But not really.
First of all, I’m sure plenty of you are wondering what Vonage is. Simply put, it’s an awesome service that has allowed us to keep our last US home number through four countries now. Friends, family, and business contacts in the US can call us on our old US number, and a phone in our German (or Swiss or Italian) apartment rings. We have a box from Vonage that we hook up to our high-speed internet and a telephone, and we’re good to go. Voicemail messages get sent to us via email, so even when we don’t have the Vonage box with us, we can find out who has tried to contact us and hear the messages.
Now on to why you should cancel if you have it. I have it on good authority (ie, not only have I tried this, but one other person I know, too) that Vonage is willing to offer two free months of service to customers who want to cancel their accounts. Just call to cancel (the only way to cancel is by 1-800 number – very annoying when we wanted to cancel but didn’t have the Vonage phone to make the call from!), and hold out until they offer you two free months of service to stay. Woo hoo, free phone!
So why did we want to cancel? It’s a little pricey if you don’t make that many calls. For us, we pay around $20 per month for up to 500 minutes of outgoing calls. While we have been happy with the service so far, we realize that we probably don’t make/receive enough calls to the US per month to justify spending $20 for a US line, especially given how rarely our friends and family in the US bother to call us (want to prove me wrong? Call us! Just remember the time difference…).
There are numerous other cheap international calling schemes out there, too. Skype is probably the most famous (but didn’t work with our crappy Swiss internet, so neither of us is in the habit of using it). We’re also test-driving Rebtel right now. I’ll let you know if we like it.
What do you other expats use to make phone calls to the US?
I’ve been using VoipCheap over Skype for the past year. A couple of advantages: easier setup, better sound quality, and it is free. I mostly use Skype now just for IMing. Skype rather lost me for calls when I got an email from them telling me I had to either make a call or send an SMS or they would close my account and keep the money left in it!
I don’t have any money in my skype account, use it for work regularly, no problem. Wanna turn Scott’s on tonight? I have something for y’all…
I have a Germany landline for local calls, and I buy calling cards, mainly from a local kiosk for my US calls.
It’s sometimes hit or miss until you find one you like for call quality. My current one uses an 0800 toll-free Germany number with slightly over 500 min for 5 eur, althougth he ratio goes up if one purchases in higher denominations. Using the local number multiplies call min by 3 or 4 in general, so 1800 min for 5 EUR.
I’m not making so many calls to the US though and don’t need incoming call contact ability, so it works for me.
I’ve just been using a plain old Swisscom landline for the past 7.5 years because I never really found it to be too expensive. However, my dad told me that he uses Skype from the U.S. to talk to his brothers in Finland, so I decided to give it a try. And? I love it! I think it works really well, I like seeing the person I’m talking to, and I’m sure I’ll be using it more and more as time goes on.
We use Skype, but pay a little extra for the ability to have it ring into our telephone, mostly so that we get an actual US telephone number that can be called from any US telephone without callers needing a Skype account.
About 3 family members use it regularly. And now that I added the number to the US No-Call List, we’ve stopped getting telemarketers calling us at 2 am.
Why only 3 people? You’d be amazed at how many people say “It’s too complicated. We don’t know how to call you.”
It’s a US domestic telephone number! Just dial it! How complicated is that???
And do not get me started on the people who don’t mail things because the stamps cost “too much.” What? I’m not worth a buck to send me a Christmas card? Swiss international stamps cost weigh more, and I sent all of you Christmas cards.
Bitter? Why do you ask?
We use Skype. Works great with my folks, with whom we do the most calling. So that is nice. 2nd most calling is Tam’s parents, and it doesn’t really work with their Cable Modem. Oh Well, we just use Skype Out.
Most people don’t really call us or ask how to call us. Which is pretty normal. Also for a cross country move within the states. You lose contact.
Would definitely be worth using when getting ready to transfer back to the states or something similar.
We have a complete package the German Telekom offers (flat rate for phone and internet “Call & Surf Comfort” for 39,95 Euro).
When they offered us an additional flat rate for a group of European countries for an extra 3,49 Euro p. m., I discovered that this flat rate also counts for calls to the USA!
Now I am calling my friends in the US on a regular basis.
We pay an extra 10 CHF per month to have a special rate to the States of .03 CHF per minute with Cablecom.
try voipbuster. works great. from europe to usa and vice versa. it costs 0 or 1 cent per minute. i use it every week, for hours:)
tineke
in boston
and it works for computer to phone
i’ve been using talkster (talkster.com) to call anita since she’s been in munich. it’s free! sometimes the sound is kind of crappy. but did i mention it’s free?
Zurika,
I’m new to your blog. Stumbled from somewhere. Enjoying your posts!
While I’m not an expat in EU (I _am_ and expat in the US), I swear by Rebtel, anytime, over Skype. [Skype tends to use your computer for random conversations even though you aren’t using it for talking, in typical P2P fashion]. Rebtel quality is great, and you can use it from your mobile. I love it.
Hi Atul – Thanks for stopping by! Always fun to “meet” another expat.
Rebtel has really disappointed me with crappy call quality. No idea why, but we’ve had consistently bad luck with them. We still have the Vonage phone, although I am learning to like Skpe a little more. Still waiting for the perfect calling solution!
Do you still use Vonage? Did you get a device that works with 220 watts, or do you use a step-down transformer? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.