Best Calling Card or VoIP to call Russia? Skype? Magic Jack?

[Chris M 1]

I saw some posts from 3 years ago about the best services to use for VoIP's and phone lines. I was curious what you all use now. I do not have a land line in the house, and by using the cell phones we eat up the AnyTime Minutes. We were looking at Skype as an alternative, using a 1-800 number to dial through Skype or Magic Jack.

1. The Skype international calling seemed like an OK deal

2. buying a calling card with a 1-800 number on it to then dial using Skype, and therefore not waste our cell phone AnyTime Minutes. I have called many 1-800 customer service numbers using Skype, and have never been charged. Maybe we can do the same with a 1-800 calling card.

3. Magi Jack would be nice, and a girl I sit beside said it works, but they also charge an international rate if in fact you are dialing a phone on the other end. Her parents live in the Phillipines, and she sent them a magic Jack to attach to their computer. Tanya's mom does not have a computer which would in turn charge us a per minute basis rate.

Anyone have any more recent experiences with a calling card, Skype, or some other way to call home?

[sea-monkey 13]

Do you have internet in the house at least?

I would just use Skype on the pc or skype app on a smart phone or iPod touch.

I use this package:

400 Minutes

$13.99/month

$.06/sms sending

Other skype packages:

60 Minutes

$2.79/month

120 Minutes

$5.49/month

[Neonred 3,454]

I got my wife cell phone service with Metro PCS. For $50 a month she gets unlimited calling in the US AND unlimited international calling to 60+ countries including Russia. She is calling to her daughter in Russia almost everyday now. This service has saved me a lot of expense. The catches are Metro PCS is not as wide spread as ATT, Sprint or Verizon, and she can only call to land lines internationally.

[eekee 182]

My mom has verizon for her home phone and got a 15$ thing added to her plan to call Russia.

[baron555 934]

We use an AT&T Family Plan domestically and with internationall SMSing.

She uses Skype, a lot.

We also have a ClonCom calling card and we use less than $50 a month for that.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I saw some posts from 3 years ago about the best services to use for VoIP's and phone lines. I was curious what you all use now. I do not have a land line in the house, and by using the cell phones we eat up the AnyTime Minutes. We were looking at Skype as an alternative, using a 1-800 number to dial through Skype or Magic Jack.

1. The Skype international calling seemed like an OK deal

2. buying a calling card with a 1-800 number on it to then dial using Skype, and therefore not waste our cell phone AnyTime Minutes. I have called many 1-800 customer service numbers using Skype, and have never been charged. Maybe we can do the same with a 1-800 calling card.

3. Magi Jack would be nice, and a girl I sit beside said it works, but they also charge an international rate if in fact you are dialing a phone on the other end. Her parents live in the Phillipines, and she sent them a magic Jack to attach to their computer. Tanya's mom does not have a computer which would in turn charge us a per minute basis rate.

Anyone have any more recent experiences with a calling card, Skype, or some other way to call home?

Does she have internet ? If you both have internet, skype and/or Google Talk is free from pc to pc, and both offer decent pc to phone service for cheap.

[Captain Hammer 113]

Does she have internet ?

My question exactly. If she has internet, have her sign up for a Skype account. Skype to Skype is free.

[Neonred 3,454]

My question exactly. If she has internet, have her sign up for a Skype account. Skype to Skype is free.

Problem is many areas do not have good internet and what internet is available is more expensive than a phone.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I don't know if it is the "best" but we use the "Continental" card which you can get at "PennyBoss.com" It has worked well for us for years, I used it throughout our engagement and even before that and we still use it to call friends, relatives and our son in Moscow. We skype with him when we can but our schedules make it impossible to do that every time we need to talk.

I think it is about 7 cents per minute to call Russia and 13 cents to Ukraine. We spend about $20-30 per month. It has PINless dialing, online refill and full history of phone calls available online

[Chris M 1]

yes, we use Skype all the time. she is here with me now too. Unfortunately her mom and sister do not have a computer, and obviously the internet. what else we noticed we can do is buy a calling card, use the 1-800 to make calls through Skype (so we do not use our cell phone minutes), calling card PIN, and then dial her friends and family in Russia. she can talk right through the computer to a land line in russia. I have a card for about 4.5 cents a minute which is not too bad.

So answer your questions, we DO have the internet, but her mom and sister do not.

[Captain Hammer 113]

4.5c is pretty good, if that's working you might want to just stick with it.

If you think Skype or Magic Jack might work better, could be worth buying her a cheap laptop and paying for her internet. But that's going to depend on where she lives and what kinds of internet plans are offered. It would be hard to be 4.5c a minute versus whatever internet costs, but if she would actually use the internet for stuff besides calling then it might be worth it.

[dogspot 90]

I've used the Bizon card for the past few years that I bought and refill from www.getcallingcard.com. I spend $.06 a minute to cell phones and $.02 a minute to land lines. I don't spend very much and use it whenever I am away from home and/or without internet access. (We also talk alot - morning, afternoon, evening, and night). I probably refill the card every month or two with 20 bucks.

[eekee 182]

Problem is many areas do not have good internet and what internet is available is more expensive than a phone.

This is becoming less and less true. I have a dedicated high speed LAN that my building was already wired for and it costs 12$ a month.

[AmyWrites 593]

Use Skype, buy some Skype credit and call her fam that way. It's like 4 cents a minute or something... so $10 will last a lot.

[baron555 934]

Use Skype, buy some Skype credit and call her fam that way. It's like 4 cents a minute or something... so $10 will last a lot.

My ClonCom card runs 2.3 cents/min to Moscow area and 3.9 cents/min to the rest of Russia.