers in your phone. You speed dial fiance's rebtel #, he hits send, end, then send again (from a cell) and you're connected! It's like voip I think, but you don't have to pay for any landlines or anything like with vonage or whatever. The only cost with Rebtel is the cost of a making a regular call. I have Verizon Wirless for example but I have unlimited minutes so it costs me nothing. If you only have free nights and weekends you could use it then and it would still cost you nothing. If you pay as you go, it will cost you the same as just regular local phone calls.

The catch is that you can only get the free calling like this in (I think) about 50 countries. For the rest of them you have to pay but they have pretty good rates from what I've seen and its free to sign up and you can load money onto your account using a credit card or pay pal. And the best part is that, unlike when you use a calling card, your account automatically saves all of your call records and for some consulates, I know how important those can be.

Note: I don't work for this company, I'm not trying to sell anything, and I don't receive any benefit or anything from shamelessly promoting them. I just love the service because it means I can make unlimited free calls to my fiance from the conveniece of my cell phone and I'll have pages and pages of records to prove it, when my interview time rolls around. So spread the word!

[MsNaNa 0]

@MsNaNa: I have unlimited minutes through my cell phone provider (Verizon) however those minutes are limited to local calls only. Long distance would cost me extra. This service provides you with 2 new phone numbers, one local to you and one local to your fiance. To call each other, you can dial the new local number that was given to you and it tricks your phone provider into thinking you're dialing locally. I don't really know why the other person has to pick up, hang up, and then call back but that is how the two phones connect with each other in cyber space and its what makes it free. If my fiance were to simply answer the phone after I had dialed his Rebtel number, it would cost me money through the site. Rebtel and my phone provider are two separate entities that have nothing to do with each other, and no agreements with each other.

Unfortunately, it looks like Jamaica isn't on the free list so this program is probably not the best for you anyway. I checked Jamaica on their site, the rates are (in US$) $0.099/minute to a landline and $0.199/min to a cell. But hopefully that answered your question!

Maybe you can help me understand this... So I would put money on an account with Rebtel and pay the above mentioned rates to call Jamaica using my minutes? If that's the case thats still better than my company. I pay 50 cents a minute to call using my cell phone. So if this option is offering me... is that 20 cents... it would still be fiscally better because I also have minutes unlimited but end up paying out the wazoo because of the international calling.

Do I have this right?

[LGC 2]

rebtel is great. 2 cents a min. i also setup an account for her to call me too. only downside, the text message take 3 days to get there(China), so i signed up skype for that.

[Hell0W0rld 10]

Does this service keep a call log? Because what are u going to use as evidence on communication during the interview?

[Amyyduck 20]

@MsNaNa,

I believe thats correct. Are you calling Jamaica from the US or the other way around? I'm not 100% sure how it works if you're calling FROM Jamaica TO the US. but if you're in the US calling TO Jamaica it should work that you pay $0.099 to call from your US cell or landline to the Jamaica landline and $0.199 from your US cell or landline to a Jamaica cell. So that would definitely cost you less than the $0.50 you're paying now.

Hope it works out for you! I've never used it to pay for calls so I'm not 100% familiar with it, I only know how it works to do the free calling with my fiance.

@Snooky007

Once you're all signed up you can go into "my contacts" along the blue bar at the top of the page and try adding a new contact. Once you add in you fiances phone number and email address it'll come up with a local (to you) number that you can call to reach him. I think it also emails him a number to reach you at. I'm not positive.

@LGC I know, the text messaging sucks, thats why I don't use it. But the phone calls are still great!

[Amyyduck 20]

@Hell0w0rld,

yes it keeps a record of all the calls you have made using the service. Its listed under "My Account"

Edited August 30, 2010 by Amyyduck

[LIFE'SJOURNEY 970]

@MsNaNa,

I believe thats correct. Are you calling Jamaica from the US or the other way around? I'm not 100% sure how it works if you're calling FROM Jamaica TO the US. but if you're in the US calling TO Jamaica it should work that you pay $0.099 to call from your US cell or landline to the Jamaica landline and $0.199 from your US cell or landline to a Jamaica cell. So that would definitely cost you less than the $0.50 you're paying now.

Hope it works out for you!

I've never used it to pay for calls so I'm not 100% familiar with it, I only know how it works to do the free calling with my fiance.

@Snooky007

Once you're all signed up you can go into "my contacts" along the blue bar at the top of the page and try adding a new contact. Once you add in you fiances phone number and email address it'll come up with a local (to you) number that you can call to reach him. I think it also emails him a number to reach you at. I'm not positive.

@LGC I know, the text messaging sucks, thats why I don't use it. But the phone calls are still great!

You add the money to the account by credit/debit card and then call using the local number that is assigned to the JA number. It keeps a listing of the number and times you have made calls to the phone number assigned by rebtel. It's just like your itemized cell phone bill here in the US.

[nab 74]

there is also magic jack you p^lug into your computer and its a one time fee for the actual magic jack and then you can call anywhere free my dad and mom use it to call me since they are long distance from where i am.

they have a deal right now for free (copy/paste from their site):

"Use our Phone Service for free, make all the free calls you please. 100% Risk FREE - you pay nothing. (Hurry, less than 10,000 magicJacks are eligible to be shipped for the Free Trial Offer Today, Monday, August 30, 2010. This offer is not available in stores and will expire.) "

keep in mind though magicjack is only for usa/canada... that cuts out a lot of people.