Can Anyone Recommend A Calling Card?

[daveh]

Does anyone out there have a recommendation for a good quality inexpensive calling card? Now that I'm back in the States, the phone bills are racking up. I've tried some calling cards before, but the quality is not all that great.

[kasi]

Does anyone out there have a recommendation for a good quality inexpensive calling card? Now that I'm back in the States, the phone bills are racking up. I've tried some calling cards before, but the quality is not all that great.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

https://www.idphonecard.com/idrates/page.ph...=splashusd&Ref=

Rn a google search and you'll get a wealth of suggestions.

[daveh]

Rn a google search and you'll get a wealth of suggestions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I should have mentioned that I already searched and got TONS of links. But the question is of quality. That's why I was hoping someone else already has bought one they feel is good enough to recommend.

[kasi]

Rn a google search and you'll get a wealth of suggestions.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, I should have mentioned that I already searched and got TONS of links. But the question is of quality. That's why I was hoping someone else already has bought one they feel is good enough to recommend.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I haven't actually tried that one but 8.2 cents a minute seems worth a try.

[Ken]

Does anyone out there have a recommendation for a good quality inexpensive calling card? Now that I'm back in the States, the phone bills are racking up. I've tried some calling cards before, but the quality is not all that great.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When I was in the USA I used a service from "www.thaitel.com". Here is a link:

Thaitel

They have a lot of calling card choices, I happened to use the "Easy Anywhere". Worked great and cheap (one minute rounding as opposed to some cards having 3 minute rounding, etc.).

Cheers.

LOCAL ACCESS

Happy Hours Rates (11:00 AM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time)

» Calls from the U.S. to Bangkok 5.7 ¢/min

» Other provinces 9 ¢/min

» Mobile Phone 9 ¢/min

1800 ACCESS

Happy Hours Rates (11:00 AM - 2:00 PM Pacific Time)

» Calls from the U.S. to Bangkok 7.7 ¢/min

» Other provinces 11 ¢/min

» Mobile Phone 11 ¢/min

LOCAL ACCESS

Normal Rates

» Calls from the US to Bangkok 6.89 ¢/min

» Other provinces 14.86 ¢/min

» Mobile Phone 14.86 ¢/min

» Domestic call within the U.S. 4.9 ¢/min

1800 ACCESS

Normal Rates

» Calls from the US to Bangkok 8.89 ¢/min

» Other provinces 16.86 ¢/min

» Mobile Phone 16.86 ¢/min

» Domestic call within the U.S. 6.9 ¢/min

» See complete rate table

» No Connection fee

» No Weekly fee

» Tax included

» Rechargeable

» 1 minute rounding

» Fax Supported

» No Shipping Charge

» 100% Pure Fiber Optics

[Thaigreg]

Does anyone out there have a recommendation for a good quality inexpensive calling card? Now that I'm back in the States, the phone bills are racking up. I've tried some calling cards before, but the quality is not all that great.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

daveh,

Hi, try "www.wqn.com" I've found priced reasonable and easy to use.

[maikee]

daveh,

I agree with everything Ken said. I use Thaitel.com as well and purchase nothing but the EasyAnywhere Card. It's not crystal clear, but it's pretty good. You can get cheaper cards on the site, but don't waste your money, they'll just frustrate the ###### out of you with the crappy call quality.

The EasyAnywhere card is online rechargeable as well, so once you get signed up, purchase a card initially, you'll be able to recharge your card online from then on within minutes. Thaitel also has live online help. They have always been able to resolve any problem I've run into.

Mike

[chingy_]

cat phonenet card at 7-11, 6baht a minute to US

http://www.hatari.net

[donx]

daveh,

My wife and I have used various cards from Thaitel.com with varying quality. The last card I bought is called EasyLife because it is priced well for calling the provinces and with a cell phone my wife can use the local access numbers (in Los Angeles) without incurring long distance charges (she calls after 9:00 PM from Maryland). The cost per minute is 7.5 cents/minute anywhere in Thailand and even for mobile phones. The only drawback is it does use 3 minute rounding. But since my wife almost always talks for at least 20 minutes per call, it doesn't affect us much at all.

We also use a long distance service called ZoneLD.com that allows us to make direct calls from our house phone. If you are in the US for an extended time, I would recommend looking into something like this. Calls to Bangkok are 10 cents/minute and calls to other provinces and mobile phones are 19 cents/minute. There is a minimum 30 second charge per call and taxes as well, but they use 6 second rounding. We can use this if the calling cards connection quality is bad.

I just asked my wife about the quality of the EasyLife card and she said that has been good. She is very picky about phone quality and easily frustrated when she can't talk clearly. The combination of these two methods works well for us and keeps the cost of calling Thailand down significantly.

Good luck with whatever choice you make.

[Pink Mist]

moving this one to correct section

[Bizz]

may not be applicable in US i use GLOBAL CALLER €20 EUROS 145 min and PLANET 125 for same.

[KhunPadThai]

We have used zoneld.com in the past, but now use onesuite.com because it is cheaper (US to Central Thailand for 10.5 cents per minute instead of 12 cents; US to BKK is 5 cents). The call reliability is not quite as good --calls are sometimes dropped and sometimes we have to dial the access number a couple of times to get through. But it is adequate. With OneSuite.com you prepay online. I am interested in Packet8 VOIP which is 8 cents per minute from the US to Thailand.

[donx]

If onesuite.com is not as reliable, then I'll stick with zoneld.com because I need the direct dial option for my wife that is both easy and reliable. We use it now mostly as a backup and for State to State calls. Once I had two different calling cards and both of them were having problems. My wife was ready to destroy the phone that day.

[Serendipitist]

The best way to annihilate call charges is to use Skype from PC to PC - especially if you are calling one particular person very regularly. And forget calling cards; particularly if at least one of you has a broadband connection. Alas, if called party is out in the sticks on a 28.8k connection (& no broadband options) it'll have to be calling cards...

But what if the called party has no PC? Well, I made my partner a PC last time I was over for less than the billed cost of two months (heavily discounted) talk time - and, now that I'm 'physically' back, the 'investment' is starting to pay off handsomely. We can natter on for absolute ages without any thought of phone bills. I still use a call service rarely - about 95% less than I used to :-))

So if you're spending so much time talking that it's come to asking about "recommendations for good quality inexpensive calling cards" I strongly suggest you change strategy - & it might seem like a drastic course of action to assemble or buy a readymade PC for the person you call, but in the not so long run you'll be undoubtedly better off for it.

Just my 0.02$

[donx]

Serendipitist,

Good advice for those that can take advantage of such an option. Unfortunately, in my case, the sticks is exactly where my in-laws live. They have a computer, but with only dial-up and it's associated fees (which for them is quite a significant per minute charge), using calling cards and long distance carriers works best for us. On top of that, a significant number of calls my wife makes are to her brother's mobile phone.

Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to the day when high speed access is available to them on an unlimited per month charge the same way it is for me. That day can't be too far off (I hope).

[kenk3z]

I just found a LD virtual calling card that has the features I want: Acceptable voice quality and a record of your calls that you can print out.

It's called Bigzoo.com and I signed up for it on November 30, 2004.

On December 1, 2004 they issued a message to all users that they are discontinuing service at the end of January 2005.

It will be nice while it lasts.

The reason I like the call record is two fold, 1) it is a record you can print to show evidence of contact for Visa purposes, and 2) you can review the charges to see if you're being cheated.

I have also been purchasing virtual cards at Thaiconnector.com and have some reservations about their stated rates and charges being what you actually get.

I tried Tracfone long distance, which offers some nice features including call records, but the quality was so bad I abandoned my remaining credit.

So, any other suggestions for a service with web-accessible call records?

kenk3z

[donx]

kenk3z,

With my zoneld.com account, all calls are recorded. Each call has 6 second rounding and the quality is very good. They email me my statement, but I usually just look at it via their website. I have been using this service for over a year now and have been very pleased.

Do you maintain contact via email? If so, you shouldn't need to provide phone records as contacts. I provided printouts of our email conversations five years ago and my wife has now applied for US citizenship. You probably have all the necessary contact records you need, if when you say it is for visa purposes, you mean that you are trying to obtain a US visa for a thai girlfriend or fiancee.

If a virtual calling card is what you are after, not a long distance service tied to your home phone (which is what zoneld.com is), then as I and others have recommended, go to Thaitel.com and check out their card, especially their Easy"Whatever" cards.

[kenk3z]

Actually the visa process has gone well (quicker than I thought it would be accomplished) and we are at the stage of waiting for the interview at the consulate. Any further call records I might require would only be to substantiate a continuing relationship - but its going to help much more that I will be with her for the interview.

So others may benefit from the thread with regard to the call record, and I will benefit from reviewing the charges.

I did see that Thaitel offers the card with an available call record.

Once she is here the need will be mostly for a LD service tied to the home phone, so I will certainly check out zoneld.com. Its nice when you have a card or LD service tied to the home phone number - skip the PIN.

kenk3z

[robertg]

Hi,

I've asked a couple of days ago about some good calling cards on this website and I got some good answers. I've just bought a card from www.callingcardshome.com and I must say it's one of the best services I've used. I got the pin in 5 minutes after placing the order and I could use it right away. The quality was really good and after making several calls to my relatives in CA I still had a lot of minutes left (I had some bad experiences with calling cards, so bare with me... ) Anyway, I sincerely recommend them. They have one of the best customer service I ever dealt with and also some interesting deals - it seems that you get 10$ for each person that you refer and that buys a calling card... pretty good deal if you ask me...

Since I'll be leaving for Thailand soon I'll definetly get some cards for my family to call me there...

Hope this helps!

[donx]

robertg,

www.callingcardshome.com appears to always direct you to a site called www.nobelcom.com, which I have used in the past with as much success as Thaitel.com. I originally found it when I needed to make calls to Europe, but the quality is good even to Thailand. Essentially, any card you buy from Nobelcom.com will work in any country they list. Only the rate is different.

[etxkgh]

www.thaitel.com must be the best , my gf works for them !