Can someone suggest a good US cellphone plan to call and text to Philippines?

[RandR333 9]

Hi,

My wife needs a new cellphone and plan to talk and text back home. Can anyone give me a little information about a good plan? Thanks!

[X Factor 1,112]

Does her family have a computer? Then skype is unlimited. My fiancee will be giving her dad and mom her laptop with Skype installed so that they can communicate anytime when she arrives in the US

[Grant PDX 183]

I am using or have looked at the following:

My girlfriend has internet in her home, so I sent her a Magicjack Plus. Up front cost was $70, I will pay $20 per year and can call her at any time, as if it was a local call. She can also call me, other friends in the US, or other family members in the Philippines who also have a Magicjack for unlimited minutes, total cost $20 per year. I set it up in the US before sending it, so it has a number that is local for me. She can call me anytime on any of my numbers, I can call her anytime from any number in the area.

I have Vonage for my home phone service. Prior to the Magicjack I was using my cell phone with Vonage's Extension on my smart phone (any cell service works) and pay Vonage $0.09 per minute to use their service.

Finally, when I must call direct from my cell phone, I use AT&T. When I set up my phone service I looked around. Granted it has been a couple of years, but paying AT&T for their international plan ($3.99 per month) I could call from my cell to the Philippines for $0.23 or $0.29 per minute, depending on if it is a landline or cellphone there that you call to. When I was looking, the equivalent from Verizon was $0.49 per minute. Actually as of last fall it was still $0.49 per minute on Verizon.

Hope it helps.

Edited July 3, 2012 by Grant PDX

[Operator 1,927]

Google talk.

[Bri & Mar 12]

I have heard good things about Magic Jack Plus. It requires activation in the US on a computer but after activation only requires that it be hooked to a high speed router. The phone number assigned the Magic Jack Plus is a local US number.

[X Factor 1,112]

I am using or have looked at the following:

My girlfriend has internet in her home, so I sent her a Magicjack. Up front cost was $70, I will pay $20 per year and can call her at any time, as if it was a local call. She can also call me, other friends in the US, or other family members in the Philippines who also have a Magicjack for unlimited minutes, total cost $20 per year.

I have Vonage for my home phone service. Prior to the Magicjack I was using my cell phone with Vonage's Extension on my smart phone (any cell service works) and pay Vonage $0.09 per minute to use their service.

Finally, when I must call direct from my cell phone, I use AT&T. When I set up my phone service I looked around. Granted it has been a couple of years, but paying AT&T for their international plan ($3.99 per month) I could call from my cell to the Philippines for $0.23 or $0.29 per minute, depending on if it is a landline or cellphone there that you call to. When I was looking, the equivalent from Verizon was $0.49 per minute. Actually as of last fall it was still $0.49 per minute on Verizon.

Hope it helps.

You can also buy a magic jack in the Philippines and they assign you a US number. My fiancee purchased one for about $25 - it was on sale and she will have to pay about $30 each year after that. We are using it regularly and she calls my US cell phone and I am charged local call. You can do a search on Philippine search engines for "magic jack". That way I didn't have to ship her a magic jack from the US and risk getting it stolen en route.

[Gosia & Tito 199]

I am using or have looked at the following:

My girlfriend has internet in her home, so I sent her a Magicjack Plus. Up front cost was $70, I will pay $20 per year and can call her at any time, as if it was a local call. She can also call me, other friends in the US, or other family members in the Philippines who also have a Magicjack for unlimited minutes, total cost $20 per year. I set it up in the US before sending it, so it has a number that is local for me. She can call me anytime on any of my numbers, I can call her anytime from any number in the area.

I have Vonage for my home phone service. Prior to the Magicjack I was using my cell phone with Vonage's Extension on my smart phone (any cell service works) and pay Vonage $0.09 per minute to use their service.

Finally, when I must call direct from my cell phone, I use AT&T. When I set up my phone service I looked around. Granted it has been a couple of years, but paying AT&T for their international plan ($3.99 per month) I could call from my cell to the Philippines for $0.23 or $0.29 per minute, depending on if it is a landline or cellphone there that you call to. When I was looking, the equivalent from Verizon was $0.49 per minute. Actually as of last fall it was still $0.49 per minute on Verizon.

Hope it helps.

For direct calls, look up PennyTalk.com; rates for landlines and even mobiles are very competitive (in most countries at least); it is also possible to setup a local US number that will dial your foreign number directly, so you don't have to remember codes or numbers; finally, they have this thing called Savorites that gets you an extra discount. The catch: they charge a connection fee per call, 49 cents; that means you don't want many short conversations.

Ah, it is a pay as you go, you ran out of money, you depoist more (by CC); if you don't, no calls go through (as opposed to subscription, that you pay whether you talk or not. Generally is a good backup to Skype

[RandR333 9]

Thanks guys.

We don't want to have to use the internet. We planned on leaving a computer at home in PI, but that experiment failed before we were gone.

We tried the Magic jack in PI, but didn't really care for it. I've also tried Vonage here, but Time Warner has some kind of program interfering with it.

She really wants to be able to talk and text with her cellphone. I think a lot of that is just due to missing her cellphone and texting, but whatever makes her happy.

I'll check out AT&T for texting and whatever.

[Caryh 5,206]

Thanks guys.

We don't want to have to use the internet. We planned on leaving a computer at home in PI, but that experiment failed before we were gone.

We tried the Magic jack in PI, but didn't really care for it. I've also tried Vonage here, but Time Warner has some kind of program interfering with it.

She really wants to be able to talk and text with her cellphone. I think a lot of that is just due to missing her cellphone and texting, but whatever makes her happy.

I'll check out AT&T for texting and whatever.

I use myblack011 so my wife can call home. I get about 40 minutes per $5 put on the phone. She just calls a number on her cell, the system recognizes her or my cell number, and she's good to talk as long as she wants. I reload it as needed, putting $20 at a time on it. For texting, get her a smart phone and load yahoo messenger on it. Then set up yahoo accounts for family members that don't have them and assign their cell number to it. You can send SMS for free using yahoo messenger from the phone and its I believe 1 Peso for them to reply. Although they do have internet, its very poor in her area over those 3G dongles. It works sometimes and not others, and often drops connections even when its working. I found this is our most flexible and cheapest method to keep in contact without the internet options.

[X Factor 1,112]

I use myblack011 so my wife can call home. I get about 40 minutes per $5 put on the phone. She just calls a number on her cell, the system recognizes her or my cell number, and she's good to talk as long as she wants. I reload it as needed, putting $20 at a time on it. For texting, get her a smart phone and load yahoo messenger on it. Then set up yahoo accounts for family members that don't have them and assign their cell number to it. You can send SMS for free using yahoo messenger from the phone and its I believe 1 Peso for them to reply. Although they do have internet, its very poor in her area over those 3G dongles. It works sometimes and not others, and often drops connections even when its working. I found this is our most flexible and cheapest method to keep in contact without the internet options.

Awesome. I will have to try it

[Scott and Mhay 57]

you can use REBTEL to call from the US to the PI. The only good texting I have found is with using a smartphone. I use Viber to text my friends in the US. You can even make calls with it for free, just have to have a data plan and in most cases use a wifi signal. It is hit or miss on the calls for me though (we are in italy right now). The only catch is the other person has to be using the same App.

[Caryh 5,206]

Awesome. I will have to try it

I'd love to use the internet options myself, but it just doesn't work where her family lives. I get the myblack011 through a local western union/check cashing place here. They gave me $5 in credit to try it and its worked pretty darn good and certainly better than any phone card I used previously. And 40 minutes for $5 could hardly be beat. Its right by my office, so really easy to load up. Although they have a web site option, I never managed to figure out how to activate my current account on the web site. Of course I only tried to once and gave up lol. The yahoo texting we'd been doing for years before she came here. Those international text rates are budget killers on both sides. My wife used to buy a globe card for international calling to the USA. For 100P she could call me for 40 minutes. Her sister still buys that card to call my wife. When my wife was there, thats how we made all our calls. I'd text her via yahoo, and she'd call me back on the globe card. Cheapest international calling we ever had without using free internet services and computers.

you can use REBTEL to call from the US to the PI. The only good texting I have found is with using a smartphone. I use Viber to text my friends in the US. You can even make calls with it for free, just have to have a data plan and in most cases use a wifi signal. It is hit or miss on the calls for me though (we are in italy right now). The only catch is the other person has to be using the same App.

I installed Viber on my phone, but never got the chance to try it. My wife left her smart phone there, but her sister isn't the best with tech devices

[RandR333 9]

I'd love to use the internet options myself, but it just doesn't work where her family lives. I get the myblack011 through a local western union/check cashing place here. They gave me $5 in credit to try it and its worked pretty darn good and certainly better than any phone card I used previously. And 40 minutes for $5 could hardly be beat. Its right by my office, so really easy to load up. Although they have a web site option, I never managed to figure out how to activate my current account on the web site. Of course I only tried to once and gave up lol. The yahoo texting we'd been doing for years before she came here. Those international text rates are budget killers on both sides. My wife used to buy a globe card for international calling to the USA. For 100P she could call me for 40 minutes. Her sister still buys that card to call my wife. When my wife was there, thats how we made all our calls. I'd text her via yahoo, and she'd call me back on the globe card. Cheapest international calling we ever had without using free internet services and computers.

I installed Viber on my phone, but never got the chance to try it. My wife left her smart phone there, but her sister isn't the best with tech devices

Good info. I forgot about Yahoo SMS. We used that in the beginning then we had some kind of problem with setting up the account and kinda forgot all about it. Anyways, I think we will try that again. Thanks!

[Hank_ 9,174]

OBI talk running Google Voice (with local phone number), it plugs into a router or the DSL/CABLE modem. Lightyears better than a MagicJack: FREE except for buying the OBI (Amazon.com), call quality is tons better than MJ, easier to configure and use.

[Markieboy 104]

My vote would be Viber.

We use that to call and text family in the Philippines...for free. The app uses our home wifi internet connection. It does not affect the minutes allotted by your cell phone carrier. The receiver in the Philippines doesn't even need to have load on the phone to receive calls/texts. The quality of the calls are even better than most calling cards I have used in the past.

Our cell phone plan is prepaid with Virgin Mobile ($35/month). IMHO, I believe they offer the most for the price...300 minutes, unlimited text, and unlimited data (2.5GB, actually). Best of all, no contracts. I do hate contracts...

As long as Viber is free, I'm never looking back to calling cards.

Edited July 3, 2012 by Markieboy