How much is your phone bill?

[Kraj.d 1]

My husband's bills have been amounting to nearly $500 for the last couple of months.

We also stay in contact throughout the entire day via AIM, Skype, Facebook and text messages.

We've been trying to cut down on his phone bills. Managed to get it to $300 this month.

I've been urging him to get a Mother India account which is $10 for 500 minutes. Or Skype which is unlimited for $8 monthly.

Anyone know if there are special rates or such for Verizon?

Hay Sachi,

I can suggest u to get an US number through skype which u can use to call ur parents once u reach US....It cost $30 per yr and ur hubby can get unlimited call times through his service provider for $40 - $60 per month......I have a US number via Skype and my wife is holding AT&T unlimitted connection for $60 per month and also she has Airtel connection which gives her 1000 Min talktime to Indian numbers for $10.....Also we do webcam chat via skype all day (except working hours).....This is how we stay connected......Hope this helps...

Raj

[Terca 6]

My husband and I barely set foot home so I have a cell phone long distance plan with ATT for $4 a month, they charge about .18 cents per minute to call him on his cell. We are using it as a "need to" resource but my monthly bill still comes out to about $80 on long distance calls.

We talk on MSN, cell, forums and e-mails continuously during the day. I probably call him about 5 times a day, and he calls me about the same for short times. Spend an average of 3 hours on MSN per day. I send him text messages for free to his cell phone too. And of course there's Facebook we live there at night trolling/laughing with our friends and exchanging pictures and such.

We are both active members of at least 3 common forums (he doesn't use VJ though lol)

[tharnsur 1]

Just a suggestion for those of you that have unlimited data plan on your cell phone in the USA or abroad. Skype provide software for your smart/pda phone that you can use to talk while you're away from the computer. I have unlimited data plan and i use this option alot. I used at least 500+ mb of data per month talking 1.5 - 3 hours a day while i'm on the road. In addition to skype, we text, email, chat, and our favorite is video chat. All in all I would say it cost us around $100 for my cell phone and both of our internet service. It used to cost us 150-200 per months without skype.

I have sprint SERO plan and i pay $30ish/month. I recently added another SERO line to my account for my wife so she can keep in touch with her friends and family back at home.

Just a note, skype recently took the software off of their website, but you can still find it. It will work if you choose the right version for your phone (i.e. smart phone vs. touch screen pda). Also, SERO is a service provided to friends and family of a Sprint employee. They no longer offer this service.

[Deb+Steve 13]

I average about $250/mth on my phone and he averages about $300 because for some reason in the US if you're not with the same network and you receive a call, you still pay?? #######?? I spend about $20/mth on phone cards so I can call him while I'm at work and he is at home then it doesn't cost him anything.

Internet, meh. Doesn't count because even without the LDR I would still have it.

Airfares about $10K in the last 9 months, gifts & snail mail ... who knows. We have a habit of just mailing each other something stupid that we see to surprise the other. My most recent gift to him was a pack of Aussie Bull$hit bags ... he liked them alot. Just plain brown paper bags with instructions like ... Open bag before opening your mouth and Place bag beneath chin ...

We email while I'm at work or I call. I will say goodnight to him so about 30 mins at night on Skype depending on how tired I am and then he will say good morning when I wake and we chat for about another 30 mins while I have my coffee. On weekends it depends on what we have planned but we do try and coordinate it so we can have a few hours together.

[celticstar 2]

My fiancé's last phone bill was $800

We do talk a lot though, I think it was about an average of six hours a day on the phone.

We do talk every day via facebook when he's at work and then every night we're on yahoo messenger and web cam....

We just need to upgrade his sound card so that we can talk via skype now!

[psycons12 0]

Haha what a question !

I use two services, one on my cell phone and one at home. The one on my cell phone charges by the minute, and in the past has cost as much as $50 in one month.

At home I primarily use Vonage to call India and spend only about $32 per month on that. I heard of a new promo offer from Vonage, so I will try to call and get a lower price. :-)

We usually talk twice a day - once when she wakes up and I am going to bed, and again when I wake up and she is going to bed.

We very rarely talk on email or use text chatting, it is usually on the phone.

wow....how we wish we know that ,been spending a lot on our phone bill my fiancee use his regular phone and cellhone lines,which cost really a lot,we talk 2x a day too with the minimum of 1 hour in each call,we txt ,sometimes skype and tons of emails...just a couple who love to talk anything i guess...but we hope this will be over soon as we will be together and so to save for our ponebill too he he he....

[KikuyuLove 0]

We try to use Skype when possible but since I am on the go constantly, I found a specialized calling card for Africa from Locus that gives you 1 hour 13 minutes for $5. Vonage is my backup but a bit more to use. Its about the same as Skype-Out. So, we talk at least an hour a day, and 2-3 hours Saturday and Sundays when my cell has no surcharge to the access number. The cards really help to control the cost because we could go on and on for hours otherwise and Vonage will grab the money out of your account every $100 immediately but I can at least meter out the money on the cards. We spend nearly $300/month yaking and I eat a lot of pasta when she's in Kenya to help the budget. I miss my Sweetie (can you tell?)

Edited April 6, 2010 by KikuyuLove

[Canadiandggal 49]

We use to spend 100 a month for pennytalk phone cards, then we switched the vonage at 35.00 a month free long distance now we have Magicjack, 20.00 a year free long distance. We stay in touch via text message email phone call video chat.

[KikuyuLove 0]

My fiancé's last phone bill was $800

We do talk a lot though, I think it was about an average of six hours a day on the phone.

We do talk every day via facebook when he's at work and then every night we're on yahoo messenger and web cam....

We just need to upgrade his sound card so that we can talk via skype now!

I think the card should be a no brainer versus an $800 bill!?

[churawan 14]

MAgicjack is the way to go if they have internet access.... Order 1 and when you get it, mail it to them then you will be making "local calls" to that number and they will call you easily on any number in the states for free.... I have been using these things for 3 years and they work great.. We left one in Thailand with the family to use daily... Her friends asked for them also they can call her when they want to catch up.. $19.95 a year... Cheap and simple....

[sara..... 371]

our little old town is very back wards we have phone company that is co-op.....so our monthly bill for a house phone we never use is combined with our cable and net total cost $162 (have to have the phone to get the net and cable) a month no long distance cuz thats extra.....our cell phone account is t-mobile five lines and some of them with the new smart phone tech android.......total cost $190 per month

I used to spend about 100 a month on calling perviz.....

sara

[OctaneGuy 0]

My first phone bill was about US$1500. I only have a cell phone. I had to quickly change that! First I signed up for a long distance plan through my phone company AT&T and that dropped my bill down to about $800. I also went to unlimited text messages and that also dropped the bill down to around $500. My wife and have a schedule where I call her from about 7am to 10am and from 5pm to Midnight or 1am, depending on how tired we are. We do this everyday, so we talk about 10 hours a day. We text every waking moment, and we've been doing this for the last year and a half. I've since been able to keep my phone bill down to about $165 a month now by taking advantage of different technologies.

We video Skype for free. I use Skype minutes to call her home phone or cell phone when she is away from the computer. When I am away from the computer, I use a feature of Skype that lets me call her by calling a local number that then patches me through Skype to her in Taiwan. I use Skype minutes and because I have nationwide unlimited calling, I don't have any additional local charges.

We text each other using Yahoo. If you are not signed onto Yahoo through the computer, there is a feature that will send a text to your phone. This allows us to do long distance texting without the international charges. Recently we started using an app called Ping. We both have iPhones and we can text each other using our local data plans. So we can text without using the phone companies text messaging system. I spent over $20,000 last year traveling to see my wife every other month. It costs between $800 to $1300, depending on the time of year for the 16 hour flight from the US to Taiwan or Hong Kong. That plus hotels, etc... I love my wife very much and I would do anything to be with her!! Wish her I130 would get approved soon! We are past the estimated Timeline range now.

[luv2uallday 1]

Hey CR1-Filers,

so I was wondering how much you/your spouse spends on phone bills a month?

How many hours to you talk on the phone?

And since we are talking about "communication":

how much time a day do you spend talking/skyping/texting/emailing etc with your spouse?

I pay $4 a month thanx to magic jack (I sent one to my In-laws in philippines)

[fox fox 5]

MagicJack is definately the way to go, but not very usefull if one person has low quality internet. I'm coming up on my 2nd year renewal date and if the 5 year for $60 deal is still offered, then I will buy that subscription.

[JuneFirst 1]

MagicJack

Hey guys, so I have spend some time trying to figure out MagicJack.

Some of you are using it, so maybe you can help me out.

1) Do I understand that right, that one of the two conversation-partners has to be at home, online with a landline, not a cell. Or would a cell work, too?

2) How much is international calling? They make it sound like it is for free, but then they have the list with the prices?

3) Can you call any phone , or only landlines and no cells?

Hope somebody has the answers for me

Edited April 6, 2010 by JuneFirst