It is a fact that when you are away from home, and you want to keep in touch with friends and relatives across the globe you are willing to pay anythings just to hear your loved one's voice.
For most of us, Filipinos, we love to keep in touch with our relatives, thus, we spend a good portion of our overseas earnings for long distance calls.
With the advent of voice over internet protocol, or simply VOIP, international long distance call rates have become less expensive than they used to be. But cheap doesn't mean satisfactory service. Some VOIP long distance providers just don't give you a good two way communication media, thus, you suffer with audio problems which of course is fair because "you always get what you pay for". Right? No. Just like all other services, you can still find a good bargain. So even if you pay cheaper long distance rates, you can still get a good service for your money.
Let me just share to you what services I used to avail of to initiate international long distance calls. First off, YahooVoice Phoneout service. At 19 cents a minute to call a landlline or a mobile phone across the globe from your computer, you already get a good value for your money. Of course with some local phone providers you get cheaper rates at 16 cents a minute (looks like it) but when you add up taxes, subscription fees and a bunch of local and national taxes, it really doesn't come out cheaper at all. Agree?
Then I tried TalkPlus. They charge less than 15 cents a minute for a call to the Philippines from the U.S. The one thing I like about it is you can call from your cellphone. Tip: If you have a MyFaves subscription with T-Mobile, you can just add the access number as one of your MyFaves contacts and you can talk for hours from your mobile phone without eating up your minutes. Another advantage of TalkPlus is you can either call through, meaning, you dial their access number to reach an international number, or you can set it to call back by initiating a call through the internet and as soon as you are connected to the called party your phone rings.
The only drawback is, sometimes, you have to take several tries to get connected to the number you are calling. But the voice clarity is remarkable. It's almost as if you are not using a VOIP service.
Then I found PINGO. And bingo, I'm stuck on it for good. So far it's the best VOIP service out there. Let me point out the good stuff. First, it charges me 13.8 cents to make a call to the Philippines from the U.S., so it's the cheapest I've found, basically. Second, it's fairly easy to use. All you have to do is sign-up online on their website, buy your minutes, perhaps opt for auto-recharge, register your PINPass numbers. PINPass numbers are your regular phone numbers or mobile phone numbers that you register so you can initiate a call from those numbers and the system will validate your call right away without a need to enter a PIN number. So if you register your home phone number, as soon as you call the PINGO access number, you can then proceed with dialing the country code, area code and phone number without much of a hassle. Again if you have a mobile phone, and you are subscribed to unlimited minutes like MyFaves, you can call as well from your mobile phone. You can register up to ten PINPass numbers. Isn't that neat? The voice clarity is superb. Third, there are no connection fees and extra hidden charges. You really get a good run for your money with their service. Bonus: You get $5 of free minutes if you refer a friend and when you first sign-up for the service.
Is there anything bad about the service? Well, the fact that it's cheaper and much more easier to use, you might get used to calling home as often as you want and as long as you want. So be forwarned. I will guarantee you that if you try PINGO, you will love it. PostScript: I don't get any monetary bonus from featuring this service in my blog, except for the satisfaction of course, of sharing something useful to my blog readers. Enjoy!
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