Calling Vietnam - How do you do it?

[Matt_Stevens 5]

Hi gang. For a while my fiance and I were able to send text messages to each other via our cell phones, but now it will not work and we cannot figure out why. Worse, I am no longer able to call her cell phone. It just will not go through. Meanwhile she can call me on her cell phone! Odd, isn't it? It's driving us batty.

I call her twice a week now, to her home phone, and it is getting expensive. Calling cards I have seen locally are actually more expensive. What do you all do in calling Vietnam?

Edited March 8, 2006 by Matt_Stevens

[scy 0]

Hi gang. For a while my fiance and I were able to send text messages to each other via our cell phones, but now it will not work and we cannot figure out why. Worse, I am no longer able to call her cell phone. It just will not go through. Meanwhile she can call me on her cell phone! Odd, isn't it? It's driving us batty.

I call her twice a week now, to her home phone, and it is getting expensive. Calling cards I have seen locally are actually more expensive. What do you all do in calling Vietnam?

I find the GSM providers like T-Mobile and Cingular to be the best at international text messages. They usually don't go through a middle man since Vietnam mobile providers are all GSM. As to why you can't call her. Sometimes Vinaphone or Mobifone disables international incoming calls. I've had that happened with my wife's Vinaphone. Tell your fiancee to check with them.

I use Tel3Advantage to call my wife. Although there are cheaper alternatives like Vietnam84 which also give you itemized billing. The phone cards are ok, but they are useless for relationship evidence.

[Matt_Stevens 5]

I have Verizen for my cell. Cannot change as I am under contract for another year. I'll have to ask Anh about her cell plan. Good tip, scy. Thanks.

[nodownguy 3]

I have Verizen for my cell. Cannot change as I am under contract for another year. I'll have to ask Anh about her cell plan. Good tip, scy. Thanks.

Have you asked Verizon if they've changed your features? They may now charge extra for international/SMS messaging. Also, I noticed we can not call cellphones in Vietnam with certain phone cards.

Good luck!

[Matt_Stevens 5]

Yeah, I called them and nothing changed. I actually boughtthe RAZR phone last month and could text message her for about a week with it and then BAM, no more texts or calling her.

[STL_HCMC 0]

I don't know how relevant my information is, but it might be worth a try until you find a more economical solution.

I live in Ho Chi Minh City and use Skype to call back to the family in the United States. When I was back in St. Louis for the holiday vacation last December, I used Skype to call my fiancee's cell phone in HCMC and it worked fine. I pay about $0.02/min to call the USA and it was around $0.32/min or $0.38/min to call my fiancee in HCMC from St. Louis.

In addition, you can setup skype to record your calling history and I'm guessing that could possibly be used like a phone bill or calling charges statement.

STL_HCMC

[Robert & Van 0]

I have been using VoipBuster. It's in euro (They charge about .23 euro per min) You can also print out all the phone calls that you made. With the date and time called from there web Site. I also buy calling cards from SDI.Com 5.49 for 29 mins.

[Idinh 0]

I have Cingular and I'd say 99% of my text-messages go thru to my wife. My wife has Mobifone as her cell-provider and she has sporadic ability to send me text-messages. About 80% success rate.

I dunno if this will help you at all but here goes. The first cell-phone I bought for her was a Samsung brand, and she could receive about all of my texts. But she could never send me any texts.

So, later on I bought her a newer Nokia brand phone to replace the Samsung. Now she still receives almost all of my text-messages. While she is able to send about 80% of her text-messages to me.

May just be a coincidence or Nokia has better phones than Samsung, but who knows.

As for calling each other. I sometimes use calling cards to call her and also call directly from my house phone to her cell.

Another good way is to buy a internet phone card in VN to call the US. I forgot how much it costs, but is less than $20 for sure. You get about 3 hours talk time. That's how my wife usually calls me. That or she just calls from her house phone.

And there is always the good ole Yahoo Messenger.

Edited March 9, 2006 by Idinh

[chuckandkim 0]

There are many ways to communicate with loved ones in VN and US. Your goal is to find a provider who will give you CALLING records for proof of "on-going" relationship at her's HCMC interview. It is NOT a game of SMS or calling for chit-chat.

Once you set your priority straight and agree with her, you will need to decide whether you want to have ADSL and a laptop hooked up at her local residence or you want her to spend her time in an Internet Cafe. I have bad stories happened to Kim and I while she was at the internet cafe.

But, once you have decide to have ADSL and PC/Laptop installed at her home (do recommend)... the sky is the limit by what means you want to communicate with her, or her with you.

In my opinion, SMS is funny as hell but serve no edit trail purpose. Calling on US Cellphone to Mobile phone in VN is extremely expensive.

Kim and I had been using www.ipncom.com service for over 2 years now, since we started communicating.

The rate to call from US to VN is around 28 cents/min, however from VN to anywhere (mobile/landline) is only 2.5 cents/min. Best part about it: all you calls are keep tracked in a logfile online. There are no connection fees or monthly service fees.

They have a D.I.D. Service to enhence your calling experience: by entering her telephone number in VN into the system, you can call a US Local Number, then enter in your I-phone#, that call then will be forwarded to her cellphone/landline in VN. This feature gives me extreme flexibility whenever I go out on the road and not at my PC to call Kim (back in the day)

Anyway, now, Kim and I are here, we use SKYPE all day, all the time to keep in-touch with her family in Australia and Vietnam. We pretty much talk at least once a day with her family for FREE, of course!

So in my opinion, you should do the following:

1. Set up ADSL + Laptop at home for her (if you already did, awesome)

2. She should contact http://voice.vietnamnet.vn (in Vietnam)

3. You should contact http://www.ipncom.com (in US)

4. Set up accounts, pay with credit card for her and you (so easy)

5. Setup Skype www.skype.com for everyday talk/chat/super-fast Video conferencing.

Phone cards is the biggest cheat of all. Nobody who wants to save money would call international directly via their homephone phone service provider, VOIP is the way to go!

Good luck and happy calling.

[yellow123 0]

try this http://www.tel3advantage.com/rates.aspx?Ag...=122939&CID=638

I've been using it for a few months and the voice is pretty clear. You can also print calling records as well. Cheapest rate I've found on the internet.

[sweetiewynn 0]

Hi gang. For a while my fiance and I were able to send text messages to each other via our cell phones, but now it will not work and we cannot figure out why. Worse, I am no longer able to call her cell phone. It just will not go through. Meanwhile she can call me on her cell phone! Odd, isn't it? It's driving us batty.

I call her twice a week now, to her home phone, and it is getting expensive. Calling cards I have seen locally are actually more expensive. What do you all do in calling Vietnam?

If she has computer and internet at home you guys should download Skype to call each other. It's the easiest and cheapest way. However the consulate will ask her for your phone bills in her interview and she needs to show them. Some people buy cards to call but then can't show the consulate. So sometimes you can use regular phone to call just to have some evidence for the consulate and sometimes you can call her via skype or something like that.

[chuckandkim 0]

Try LYCOS or GLOBE7, calling from PC to Landline only .01/min

[Jasman0717 9]

I have Verizen for my cell. Cannot change as I am under contract for another year. I'll have to ask Anh about her cell plan. Good tip, scy. Thanks.

I have verizon and we can text the Philippines at will. It is weird that you can't call her.

[Matt_Stevens 5]

My phone bill for last month was over $400.

[tt3 0]

use yahoo messenger with voice, it cost only 19 cents per minute, and the quality is very good.