The Phone bill! ;) Any cheaper ways?

[songz777]

I wished so much it didnt cost so much to call her each day, I ring skype to mobile morning and evening so costing me £65 a month but honestly I need to talk to her at least 45 mins a day but that set me back £100 per month! Any one know any cheaper ways?

I know you guys must be in the same boat, the more you grow in love the more you need to talk and share!

:)

[lastlid]

My wife and I confined our dialogue to YM and Skype typed chat, in the main. With only the occasional phone call. I am not sure why but phoning by Skype didnt work too well for us - I think it was mainly due to the poor signal that she had at her end. As a consequence the phone bills were not quite so high.

[Ako Si Jamie]

From your computer to internet cafe over there through Skype or Yahoo Messenger using a webcam/mic, perhaps.

[songz777]

From your computer to internet cafe over there through Skype or Yahoo Messenger using a webcam/mic, perhaps.


Yes we do skype to skype free of course at weekends but she cannot get to cafe during the week as she works long hours ans not to safe out late at night .

[gWaPito]

Used ordinary phone connection to start with until I started getting £ 300 plus phone bills with alarming regularity....I found the perfect solution in skype...my wife on computer me on phone...at the time only the '3' network provided skype....no problems with connection.

Btw My wife never had home computer until I bought her one...the best money I spent..the money you will save in phone bills will far out weigh the £ 300 or so for a computer and line rental for your beloved...believe me, I know.

[imagine]

looking at it long term, would there be any advantage for you to buy her lap top and pay internet for her,

is it possible it might be cheaper that way on your pocket?

[Steve.r]

We both have smart phones, so when my wife is at home it connects to our wifi internet and we can talk for hours for free. We use Viber to talk on the phone, which is free, I have 1gig of data on my phone contract and Viber say that 1 hour of talking takes 14 mb. We are also able to send messages and photos instantly over Viber too.
Other times we use MSN messenger, or Yahoo messenger. I have a Smart Roaming sim card, which my wife can send me an SMS for 1 peso, and if i need to call her mobile to mobile, I have another phone that has a chaeper rate to phils than my contract phone.

There are lots of ways to make talking easy, but the first thing to do is get her an internet connection at home, that is about 1000peso a month to maintain..

[Ako Si Jamie]

Yes we do skype to skype free of course at weekends but she cannot get to cafe during the week as she works long hours ans not to safe out late at night .I suppose you could get a cheap laptop/notebook/PC and pay for her internet connection. Would work out cheaper in the long run I reckon.

[Steve.r]

Yes we do skype to skype free of course at weekends but she cannot get to cafe during the week as she works long hours ans not to safe out late at night .Invest in buying her a laptop :xxgrinning--00xx3: money well spent

[Steve.r]

I suppose you could get a cheap laptop/notebook/PC and pay for her internet connection. Would work out cheaper in the long run I reckon.
Not one of those silly notebook things, they are too small and from what I have seen not worth it, get a decent i3 laptop, oh.... and a good HD webcam

[lastlid]

We both have smart phones, so when my wife is at home it connects to our wifi internet and we can talk for hours for free. We use Viber to talk on the phone, which is free, I have 1gig of data on my phone contract and Viber say that 1 hour of talking takes 14 mb. We are also able to send messages and photos instantly over Viber too.
Other times we use MSN messenger, or Yahoo messenger. I have a Smart Roaming sim card, which my wife can send me an SMS for 1 peso, and if i need to call her mobile to mobile, I have another phone that has a chaeper rate to phils than my contract phone.

There are lots of ways to make talking easy, but the first thing to do is get her an internet connection at home, that is about 1000peso a month to maintain..
Yes. Viber is good. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[lastlid]

When my wife was in the Philippines I bought her a netbook. She preferred that to a laptop. But when she left for the UK, she gave it to her mom so that she could chat to her mom from the UK. :xxgrinning--00xx3:

Her mom has a good internet connection so they talk to each other on Skype regularly.

[Dedworth]

Get a £100 refurbished Thinkpad - Tone recommended this outfit the one I got is now out with wifes nephew in Bicol

http://filipinaroses.com/showthread.php/35902-Good-cheap-laptops?highlight=lenovo

Their eBay shop is at http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/schtrade

[Rory]

What phone network are you on?

You should get your phone opened up so any sim card will work. There are many cheap call sim cards out there. If you are on a phone contract then the phone is your phone as soon as you start a contract not at the end of the contract, you can open up your phone now.
I am on O2, if you text Philippines5 to the number 80282 you will get 35 minutes of call time for £5, you can also text Philippines 10 for £10 for more minutes, this is available on O2, the £5 will be added to your bill. I used to use this but sometimes the reception is not great.

If you both have smart phones then there are many apps that let you call and text. At the moment i use "Whatsapp" this is available on Apple and Android. You can both text all day and night for free if you both have this app on your phone. If does not matter if one of you is using Apple and the other Android, as long as you have the app.
Another app is "Viber" you can call and text on this as well, all for free. Skype and Yahoo work in the same way.

What i did was get WiFi fitted in the apartment for my wife at a cost of 1,300 peso a month, about £20 and you can use any apps with no other cost.
A notebook would solve all the problems with Wifi but i cheaper version is a second hand smart phone.
£100 a month is what i started out paying, now is it just the £20 wifi bill.

[Rory]

Not one of those silly notebook things, they are too small and from what I have seen not worth it, get a decent i3 laptop, oh.... and a good HD webcam

This is exactly what i did but not everyone can afford to buy a decent laptop when there are so many other costs involved.

[gWaPito]

Exactly....the computer was only going to be needed until she got her visa (estimated 5 months) then it was going to be passed on to family.

A simply tube monitor, basis keyboard and best quality webcam all for the princely sum of 18000 peso's plus 1000 peso's a month line rental which at the time was £9 ....we understand that same pc is still working without fault nigh on 4 years later.

Sure beat paying out for those extortionate phone bills :xxgrinning--00xx3:

[Steve.r]

This is exactly what i did but not everyone can afford to buy a decent laptop when there are so many other costs involved.

I agree Rory, everyone has a budget. I have done this over time. But we started out as most do... then you get to know about the cheaper options and go for them. When we (my wife and I ) started talking over the web there were no such things as HD webcams, but on a good day the reception and clarity is amazing.

[lastlid]

I agree Rory, everyone has a budget. I have done this over time. But we started out as most do... then you get to know about the cheaper options and go for them. When we (my wife and I ) started talking over the web there were no such things as HD webcams, but on a good day the reception and clarity is amazing.

Yes. My wife gets some good connections when she chats with her mom. But not so good when she chats with her sisters as they both have different network sources. It depends a lot on what sort of broadband is available at either end / both ends simultaneously.

[songz777]

Many thanks guys for your kind advise :) really appreciate it all.