Telephone calls to China

[amberjack1234]

This has not been discussed lately so I am just wondering what is the latest telephone sites that you use to call your wife/fiance/girlfriend or what your wife uses to call China. My wife uses two but both are not good sometimes. She has to often switch carriers in order to complete her conversation to her parents. The ones that she uses are Pin City and Tel3advantage. They both are inexpensive. She does not want to do the through the computer thing/programs.

 

Larry

[dnoblett]

I have had an account with Skype since dating my wife 6 years ago, when she moved to the states we simply continued using that account to call China.

 

No monthly or yearly cost, I simply recharge the account when it gets low, perhaps spending $20 every 3 months or so, cost is about 2 cents per min to call any number in China from the USA.

 

We have a WIFI IP Skype phone and use it with my home WIFI network, or I can also make these calls using Skype for Android on my Android based cell phone, I suspect an Android based tablet would also handle this app.

 

Or also can make Skype calls from PC or Mac.

 

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home

[tsap seui]

This has not been discussed lately so I am just wondering what is the latest telephone sites that you use to call your wife/fiance/girlfriend or what your wife uses to call China. My wife uses two but both are not good sometimes. She has to often switch carriers in order to complete her conversation to her parents. The ones that she uses are Pin City and Tel3advantage. They both are inexpensive. She does not want to do the through the computer thing/programs.

 

Larry

Larry, someone on Candle mentioned FreeCall Planet back in 2007 and I gave them a try. I used the monthly $24.95 for 5,000 minutes plan and darn near used every minute for many months back when we were in the wishing and hoping era of our lives.

 

Now lil' rabbit uses their $9.95 plan for 1,000 minutes to call the folks and friends back in Chinertucky.

 

You have to call a number in California and I used to have unlimited minutes through Verizon, so that was no problem. Now we have the Verizon family plan where you can list 10 numbers for free unlimited minutes...guess what number is the only one we listed? Yep, that Cali number.

 

Screaming Eagle and his wife turned us onto another plan where you use a phone card. It is a good type plan too.

 

Calling dang near 5,000 minutes a month for over 4 years, you can imagine how large my phone call evidence was for the I-130....a tad under 200 pages.

 

Wassup in Tar Heel Kuntry?

 

tsap seui

[amberjack1234]

I have had an account with Skype since dating my wife 6 years ago, when she moved to the states we simply continued using that account to call China.

 

No monthly or yearly cost, I simply recharge the account when it gets low, perhaps spending $20 every 3 months or so, cost is about 2 cents per min to call any number in China from the USA.

 

We have a WIFI IP Skype phone and use it with my home WIFI network, or I can also make these calls using Skype for Android on my Android based cell phone, I suspect an Android based tablet would also handle this app.

 

Or also can make Skype calls from PC or Mac.

 

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home

Thanks Dan. How is the reception and connectivity?

 

Larry

[amberjack1234]

This has not been discussed lately so I am just wondering what is the latest telephone sites that you use to call your wife/fiance/girlfriend or what your wife uses to call China. My wife uses two but both are not good sometimes. She has to often switch carriers in order to complete her conversation to her parents. The ones that she uses are Pin City and Tel3advantage. They both are inexpensive. She does not want to do the through the computer thing/programs.

 

Larry

Larry, someone on Candle mentioned FreeCall Planet back in 2007 and I gave them a try. I used the monthly $24.95 for 5,000 minutes plan and darn near used every minute for many months back when we were in the wishing and hoping era of our lives.

 

Now lil' rabbit uses their $9.95 plan for 1,000 minutes to call the folks and friends back in Chinertucky.

 

You have to call a number in California and I used to have unlimited minutes through Verizon, so that was no problem. Now we have the Verizon family plan where you can list 10 numbers for free unlimited minutes...guess what number is the only one we listed? Yep, that Cali number.

 

Screaming Eagle and his wife turned us onto another plan where you use a phone card. It is a good type plan too.

 

Calling dang near 5,000 minutes a month for over 4 years, you can imagine how large my phone call evidence was for the I-130....a tad under 200 pages.

 

Wassup in Tar Heel Kuntry?

 

tsap seui

Thanks Ronny. I'll check on all of them but was wanting first hand information only from everyone.

It is still warm here. It is suppose to be 70 degree for the next few days. Gotta do some work tomorrow.

I'll send you a pm later.

 

Larry

[Randy W]

Calling cards can get the cost down around 2¢ per minute. We had good luck with one called (I think) China Call Back

 

You need a PIN, but can program your own phones for PIN-less calling.

 

www.pc2asia.com

[dnoblett]

I have had an account with Skype since dating my wife 6 years ago, when she moved to the states we simply continued using that account to call China.

 

No monthly or yearly cost, I simply recharge the account when it gets low, perhaps spending $20 every 3 months or so, cost is about 2 cents per min to call any number in China from the USA.

 

We have a WIFI IP Skype phone and use it with my home WIFI network, or I can also make these calls using Skype for Android on my Android based cell phone, I suspect an Android based tablet would also handle this app.

 

Or also can make Skype calls from PC or Mac.

 

http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home

Thanks Dan. How is the reception and connectivity?

 

Larry

Has been excellent even with my temperamental DSL connection, I have not used the Skype much on my Driod phone, I suspect if uses WIFI would behave same as the dedicated WIFI handset, if using my 3G internet, may be lesser quality, due to limited bandwidth on the 3G network, Skype was preloaded on the droid, so I suspect is a good connection using the 3G.

[Beachey]

While I think Skype is a fine solution for calling to China and I have used a Skype account while in China to call the US including a US based phone number for people to call me, the one thing Skype does not offer is a Chinese phone number that my wife's friends and family can call.

 

I am in the middle of setting up this http://www.italkbb.com/bb/enu/enu_index.asp which others have recommended.

 

The killer feature for me is you get a Chinese phone number that will ring in the US. The advertised cost is $25/month and also serves as your home phone. I think Skype would be cheaper if you didn't want a Chinese phone number

 

I am just setting it up now so I can't comment on actual use.

[warpedbored]

We've had Itlalk BB for years. IMO it's the best value. Not only unlimited free calls to China and Chinese can call us but we can also call my wife's brother who lives in England for free.

[amberjack1234]

We've had Itlalk BB for years. IMO it's the best value. Not only unlimited free calls to China and Chinese can call us but we can also call my wife's brother who lives in England for free.

Carl, how is the quality of the transmissions?

 

Larry

[credzba]

We've had Itlalk BB for years. IMO it's the best value. Not only unlimited free calls to China and Chinese can call us but we can also call my wife's brother who lives in England for free.

Carl, how is the quality of the transmissions?

 

Larry

 

We also use italkbb.It is 25$ a month, and you can try it for a month, and cancel if it doesn't work well.

I noticed they have a 5$ a month option with calls to china .2 cents per minute. so, if you talk to china less than 1000 minutes a month this might be a better deal.

 

Usually italkbb quality is as good as calling next door, but it is based on your internet connection.

If your internet connection is slow, or not working, italk wont work well.

Once in a while we get a bad connection, and have to redial, but I have not had this happen in months.

 

[pbatt]

I use onesuite.com have used it for many years with much success and good rates for china. The only downside is you can only print 3 months of back calls in the history.the rates are .022 to china. I have the local access number programed in my phone as one of my friends and family, so no charge on my plan.

[Kyle]

We alsouse Skype

[foobaz123]

As an addendum to the Skype portion, good Android tablets handle it like a champ. Anything with a Tegra chip in it, and some others, can even do video fairly well. Also, if you've an opportunity to still pick up one of the HP Touchpads super cheap they also do video really well. I wouldn't consider paying full price for those since for that price you can get an ASUS Transformer (or even Transformer Prime if you wait a few weeks).

[smokiessky]

We use Vontage now. When we use the 2 cents a minute calling cards my wife wanted to save money so she did not use it much. Now that we got unlimited calls to China she calls everyday. How can you save money at 2 cents a minute?