calling barranquilla colombia daily

[raycjs]

Guy's can you help me with the cheapest way to call Colombia on a daily bases to speak with my girl. She lives with her family and the have a landline and she has a cell. i have been calling her on her cell from my cell and it is very expensive i am looking for a cheaper way to speak with her?  Thank you for all you help with this


Ray
 

[michaelb]

Phone cards. Go to the (appropriate prevalent ethnicity) part of your town to buy them. Usually you can get a $5.00 card for $4.00 if there's any competition between the sellers. You will have to try a few before settling on the one you like best, as some of them give better overall rates than others, typically you will get 2, 2 1/2 hours for your $4.00. For all of them, it's much cheaper to call the land line.

[sean126]

First of all....call the land line when you use calling cards.  Personally, I use speedypin.com and get cards to call barranquilla.  My wife has found a near by Mexican store that sells alot of calling cards and she gets many more minutes using those than the ones I get at speedy pin.  So try any mexican or latin stores and get a couple different ones, keep track of your calling times to see which one gives you the most minutes.

I'm under a contract with my DSL and I have to keep my phone service for a while, still.....but when it's up I'm going to get Vonage with another highspeed internet service.  Go to their website and you will see that they have the $24.99 plan for phone service and then for $15 more a month they have unlimited calling to Colombia and especially Barranquilla.  That will save you tons of money, especially when she gets here and wants to call home.  Thats really the way to go, from what I know right now.  Someone may have a better way.

[Frank Rizzo]

If you are unsure how long the calling will go on....i'd go to www.zaptel.com   and look at "mexico's best" card....calling you'll have a toll free number to call then enter your pin for approx. 10cents from your phone to cell and 5cents per minute to her land line...(it's usually 1/2 price to land line.)..

If you are sure about her, by farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr the cheapest is get her high speed internet and send down a cheap computer. Have her get skype ...you too...for best quality...call free from computer to computer as long as you want..... and for approx. $40 per year...you get her "skype in" which is unlimited...she has a phone number which is local for you. You dial a local number from your cell or home phone and it rings her computer in colombia.

[sean126]

Mecca,

is that $40 per person for sky-in? or $20 per person for a total of 40?

[Frank Rizzo]

Hi Sean,

Your idea is also very good...$25 a month for unlimited is great...

On the "skype in"...it's $40 a year for unlimited to 1 account. So, you would set her up on your computer, charge on your card the $40 and get a local number for you. Then give her the password and name. She would keep signed in and anywhere in the world, that local number will ring that computer and take unlimted incoming calls from your cell or land line.

Additionally, you could call computer to computer with headset for free unlimited. You don't have to pay anything for that. Finally, you can get the Netgear Skype phone and set up a wireless in your home and hers and you can use what looks like a phone (it's a viop handset) if you want. Even if you're in a Starbucks or airport with wireless, it will call her computer for free unlimted.

Hope this helps, it does work well.

[Fuzzyone]

Guy's can you help me with the cheapest way to call Colombia on a daily bases to speak with my girl. She lives with her family and the have a landline and she has a cell. i have been calling her on her cell from my cell and it is very expensive i am looking for a cheaper way to speak with her?  Thank you for all you help with this


Ray
 

   Raycjs

      Do you have high speed internet? Get Vonage, they have a deal right not where you are paying about $50.00 a month for telephone service and unlimited to places like Barranquilla, Cali ect. You cannot beat the price and I have very few if any problems. I was paying about $100.00 a month for my wife to call Barranquilla so I am making out pretty good.

     Plus I transfered my old number to Vonage so I did not have to call everyone to let them know of a new number.

[raycjs]

Thanks guys I just got off the phone with vonage and the will give me a motorola adapter to use in my home in Florida as long as i have high speed internet witch i do. they will charge me 24.99 per month this will give me unlimited calling from Florida to barranquilla
they are also sending me 1 motorola adapter for me to bring on feb 7 to barranquilla and hook to her phone line this will allow her and her family to call me and then us in florida unlimited. All i need to do now is set her home in barranquilla up with a highsped internet connection. Vonage is recommending ETB.com.co they will come to her home and set up internet and then charge a monthly fee of 34.500 per month for high speed internet. My Spanish is getting better but for me to read and understand everything at this point is not the best if anyone has time to go to this site and give me some feedback on the 34.500 per month service and if there are any other charges for hook and ect... Thanks for all your help as always.

Ray

[singlefather no more]

I will post the link here for Ray so anybody speaking good Spanish
can take a look at for him if they have a chance.

http://www.etb.com.co/

singlefather

[daytrader]

Assuming both people have a high speed internet connection and a PC, www.skype is free between users and it has excellent webcam quality - particularly if you have a higher end webcam and decent high speed (skype just offered a free upgrade for this).  All you pay is her internet bill and get a basic laptop  for $350 to $450. 

If you need to call her mobile number, then I recommend yahoo voice (via yahoo messenger) - you can call her for pennies a minute.  I am calling Costa Rica for 7 cents a minute, whether I call a landline or a cell line. Check Yahoo or Skype for the best price. The quality sometimes is shaky, so a Vonage or phone card is a alternative for perfect connection to a cellular line in overseas -- but for the most part Yahoo & Skype will be sufficient. 

You won't need to purchase anything from Skype for PC to PC calls, just have Skype loaded on your PC when she calls from her Skype application on her PC.   
If you call landlines or cell lines, you will need to buy a inexpensive skypeout package, or use yahoo messenger for free and just pay the per minute charge. 

Vonage would be the highest price alternative, since you get nailed for all kinds of local and federal taxes + the $25 per month.  Skype or Yahoo is a free alternative to try first and the quality is good to excellent 95% of the time.   

Good dialing Everyone!

DayTrader

[bigstew33]

Well there is a way to make calls for FREE.  Provided you can match the requirements.  You will need a cell phone that you can install programs too and a way to connect to the internet.  WiFi, or a data package.  also check out some videos of this on youtube.

www.fring.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPPrKUKkc8Q

[Frank Rizzo]

Hi Stew...very neat..using your regular phone to access wifi....that's just using VOIP...yes?   Interesting for sure....thanks!!

[bigstew33]

Also keep your eye on this website.  Maybe one day they will win the law suite.  I have been watching this since I first heard about it in 10/06

http://www.futurephone.com/

[daytrader]

Well there is a way to make calls for FREE.  Provided you can match the requirements.  You will need a cell phone that you can install programs too and a way to connect to the internet.  WiFi, or a data package.  also check out some videos of this on youtube.

www.fring.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPPrKUKkc8Q

cool!  Thx BigStew!! 

DayTrader

[raycjs]

stew  amazing  tks

ray

[Calipro]

Guy's can you help me with the cheapest way to call Colombia on a daily bases to speak with my girl. She lives with her family and the have a landline and she has a cell. i have been calling her on her cell from my cell and it is very expensive i am looking for a cheaper way to speak with her?  Thank you for all you help with this


Ray
 

You can call colombian land lines (unlimited amount of mins.) for a flat rate of $40 per month with Vonage. It's a great deal if you already have high speed internet.

[Ray]

For those guys planning to process visa petitions for spouses or fiancées, keep in mind that you will need evidence of a valid relationship and your lady will need this for her visa interview. Copies of phone bills can be an important part of this evidence, especially if you don’t use the postal system for mailing letters.

If your overseas calling plan does not list individual overseas calls on a paper bill, you might want to consider making some of your calls through another service.

If your current long distance carrier is very expensive for overseas calls, you can try some of the 10-10-xxx dial-around plans. The advantage of these plans is that you will usually be billed on your regular local service phone bill, giving you a paper record of your calls. You will have to call from a land line and there are other restrictions in some cases. You can compare plans and rates here: http://www.10-10phonerates.com/international.php

Startec (10-10-719) appears to be a good deal. I'll have to try them next time we run out of phone cards.  http://www.startec.com/US/EN/products/1010719/

If you are calling frequently, I would use the cheapest plan available for you and then you could use an alternate plan with a paper billing record perhaps once a week or so for short calls.

Ray

[sean126]

Ray's got a good point.  Keep those phone records, calling card records and cell phone records for your visa stuff.  I sent several months worth with my application.

[raycjs]

Guy's

Thanks for all your help i have set up my home in Florida with vonage and i am in the process of setting up her home in barranquilla with vonage for the phone and we found a great internet company for the highspeed internet it is http://www.telefonica.com.co they charge $ 68.500 per month for 512k internet high speed. They are coming out to her home next week to install the internet then when i arrive i will have the vonage adapter for the phone. this way we are all set with phone and computer for talking and chatting.

Thanks as always

Ray

[Frank Rizzo]

Good deal Ray. You'll see that computer to computer with headsets is by farrrrrrrrr the best connection you'll ever get. Calling computer to land line is good, but not even close to the quality of comp-comp.

I know you're set with Vonage, but it's only $40 per year for unlimited incoming calls to her computer with the 500k on her end. Eventhough, please keep us updated on how the connection goes.

[Researcher]

    I used JAJAH.com alot.I think it is about .06 a minute to Colombia.I have also used calling cards from the local Latino store.One thing a lady that works there told me was the best cards are the newer ones.Since they are trying to get new customers, the connection and service is better.I found this to be true most of the time so I always got the newest ones or asked which one she reccomended.She was right nearly everytime.I like Vonage though and have heard alot of good things about them.I may try them next.