Until now I've used Skype for calling overseas, mostly just on the rare occasion I've needed to call my UK bank. I'd kept credit there, but now $kype appears to have changed their system, have made my credit disappear and I need to sign up to making a recurring monthly payment to them. So bye-bye to them.

Can anyone recommend a decent alternative to call land lines in the UK? I'm not looking for free calls, just the absurdly cheap rates that $kype charged me. I've found one company that looks promising, mytello, but that can only be used on mobiles and I'd like to have the option to call using my laptop.

2 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

but now $kype appears to have changed their system, have made my credit disappear and I need to sign up to making a recurring monthly payment to them. So bye-bye to them.

Maybe they don't like you, because they didn't do it to me

For £6.50 for three months you can get 100 minutes to any UK landline, 0800 number or mobile on Skype. And you can stop any recurring payment on your Account page.

 

2 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

For £6.50 for three months you can get 100 minutes to any UK landline, 0800 number or mobile on Skype. And you can stop any recurring payment on your Account page.

 

 

Thanks. I read that on the $kype site, but it isn't what I asked about. I'm looking for something that doesn't charge me for something I don't want or need. I'm not clear on whether $kype eats your credit if you don't renew, like the phone companies like to do here. Use it or lose it. If I can pay once and retain the credit beyond the three months I'd be okay with that, but it looks as if they no longer allow that. I'll dig into their site a bit deeper and see if I can find the answer, but I think I know what it will be.

4 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Thanks. I read that on the $kype site, but it isn't what I asked about. I'm looking for something that doesn't charge me for something I don't want or need. I'm not clear on whether $kype eats your credit if you don't renew, like the phone companies like to do here. Use it or lose it. If I can pay once and retain the credit beyond the three months I'd be okay with that, but it looks as if they no longer allow that. I'll dig into their site a bit deeper and see if I can find the answer, but I think I know what it will be.

I've had Skype Credit for months, not used it as I have the subscription. It does not go down. I have auto-recharge for when it gets to 2 quid  takes 10 off my card. Easy, no brainer.

I have an AIS pre-pay account on which any credit I put on is valid for 12 months.

Haven't used them myself (still with Skype) but WeChat, Line and Viber support calls to phones in the same way and similar pricing as what Skype does. Maybe you could google up experience of others?

 

BTW: I had subscriptions for years (which I never used so I cancelled them) but still have auto top-up of account when it gets below 2$ - and can't tell that any funds would go missing. I did however once think all my contacts disappeared and funds were gone when I used my email instead of just name to login. All looked the same, just no contacts and a 0$ available. Logged out and login with only name and the good old Skype was back.

9 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I'm not clear on whether $kype eats your credit if you don't renew, like the phone companies like to do here.

 

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/skype-minutes-expire-62396.html

 

How long is Skype credit valid?

Please refer to our Terms of Use for more information. Skype Credit will go inactive after 180 days of no use. Make sure you place a call (outside your subscription, if you have one) or send a text every 180 days. We send two reminder emails, 7 days and 2 days before your Skype Credit becomes inactive.

 

 

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10378/how-do-i-reactivate-skype-credit

2 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

I've had Skype Credit for months, not used it as I have the subscription. It does not go down. I have auto-recharge for when it gets to 2 quid  takes 10 off my card. Easy, no brainer.

I have an AIS pre-pay account on which any credit I put on is valid for 12 months.

That's been my experience as well.  Small amount of credit for a long time, never noticed any shrinkage. 

21 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

I've had Skype Credit for months, not used it as I have the subscription. It does not go down. I have auto-recharge for when it gets to 2 quid  takes 10 off my card. Easy, no brainer.

I have an AIS pre-pay account on which any credit I put on is valid for 12 months.

 

Yes, I have - or had - the auto recharge thing. Worked well for years, but as I said the credit I had, about seven Euros, has disappeared. Your mention of subscription makes me wonder if Skype has guided me to the wrong place where it says I have no (subscription?) credit, but surely if I sign in as I did it should show me my non-subscription credit. As I said, I'll dig further.

As for phones, I use pay-as-you-go, and they demand you use your credit within a month. Again, I rarely use my phone so just resign myself to losing 50 or 100 baht each month if I don't use it. Mostly I call people using Line or Facebook Messenger for free. Can't use that to call my bank though.

26 minutes ago, ThePioneer said:

 

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/skype-minutes-expire-62396.html

 

How long is Skype credit valid?

Please refer to our Terms of Use for more information. Skype Credit will go inactive after 180 days of no use. Make sure you place a call (outside your subscription, if you have one) or send a text every 180 days. We send two reminder emails, 7 days and 2 days before your Skype Credit becomes inactive.

 

 

https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA10378/how-do-i-reactivate-skype-credit

 

Thanks. Makes sense. I got no warnings though.

I have had credit on my skype for over year and it hasnt been lost. I just make sure to use it every couple of months. Not a big user, but receive more, what I didnt like and cancelled was them helping themselves to my Paypal every quarter so I stopped that, and its manual renew now.

Relatives in the UK I use LINE, that works really well and is totally free.

Goolge hangouts has a google out feature.. Add some credit and add the hangouts app and hangouts dailer to our mobile phone and its super simple easy and cheap. 

Ditched skype years back. 

I also run a complex SIP based VOIP phone network for a distributed office company, which is massively helpful, but thats way above the needs of this thread. 

35 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

Goolge hangouts has a google out feature.. Add some credit and add the hangouts app and hangouts dailer to our mobile phone and its super simple easy and cheap. 

Ditched skype years back. 

I also run a complex SIP based VOIP phone network for a distributed office company, which is massively helpful, but thats way above the needs of this thread. 

 

I did come across Hangouts while looking for an alternative to Skype but, as I wrote above, I'd like to have the option to call using my laptop. I'll give it another look though.

14 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I'd kept credit there, but now $kype appears to have changed their system, have made my credit disappear

If you have more than one microsoft account (of any type) make sure that skype is logging into the a/c you use for skype and not your standard microsoft/windows default account.

One service that I use is KeepCalling (https://keepcalling.com/)

 

Certainly worth looking at, but not sure if you can use from your confuser, I have always used this on my mobile. The clarity of the calls has always been crystal clear for me.

 

And just a quick mention about Skype, I received an email from them just last week telling me I hadn't used my credit for 180 days. So to reactivate the credit I just called my mobile by making the connection and ending the call. Good for another 180 days; I keep some credit in this account for backup only. Seems like you have indeed been guided to a subscription account somehow.

16 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

I did come across Hangouts while looking for an alternative to Skype but, as I wrote above, I'd like to have the option to call using my laptop. I'll give it another look though.

there is that option.. 

 

Either within gmail if you use it with your google account or hangouts.google.com if you dont. 

 

Its multi platform, web based. 

Thanks for all the responses, which have been useful.

 

I thought of checking Skype on my mobile phone today and that still showed my credit, so I looked at my laptop version again. I had deleted it but found it still in my Program Files folder, so deleted it from there, downloaded it again and it automatically opened into my account giving me the option of subscribing but also showing I had credit. I'm guessing there was a corruption problem with the version I deleted. Now, all is well.

Whatsapp? Line?

5 hours ago, sunnyboy2018 said:

Whatsapp? Line?

 

You can't use those to talk to a bank. As far as I know.

4 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

You can't use those to talk to a bank. As far as I know.

I use Viber to speak to my family on their home phones, and my banks and credit card companies, there's a small charge for each. However, to call my daughters on their mobiles I use Viber to Viber for one, (in Oz) and WhatsApp to WhatsApp for the other two (in UK). No charge for Viber to Viber or WhatsApp to WhatsApp.

My elderly parents complain about Skype connection so I use 004. I do keep I Skype account. It will go down after 6 mos or whatever of inactivity.

 

I absolutely hate the application. It's so confusing and tedious. Can't believe Microsoft owns the POS. It often looks entirely different each time I use it yet never improve the quality of the interface.

 

I've spoken to wife over Line. An app I hate more than Skype. Sound quality hit and miss.

7 minutes ago, Number 6 said:

I absolutely hate the application. It's so confusing and tedious. Can't believe Microsoft owns the POS. It often looks entirely different each time I use it yet never improve the quality of the interface.

 

That's because Microsoft owns it. It was simple to use before they got their hands on it.

24 minutes ago, BRUFC said:

I use Viber to speak to my family on their home phones, and my banks and credit card companies, there's a small charge for each. However, to call my daughters on their mobiles I use Viber to Viber for one, (in Oz) and WhatsApp to WhatsApp for the other two (in UK). No charge for Viber to Viber or WhatsApp to WhatsApp.

 

Viper sounds good, but I was looking for a site I can use on a laptop, and Viper isn't it (without complications).

30 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

Viper sounds good, but I was looking for a site I can use on a laptop, and Viper isn't it (without complications).

Hi BB, I have Viber on both my mobile (Windows10) and laptop (Windows 7) and no probs with either. Just changed my phone yesterday to Android 9 Pie but will leave everything as is until my UK sim card arrives. You may know that UK banking institutions will require a UK phone number as extra security for transfers etc etc. How it will work with Android Viber I don't know as yet.

 

51 minutes ago, BRUFC said:

Hi BB, I have Viber on both my mobile (Windows10) and laptop (Windows 7) and no probs with either. Just changed my phone yesterday to Android 9 Pie but will leave everything as is until my UK sim card arrives. You may know that UK banking institutions will require a UK phone number as extra security for transfers etc etc. How it will work with Android Viber I don't know as yet.

 

 

I thought you have to use BlueStacks as there is no Windows version available.

45 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

 

I thought you have to use BlueStacks as there is no Windows version available.

Don't know what BlueStacks is, so no, I didn't use it. Just straightforward download for Windows 7. Easy peasy.

 

PS. Forgot to say everything runs ok with my VPN (Pure).

 

https://www.viber.com/download/

I use https://www.poivy.com   They have an app too.  

 

For a one time payment of E 10 you get 3 months free calls to many destinations. And after the 3 months you can use that credit to make more calls.

 

 

voip.ms

 

Works on all devices and is absurdly cheap.  Oh, they don't listen to your phone calls as Skype does.  Just saying.