I am sure many of the forum members will have experiences with having to make phonecalls "back home". Even if internet makes communication a lot easier, sometimes you need to call someone without internet (like when I call my 88 years old mom), or you need to call a company / government agency. I found a way to make cheap calls overseas, no matter whether you need to call a fixed or mobile phonenumber, and avoid blowing through my phone "load" in a single call. It is basically a system that works over VOIP (voice over ip) on your end of the call (meaning you need a halfway decent wifi connection to your phone to make the call), and then gets put on the regular mobile/fixed phone system in the country you are calling to automatically. I found it works amazingly well, without significant lag, and I pay on average under 2 eurocent per minute. Your mileage may vary, but it may be worth giving it a try. If interested, google "dialnow.com" and check their calling rates to different countries. The way it works is you open an account at the website, make a small deposit like 5 or 10 euro/dollar/pound/whatever , then download a (free) app for your phone from google playstore / apple and you're ready to go.
I used Skype for calls, it worked great for those calls that needed to be made to a real phone number!!
I am considering using Magic Jack, it offers free unlimited calls to/from the US for $35 per year. Does anyone have any experience with this?
I got a Magic Jack about 6 months ago, and can highly recommended it. Not only does it come with the device to use your landline to call other countries for free, but it has a mobile app that allows you to call/text internationally (over wifi) right from your mobile phone, it even has voicemail box you can access from anywhere When you set up your account, you can chose a phone number with your local US area code as prefix, so as far as anybody knows you arent halfway around the world.. All this for only $35/yr
Where did you buy the magicjack? I used to have one. They work good as long as the internet connection is not slow. I saw them somewhere in dgte. Can't remember where.
Sorry, I don't know where you can get them in Dumaguete. I brought mine over from the states (ordered directly from Magic Jack)..
I have used Skype for 7 years to call the U.S. from the Philippines. Unlimited calls to any landline or mobile/cell phone in the U.S for $72.00 a year. I have talked up to an hour and a half at a time non-stop with no interruptions and no problems. They have never put a time limit on the lenght of any of my calls. I'd say I have had problems less than 1% of the time. You can also buy time for just what you think you need. But for me $6.00 a month for all the calling I do to the U.S. is a real deal.