[stymie miasma]

Hello!

Hopefully someone has some experiences that they can share with me. Basically what I am looking for is a company that provides cheap and reliable calling cards, which will enable me to ring friends and family in Australia.

So far, I have been looking at companies such as Big Zoo and Card2Call . Has anyone had any experience with these companies - good or bad. Are there any other companies I should look at??

Thank you all in advance!

 

[minya]

Dialpad. Dialpad is great. They're probably not the dirt-cheapest service around, but the quality is crystal-clear and the service is excellent.

www.dialpad.com

The PC2Phone works okay if you have a good connection and a microphone and all, but I use the "calling card" (i.e. phone to phone) most of the time.

- Chris

 

[CD44hi]

I have used LLC to buy phone cards, not to Australia though. I think they are the "middle man" here: you buy the card from them. I would recommend you buy a couple of $5 cards with the cheaper rate available and give'em a shot. This may allow you to find out one that works for you

LD to Australia

good luck!!

 

[Gergor]

Quote:

Originally posted by minya Dialpad. Dialpad is great. They're probably not the dirt-cheapest service around, but the quality is crystal-clear and the service is excellent. www.dialpad.com The PC2Phone works okay if you have a good connection and a microphone and all, but I use the "calling card" (i.e. phone to phone) most of the time. - Chris

I used similiar service like net2phone and deltathree before. Both have unreliable and low quality phone to phone service. net2phone is the slightly better one of the two. Never use dialpad before, I'd be interested in trying it.

 

[stymie miasma]

Thanks for the recommendations guys! Dialpad looks good, albeit a little more expensive than others. Sadly, LLC doesn't seem to have local access numbers for me here in Philadelphia.

 

[CD44hi]

Replica plating.........for colonies.......

deleted,..........

 

[CD44hi]

Hey Stymie,

I use them over my wireless phone. That been said I have a wireless plan with Unlimited N/W and tons of daytime minutes, with national LD included. In my case, I've found that combined, the cost of the wireless and the cost of the calling cards, are still way less than if I were using land line plus other calling cards. Plus the added benefit of domestic LD included with the wireless, very common nowadays....

CD44hi

 

[stymie miasma]

Quote:

Originally posted by CD44hi Hey Stymie, I use them over my wireless phone. That been said I have a wireless plan with Unlimited N/W and tons of daytime minutes, with national LD included. In my case, I've found that combined, the cost of the wireless and the cost of the calling cards, are still way less than if I were using land line plus other calling cards. Plus the added benefit of domestic LD included with the wireless, very common nowadays.... CD44hi

Hmmm...food for thought..thanks CD44hi

At present, I have a very basic landline with Verizon - about $10.00/month just for local calls, which is mostly what I do. I was "umming and ahhing" about wireless, maybe it is something to consider in the future.

So I am guessing you are a science-nerd too?? I never clicked with your name being CD44! Ahhh...the joys of replica plating

 

[minya]

Yeah, Dialpad isn't the cheapest, but you get what you pay for. Their phone-to-phone service is superb, and has worked wonderfully in calls to Canada, Argentina, Israel, and Colombia.

- Chris

 

[fractus2]

stymie miasma,

If you are in Japan, we use the Planet calling card. You really can't lose by getting the "local" card, or whatever they have at the 7-11 type convenience stores. They seem to vary in price and time allotted to the country you are calling so you can actually shop around. But you may already know this.

Take care.

 

[CD44hi]

stymie miasma,

Yep, another science geek here...

but, shhh!!..

 

[RYCeT]

Stymie, Go to chinatown, near the Firehouse, there's a shop which sell phone card, I'm not sure whether they have this phone card but try to ask for GYC Sino (Blue color) or Sampar. The listed price is $20 but you can buy them for $14-$15. For Australia, they are reliable and for that card you can talk, if I'm not mistaken, around 3-3.5 hours, but that's for a home phone, don't use it to call cell phone.

 

[legoman]

I've been using BigZoo for years. Pretty reliable, no connection fees, you get detailed billing (so you know where your money goes and minutes do not just disappear) and you can program in pin skip so I don't have to punch in all those numbers when calling from my home or office. In the old days there used to be periodic problems when there was an influx of new customers, but these days problems are usually gone in 5 minutes, except on holidays when everybody tries to call home. Only real problem is that I know one person who has a weird phone system that when he picks up the phone emits exactly that tone (#) that tells Big Zoo to disconnect and to allow you to make the next call. Rates vary, some are unbeatable, others (India I think, e.g.) are too high. I just put in $10 at a time, so my risk is minimized if somebody manages to look over my shoulder at airports.

Try it, you only have $10 at stake.

 

[stymie miasma]

Quote:

Originally posted by fractus2 stymie miasma, If you are in Japan, we use the Planet calling card. You really can't lose by getting the "local" card, or whatever they have at the 7-11 type convenience stores. They seem to vary in price and time allotted to the country you are calling so you can actually shop around. But you may already know this. Take care.

Yes, a friend mentioned the 7-11 card, but I haven't hada chance to look into it further. Thanks for the reminder!

 

[stymie miasma]

Quote:

Originally posted by CD44hi stymie miasma, Yep, another science geek here... but, shhh!!..

Now we need a nerd smiley!