Calling the Philippines
January 6, 2009
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Posted by dmihalia
My wife and I are very good about budgeting and saving money. We try to conserve what we can and this has helped us to afford to set up for a comfortable Move to the Philippines. One thing we haven’t been able to stay on budget though is our telephone calls to the Philippines. Keeping in touch with members of our family in the Philippines is not just a pleasure but a necessity. Since we are adding on to our house, there seems to be questions every day. Also, we are moving much of our belongings through balikbayan boxes, and so now you can see how much we are spending by calling about things like this. Then, of course, there are the calls to the province to check on the family there.
We are currently using the regular long distance company which charges about 20 cents per minute but we are losing minutes when the connection goes dead right after connecting. Every time that we lose that connection without even speaking to anyone it costs us a one minute charge.
The reason I am posting this here is because I’m looking for suggestions on the cheapest ways folks on here have found to call the Philippines. If you would comment on how you do it and how much it costs you per month or minute whatever you feel like sharing.
Some of the suggestions I have already considered are Skype but the problem is the people in Laguna are tech savy and could probably do the computer thing but the province is another story with no computer connection and I don’t think they could set it up if they had a connection. The same goes for Yahoo messenger or any others. Some people have suggested calling cards and I’m investigating that so I’m open for suggestions of cards also. I’ll be looking through your comments in the coming days. Thanks for your help!
One other thing I’d like to bring up. I have another website that deals with Retiring in the Philippines Now. I have some friends that want to go golfing in the Philippines so I wrote an article about the courses that I know about but would like to help them more. If you could visit the article and comment on what you know of golfing and golf courses in the Philippines I would appreciate it. Thank you once again the article can be found at Retire in the Philippines Now.
Categories: Philippines General
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Hi Dan – I know that this goes against what you asked, and I am sorry if my advice is contrary to what you are looking for. However, I really think you need to reconsider about the VOIP option – be it Skype, Vonage or another method. I use Vonage myeslf, and it does cost more than something like Skype would.
It should not be a problem to get a decent internet connection in your location – SmartBro basically covers the entire country these days.
For P1k per month you can get a good enough Internet Connction, and you are in business.
If you use Vonage, no technical expertise is needed, after it is all hooked up, and you can hire somebody to do that. It is just a phone like any other phone, you pick up the receiver and dial, just like using any other phone.
Good luck on this, I hope something works out for you.
Mindanao Bobs last blog post..Rex Navarette
Hi Bob
I am probably going to go with the VOIP in Laguna but it will have to wait until I get a computer there and set it up and train everybody. As far as the province right we are still getting everyone hooked up with electric and running water. I know you have traveled much in the Philippines and realize that some places just don’t have either yet. I am getting the plans together to build a second house in the province which will have all modern facilities but we are a couple of years away from that.
Hi Dan – we are currently using Pingo. We used the phone cards that we could get at the Pilipino market for a long time, but Pingo is just slightly cheaper, has the advantage of not having to go to the store, can save numbers (speed dial) and we don’t have to dial in that long access code.
I just saw that you have an ad for them on your site. Have you looked into them? The only thing we didn’t like is they say there are no extra fees but they charge 98 cents a month. Still haven’t figured out how that is not an extra fee.
I
Hi Randy
I thought about Pingo but even though I run an advertisment I have no control over the ads and when they are on my site I am not allowed to link to them.
Well if you want to give it a shot, link through my site and if you decide to try it, I’ll get a few bucks, too. But I didn’t suggest it for that. It seems to work well enough for us for now.
Hi Randy
I’ll probably try it.
hello there dan im desh currently living cavite which was closest place to laguna i guess as wat bob said smart bro covers all region like mine cavite is province too i am married to american which he do make phone calls too every time he want to hear my voice but then when i got my laptop and apply for smart broadband we use yahoo and msn for our communication for sure connection in laguna are just same in my place too…hope it helps,,,
Hi desh
Thanks for the info.
I have a voip called VONAGE. It’s only $24.99 per month to call most places in the world unlimited. But Philippines is’nt one of them . They will ship a router to ur gf and she gets a phone number thats the same as ur are code. Then u and her can talk unlimited for a n extra $24.99 per month. So for $49.98 per month you can talk to her and she can call u unlimited. and u can also calll anywhere in USA unlimited too
Hi Paulo
I don’t have a problem callling my wife as she is here with me but her family is what I’m concerned about.
I use Gorilla Mobile. You only pay $5 per year and $.09/min from cell phone in the U.S. to the PI. If you call a Mobile phone in the PI it is more, $.15/min I think.
Hi Mark C
Yes Gorilla Mobile seems to be the most popular with the balikbayans in my area.