Holiday Tip: Cheap Call From Philippines to USA
The dollar currency mentioned here are all in US dollars. Happy Holidays.
Did you know that Skype lets you make cheap calls from the Philippines to the US landlines and mobiles at only P1 per minute?
I know for a fact that, Skype to Skype, YM to YM and GTalk to GTalk voice calls stay 100% FREE as everyone may know. However, I just happened to have relatives in the US who do not have Skype, YM or Gtalk installed in their computers and don’t go online most of the time. Our family used to accept calls from them via landline and had to make calls only when there’s a huge family problem. We just could not afford to hold long conversations for some little casual chit chat.
I am aware of that $0.40 per minute deal offered by our telephone company, but we never use that. My parents don’t find it easy to memorize phone number prefixes and $0.40 per minute is still pretty expensive for them to make long calls.
However, when I first signed and tried out Skype, I thought, not another messenger – again running on my PC – again. But as a freelancer that left me no choice but to use that. Other people convinced me that Skype is a lot better when it comes to voice quality than YM.
Later on, I explored the call rates list offered by Skype. Outgoing calls from the Philippines to US landlines and mobiles only costs $0.021 per minute which is roughly more or less than P1 per minute. That’s better than most deals offered by telephone companies and much much cheaper than calling mobiles and local long distance calls. Please note that the call rates don’t include VAT charges.
The cost for calling other destinations is as follows (excl. VAT):
- Singapore: $0.021/minute
- Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi: $0.185/minute
- Australia: $0.021/minute
- Qatar: $0.376/minute
- New Zealand: $0.021/minute
- Hongkong SAR, China: $0.021/minute
- Ireland: $0.021/minute
- Japan: $0.023/minute
- Japan – mobile: $0.154/minute
Please visit Skype’s call costs and rates for more information.
However calls from US going to Philippine landlines cost $0.198/minute. Even more expensive are calls from US to Philippine mobile phones which cost $0.249/minute.
How to Purchase Skype Credits
The payment is via Skype credits – that is, one has to purchase a minimum of $10 Skype credit to be able to use the service. Skype credits are much like loading a prepaid cellphone unit. A person can even setup auto-recharge Skype credits when they fall to $2.
The credits can be purchased by using a Paypal account (which I did) or through a credit card. In the Philippines, where many don’t have credit cards (I don’t own a credit card either and I don’t intend to have one yet), Unionbank EON card is often a popular ATM/debit card that is now widely used for online purchases. I haven’t tried EON card personally to purchase those Skype credits but in theory, since this is a VISA card it should also work as well.
Unlimited One Country or Unlimited One World
Another option, if you are calling too often, the subscriber should also think whether to pay for unlimited one country deal (applicable only to 40 countries) or unlimited one world. Both costs $5.95/month and $12.95/month respectively but gives unlimited calls. Since I only need to call relatives during holidays, I don’t feel the need to switch to these subscriptions deals.
Magic Jack vs Skype
I haven’t tried Magic Jack myself, but I get offers from people who are selling me these over forums and online shops. My own relatives even use this to call from US to Philippines since this is cheaper than using Skype to call Philippine landlines or mobiles. I also know lots of Filipinos using this little gadget also to call from the Philippines to US. Buying the Magic Jack gadget costs around P2,000 (Ebay.ph) to over P4000 (forums and online shops) [around $50 to $100] and $19.95 to renew subscription each year.
Some notable disadvantages:
- The gadget is useful for making calls from US to Canada and vice versa.
- More expensive than Skype credit, if you rarely call people in those countries.
- Not effective when the PC is off and doesn’t have forwarded call feature unlike Skype.
Are there other better deals?
I believe there can be other cheaper deals than the one I had just discussed right now. I know for a fact that I’d be happy to know these through your comments.
Sire
December 29th, 2009 at 8:50 pm #
When I first transferred my blog to a host in America, I need to call support as I was having problems. Because I was calling from Australia I decided to use Skype. I was on the phone for over an hour and it didn’t cost me a cent. Don’t ask me how that works because I couldn’t tell you, but I am so glad it did.