Cheap International Calls?

bombidol

Right, i have a friend in the USA, and ive been using Talkshop and international Callcards but its putting a dent in the oul pocket. Anyone know anyways to cut these costs at all?

kaimera

if you can find something better value than Swift Call So-Lo for calling the States, then lemme know asap!

if you got broadband...call them ore the net.

K!LL!@N

I have to agree with Kaimera, i call canada a lot and those swiftcall cards are great. I use the Swift-E one because the length of the calls vary. With the Swift-E card i get 668 minutes for €24, which is pretty good. I buy the cards from the swiftcall website, they give a 20% discount for buying them online and you get €7 free if you buy a €30 card. So you're getting €37 worth of calls for €24, which is great.

Killian

YoungNastyMan

Net house call shops charge 11 cent a min to the usa

kaimera

and €ircom works out around 9c/min with Options Gold.

anything over 9, 10c is terrible. Not worth calling.

So-Lo is 4c per min.
854 mins with the €30 [+€7 free]

bombidol

gimme links here people! so lo and swiftcall and whatever else

bombidol

thanks gents i bought a swiftcall so lo 30€ one. Whats the difference between so lo and Swift E ? the site was borked and wouldnt tell me.

thanks

gar

Urban Weigl

I use vartec telekom, who I have been VERY happy with. Not a single dropped call, or any other issue ever.

Their web site is at... http://www.vartec.ie/

The way they work is that you just prefix each number with 13636 and dial as normal.... Calls to the US are 6 cent per minute 24/7.

kaimera

is it Mr. Swifty you mena Bomb?

Mr. Swifty and So-Lo are done by the same crowd.

So-Lo is more suited towards lenghtly long distance calls [hours or so]

Mr. Swifty is better for short calls.

So-Lo has 3 connect numbers...freephone [1800], locall [1890] and national [01]
Obviously the 854 mins came with the 01 access number alon with the €30[+€7 free]

but given the costs of national calls nowadays...tis nothing.

bombidol

Ive been using SoLo , better off cause i could spend 3 or 4 hours on the blower. I use the 1800 number though, should i use the local one instead? i got about 400 minutes for 24E using the 1800 number to the US

John2002

I used to use www.dialpad.com for calling the states when it was free. I think you have to pay for it now and you would want at least ISDN to be able to have proper conversations.

Cork

Go Talk offer US calls from Ireland at 8c.

Their number is 1800920555

I have used this service. They don't charge for the 1800 number.

dendenz

If you live on Dublin have a look around Dame Street or Aston Quay (where the buses go from ) there is loads of places there usually where you can make cheap international calls.

kaimera

Originally posted by bombidol
Ive been using SoLo , better off cause i could spend 3 or 4 hours on the blower. I use the 1800 number though, should i use the local one instead? i got about 400 minutes for 24E using the 1800 number to the US

nope. defo do not use the 1800 number if you intend to talk for any lenght of time.
no connection charge but **** all minutes. about 1/2 of what you get with the local and 1/4 of the 01 number.

oneweb

As previously mentioned, vartec do a very reasonable service (6c a min all day/7 days to UK/US). You put 13636 before the number you want and you get charged for those calls by Vartec, not Eircom.

The first call you make will be an account setup, takes a few minutes to activate.

antoinolachtnai

i call a lot of UK mobiles. does anyone know of a crowd that does a decent rate on this (i.e., less than 20c/minute)?

a.

lanky

daveg Right, i have a friend in the USA, and ive been using Talkshop and international Callcards but its putting a dent in the oul pocket. Anyone know anyways to cut these costs at all?

right so you are phoning the same guy,
If he has a pc.......

you could Use a VoIP solution.......

lke www.pingtel.com
use their tiral software, r else their full software ,
or else upse some of the other VoIP solutions.

there is hasstle with IP addresses as your is dymaic etc.. but if you can email your IP to each other first and then off you go,
it wont cost you anything....

it is a bit of hasslte setting up and if your firend is not technical just forget it and but the old swiftcall so.lo that doesnt route you through sometimes....

moomoomoo

Just a note about the hidden charges for cards like Swiftcall (not denying that Swiftcall are good value but they do obfuscate some of the details which is a disservice to their customers).

To use the card (referring to their virtual card - the epin) you ring an 1800 or 1890 number. There is a surcharge od 1 c per minute for ringing the 1890 and 6 c/min for the 1800 number. The 1890 number is charged at 1.26c/min by Eircom so your call costs are 2.26c + country tarrif when using the 1890 number and 6 c/min when using the 1800 number. Swiftcall place the 1800 number the first in their list of numbers to use with their epin but the details about the extra charges are only in the footnotes. Only when asked directly about it on their customer support line would they confrim that the 1890 is cheaper from landlines. So a bit dodgy in my book....

BTW ringing UK mobiles with Swiftcall's epin is terrible - it costs 41c/min as opposed to 28c/min charged by Eirocm in the evening.

gombín

Best pre-paid: http://www.celtictel.com/productdetails.asp?PID=2

Best post-paid I can find is Atlas Telecom. They don't seem to have a website but I've included some of their prices below.

Britain: 6c
USA/Canada: 9c
Europe 1: 11c (Bel,Fra,Ger,Ita,Ned,Esp)
Europe 2: 15c (And,Aus,Den,Fin,Lie,Lux,Mon,Nor,Por,Smr,Swe,Swz)
Europe 3: 20c (Azores,Far,Hun,Ice,Pol)
Europe 4: 25c (Cyp,Cze,Gib,Gre,Isr [also includes Malaysia, Puerto Rico and Caymen Islands])
AUS/NZL: 10c

Same rate all day long , Set-up charge is 3c.

If you're interested, they're based in Carlow (0503-32282)

Regards.

Imposter

Originally posted by gombín
Best pre-paid: http://www.celtictel.com/productdetails.asp?PID=2

Best post-paid I can find is Atlas Telecom. They don't seem to have a website but I've included some of their prices below.

Britain: 6c
USA/Canada: 9c
Europe 1: 11c (Bel,Fra,Ger,Ita,Ned,Esp)
Europe 2: 15c (And,Aus,Den,Fin,Lie,Lux,Mon,Nor,Por,Smr,Swe,Swz)
Europe 3: 20c (Azores,Far,Hun,Ice,Pol)
Europe 4: 25c (Cyp,Cze,Gib,Gre,Isr [also includes Malaysia, Puerto Rico and Caymen Islands])
AUS/NZL: 10c

Same rate all day long , Set-up charge is 3c.

If you're interested, they're based in Carlow (0503-32282)

Regards.

Do you have any info on what it costs to ring foreign mobiles (from a landline)? Especially in Europe 2 (Austria) as defined above.

Cheapest i've found is Vartec but it's 40c a minute.

Gordon

Talkshop are 34 cent per minute (not including the freefone charge) to Austria Mobile.

The rest of their European mobiles cost anywhere from 4 cent to 37 cent.

info@talkshop.ie

KieranDublin

Celtictel was recommended to me for cheap rate calls, 1st time i used them excellent value, 2nd time using same value €20.00 card, i got 1 hours use. When i emailed there 100% Satisfaction Guarantee address, they accussed me of using the card to contact Australia and using it on mobile phones etc. So be warned its a rip off, once they get your money you have no come back.

tck

www.telestunt.ie - calls to USA are charged at local rate which is 1.25 cent/min

www.budgetelecom.ie - a little more expensive but will mention it anyways

www.airtalk.ie - new site, with rates for mobile as well as landline

Foxwood

600 minutes for €24? Are ye mad?

Use telestunt and call the US for the cost of a local call!!!!

As long as you have access to a landline, you'd be mad to use any of these calling cardsand if you're using a mobile, you're not going to be getting 6c or 10c/minute calls anyway!

I have no idea how telestunt "works" from the point of view of them making any money, but I've been using telestunt for over 18 months, and have saved an absolute fortune! Just dial 1890 943 123 (local call rate from anywhere in the country!) and then dial the US number. You get charged for a local call on your phonebill - that's all there is to it!

www.telestunt.ie

(And I see on that page that they now have a "carrier select" program that can give calls to the US for .5c/min (plus 5c cll setup)).