Unlimited calls to Philippines, our experience so far

[lbounds 16]

There's usually a bunch of posts on this topic. I wanted to share our experience so far with what we tried. We are using Pinoy Tawag unlimited and this is our second month.

It look a while to get setup from our intial order but now we are paying $39 a month flat rate and my wife is enjoying talking to her mom and family without worrying about phone bills. Our phone bill before sometimes was $150 a month or more..

The company sent a special SIM Card to her family in Philippines which they put in the cell phone and we got a local phone number in our city to call (no long distance) and when we call our local US number the phone rings in Philippines and her family answers.

http://www.pinoytawagunlimited.com/

So far it has worked real well for us and we definately are saving money. With all our other costs of being newly married and travel it did help.

[~happyndinlove~ 540]

Thanks for the info!

Our average phone bill is about $150 too so we will give this a try.

Have you had any connection issues (dropped calls or many attempts to connect)?

[Atencio 43]

My experience has not been the greatest but I still am saving money with them. First off the service is not unlimited calls. They have a fair use clause which is 5000 minutes/ month I think. Still that is more than I would ever use.

The process fir setup took forever with the company blaming the delivery company. I was really unhappy with customer service at this point because they would either tell me they would take care of it or call me back; neither of which happened

My connection is good maybe 60% of the time. When I try to connect I will get busy signals almost always during my night time or really bad static connections. On average I pay have to redial the number 4 or 5 times before I connect. At other times we will just drop requiring reconnections.

A lot of these problems may be due to my wife's location. However I still have an active reb-tel account and their connection is far better and more clear than Pinoy.

Still fior $40.00 a month I have been able to live with the irritations

[Atencio 43]

Also Pinoy said their service would not work with my wife's 3G connected phone I ended up having to buy her another phone

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

We currently use Net Talk both as our home phone in the US and in the Philippines for Mom. We got our units while they were still offering lifetime service for a one time $100 payment, new service now costs $100 per year. Of course Mom's internet costs us $20 per month (that includes her regular PH Home Phone service & DSL Internet).

Rarely do we have any problems with the service. We added the Net Talk number to our AT&T A-List so calls to/from our cell phones are unlimited.

We almost went with the Pinay Tawag but after waiting for over 3 weeks we just cancelled the order and went elsewhere.

[lbounds 16]

It did take us maybe 4 weeks or so for initial setup partly because they spelled the last name wrong of my wifes sister and the delivery company wouldn't give it to her with the spelling error.

My wife does have some dropped calls and issues getting through sometimes but that's because of where she's from. The cell reception is not that great even with AT&T we used before. Right now I'm happy because we are saving a lot of money and my wife has regular contact with family.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

Right now I'm happy because we are saving a lot of money and my wife has regular contact with family.

That's the important part regardless of what solution we each found (Pinay Tawag, Vonage, Net Talk, MagicJack, Skype, YM, FB).

[Merry Ann's Mykul 0]

We are using Magic Jack.... it works and its really unlimitted you can talk 4ever as long as u want to. Try it!

[TravellingNomad 12]

the wife and I use BayanTel's Half Family Ties unlimited calling plan for $25. it's called half because when we signed up, we already have the BT span service. The full Family Ties Program is $40/mo and they supply your loved one back home a BT wireless unit and service. the monthly fee back home is included in the $40/mo that you're gonna pay so your relative will not have to worry about any phone bills. the only caveat to this is....BayanTel only services the greater Metro Manila area and some provinces. but the call quality is really good and im saving a whole lot of money each month in calling. and it is really unlimited.

[Dakine 26]

Hard to beat Magic Jack at 20 bucks a year unlimited.

[TravellingNomad 12]

yeah my dad and his brother talk to our relatives in the province using the magic jack they sent over there. the times i used it while vacationing there...i found that there was a slight delay and a faint echo. not sure if it was because of the connection. but it does it's purpose. the only reason why I am not a big fan of it is because you have to turn your computer on to make or receive calls.

[Atencio 43]

the only reason why I am not a big fan of it is because you have to turn your computer on to make or receive calls.

Yeah same for me. The wife has Magic Jack at home but in Butuan brownouts are everyday and it is nice to be able to call her when she is out on her cell phone or wants to have private talks in her room or outside

[mrsean 4]

There's usually a bunch of posts on this topic. I wanted to share our experience so far with what we tried. We are using Pinoy Tawag unlimited and this is our second month.

It look a while to get setup from our intial order but now we are paying $39 a month flat rate and my wife is enjoying talking to her mom and family without worrying about phone bills. Our phone bill before sometimes was $150 a month or more..

The company sent a special SIM Card to her family in Philippines which they put in the cell phone and we got a local phone number in our city to call (no long distance) and when we call our local US number the phone rings in Philippines and her family answers.

http://www.pinoytawagunlimited.com/

So far it has worked real well for us and we definately are saving money. With all our other costs of being newly married and travel it did help.

we have pinoy tawag for over a year now and no problems and my wife has an aunt in Minnesota and she pays half because the whole family lives in the village so it cost us 20 a month unlimited

[mrsean 4]

My experience has not been the greatest but I still am saving money with them. First off the service is not unlimited calls. They have a fair use clause which is 5000 minutes/ month I think. Still that is more than I would ever use.

The process fir setup took forever with the company blaming the delivery company. I was really unhappy with customer service at this point because they would either tell me they would take care of it or call me back; neither of which happened

My connection is good maybe 60% of the time. When I try to connect I will get busy signals almost always during my night time or really bad static connections. On average I pay have to redial the number 4 or 5 times before I connect. At other times we will just drop requiring reconnections.

A lot of these problems may be due to my wife's location. However I still have an active reb-tel account and their connection is far better and more clear than Pinoy.

Still fior $40.00 a month I have been able to live with the irritations

i dont know what your talking about or your plan but i have pinoy tawag for over a year and it is unlimited!!!and no problems you must have another company!!!!

[Atencio 43]

i dont know what your talking about or your plan but i have pinoy tawag for over a year and it is unlimited!!!and no problems you must have another company!!!!

Read the fair use rules

The Service is subject to a fair usage limit of 5,000 minutes per Customer per month. Also, no more than 3 different numbers per Customer can call the DID.

Once these limits are exceeded, the Company may suspend or cancel the Service at any time without notice. Subscriptions are for individual use only. Each subscription is to be used by one person only and is not to be shared with any other user (whether via a PBX, call centre, computer or any other means). The Company reserves the right to change this fair usage policy at any time. Changes shall become effective within thirty (30) days of publication of the revised version on www.pinoytawagunlimited.com. Your continued use of your subscription after expiry of the 30-day period shall constitute your acceptance to be bound by the terms and conditions of the revised fair usage policy.