Many years ago, I bought $3 of a Skype subscription that let me call back to the US from Europe. I THINK (testing here) that has changed, and now you can only get pay as you go at some cents per minute plus connection fees? And if you get a plan that has the US as where you want to call......it assumes you are calling from anywhere outside the US.....(vs within the US)
Curious if anyone has had recent experience with this.
THanks
I have not used Skype in a while but i have always been on the PAYG plan. I bought credits in $10 blocks and calls to US landlines were something like 2 or 3 cents per minute. Skype to Skype calls were free.
Thanks! I actually texted with Microsoft (who owns Skype now). They said the $2.99 plan (subscription) for the US would allow calls to the US from anywhere for 30 days. Cool!
It's much less of a hassle to just use WhatsApp - as long as you are hooked into wifi it's free. You can talk, text, and video chat. This is how my son spends an inordinate amount of time with his girlfriend even though she's in Istanbul and he's in LA! And it doesn't cost me a penny. You can set it up so that the app alerts you to incoming communication just like it would for any other kind of app alerts. I have friends in many different countries and this is how we call and text each other.
Laura, why would you want to pay for calls to the US with Skype when you can make them for free with Google Voice? Just curious. I know Canadians for example can't use Google Voice for free calls - but for calls to US numbers, Google Voice should work fine - always has for me, in the way Hangouts used to. (Incoming calls is a different story - but making calls: no problem.)
Why are people paying for Skype calls? I have had Skype for years (and now WhatsApp in the last year or so.) I have talked to family and friends in the USA and abroad through free Skype.
When I signed up for a Skype account, it was free calling, free messaging, free caming up to the other party/parties. The stipulation is that the other party had to have a Skype account too.
Is that why some are paying for calls to and from?
Why are people paying for Skype calls? I have had Skype for years (and now WhatsApp in the last year or so.) I have talked to family and friends in the USA and abroad through free Skype.
How many free Skype calls are to landlines? Or to flip-phone cell phones?
None.
That's why people are paying for Skype calls: for a few cents a minute (or a small monthly fee for unlimited calls), you can call any US number, not just other people who have Skype.
Or with Google Voice, do the same for free.
I don't have a VPN setup on my phone, and I had no trouble at all making voice calls with Google Voice in May from Italy to the US using WiFi or mobile data. horsewoofie reported the same thing on another thread, as long as she had a good WiFi connection, and I'm fairly sure she doesn't have a VPN on her phone, either. Others have reported using Google Voice successfully as well. Hard to know what you were doing wrong, but it was clearly a case of user error.
Skype has never been free to call US phone numbers (except 800 numbers).
