Calling China from the United States

[KevinNelson]

I'm sure others have asked this, but I don't seem to be able to find the threads.

 

What is the best way for my wife to call her parents in Xi'an? They are elderly and do not have access to a computer. Thus, my wife will need to call their cell phones directly, preferably from her own cell phone. Last year, I tried Skype to cell service in China, and it didn't work at that time. I have no idea if it works better now. I know there are some plans that allow you to call their service first, then that routes you through an alternate line for connecting to a phone in China. I simply seem to be unable, in my still jet-lagged state, to be able to figure out the key search words for Google to find them.

 

Thank you for your suggestions.

[Randy W]

A calling card may work best for you -


Best China Phone Cards from USA

[rchilde]

My wife constantly needs to communicate with her folks, family, and business entities in China - so we use Tel 3. They have good rates WW, local US (and even other country access #), and it is nice to be able to manage everything online (complete call history, billing, texting). The phone quality is second to none - sound like they are next door and it even recognizes her cell so she don't need to always enter in the passcode/account (even though she can if she need to use a different phone).

 

If you're interested, CLICK HERE.

 

We tried phone cards before and other VOIp concerns before she immigrated to US but have been completely satisfied with Tel 3 after I found out about it years ago.

 

I almost forgot to mention, there's no mainenance fee/deductions. I just add money to the account when necessary (and they always have promotions/discounts) and the account is there to use. its a piece of cake.

Edited July 10, 2016 by rchilde (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

Skype, can make calls to China numbers for very low rates.

 

However my wife simply uses wechat voice to chat with her mum and sister for free. I believe wechat also offers phone calling ability.

 

http://blog.wechat.com/2015/12/31/new-year-new-feature-wechat-out/

[Allon]

I agree with both Randy and Don generally. I have had problems with voice quality from Skype and their rates compete with some calling cards rates actually.

 

weChat is good too and free unless you do the same as Skype calls with a phone line. QQ is also there but I don't like how it takes over your computer and/or your cell phone. I like to see who I am talking to when they are so far away. Especially when I am worried some problems she has had recently.

[dnoblett]

Yes the video call is great feature of WeChat, Skype, and other services, again usually free if both parties are using it.

 

Many older folks are fine with using a tablet for doing video chats using WeChat or Skype.

[hello123]

We use a ItalkBB account which gives us a VOIP option and a local number in China. This has helped my wife's parents and other relatives that do not use computers as much. They can simply use their regular phone and call a local number that will not charge them long distance fees. We just have the basic service and pay .02 cents a minute. Since we only use occasionally use the service we normally don't pay more than $10 a month. I think there are unlimited plans too.

 

However, we mostly use WeChat.

[amberjack1234]

We use a ItalkBB account which gives us a VOIP option and a local number in China. This has helped my wife's parents and other relatives that do not use computers as much. They can simply use their regular phone and call a local number that will not charge them long distance fees. We just have the basic service and pay .02 cents a minute. Since we only use occasionally use the service we normally don't pay more than $10 a month. I think there are unlimited plans too.

 

However, we mostly use WeChat.

There are a lot of good plans out there now. Back 16 years ago there were only the phone cards which were kind of a fraud because if you bought 1000 minutes and called China for every minute that you talked it would cost you maybe 100 minutes.

 

All these figures are just an estimate and not a real representation of the actual plans. Many cards existed and each one was different if I remember correctly. It has been a long time ago. We only used them several times.

 

Edit to add: It is MUCH better now.

Edited July 12, 2016 by amberjack1234 (see edit history)

[wawster]

We have T-mobile at home, and they have a plan that allows my wife to call unlimited to China for $15 a month. Rose calls her mom about 3 times a week, so it's pretty efficient to use this plan. you might want to check your cell phone plan to see what the options are for international calling. It might be less expensive than you realize. This is a good option for older folks who are not comfortable using a computer. We tried Wechat and QQ to videocall with her mom, but she just wasn't comfortable with it. So now we call her on her cell, and use QQ video chat for when there is more family around on that end to handle the tech part of things that her mom has trouble with.

[dnoblett]

We use StraightTalk Wireless on our cell phones, Straight Talk offers unlimited international calling for $15 extra per month.

 

Basic $45 Unlimited International $60

 

We just do basic Unlimited, and use Skype or WeChat to communicate with the family.

[amberjack1234]

We use Pincity and Tel3.com for something like .03 per minute but the wife only calls once a week so it is pretty convenient and economical for us. Both good reliable and high quality.

 

We have a cell phone but we are just not into them that much. We use it for emergencies if one was to pop up or we get lost going to some doctors office or something like that.

Edited July 12, 2016 by amberjack1234 (see edit history)

[Hapa77]

if they have a smart phone they can use wechat they have video and they also have wechat out where it works like a calling card but you pay what you use

[cerium]

My wife uses google voice to call her grandparents from the USA. Its one cent per minute, so very reasonable. Google voice will require a smart phone to use though.

[pkfops]

LINE can also be a good option.

 

https://line.me/en/