Now that we’re edging ever closer to that illustrious global economy that we all know is on the horizon, more and more people are living internationally. Chances are that you have family members that live in another country, or that you’re planning on going somewhere else yourself. That means you need to find a more affordable method of staying in contact, and that means finding calling plans that are ideal for the average budget. With the right type of international cell phones for example, you can ensure that you’re able to affordably place calls literally whenever you want.
Of course, this isn’t quite as easy as it sounds, as there are a few different types of arrangements and plans that you have to choose from, when it comes to calling internationally. You have to be sure that you find an arrangement that’s going to be affordable for you, as well as easy for you to manage for the calls that you need to place. You’ll find that most commonly there are three types of international calling plans that you can choose from with any type of phone, and it’s all about choosing those that are most convenient for you.
1) International VoIP Service.
These are additions to your cell phone that are fairly new on the market, but are growing in popularity because of how they work. Different from traditional VoIP in which you place the call on your computer, you’re still able to make a call over the internet, and therefore by a much cheaper rate, but by doing so through a buffer company that provides the service for you. For example, with a service like JoinVIP.com they will provide you with a number that you call, and then use to dial your international line and you get a crystal clear connection that’s a fraction of the per minute cost you would pay otherwise.
What you’re also going to find is that this is the best type of international cell phone service if you’re really looking to save money, because it’s all done by how much you talk. So if you only need to talk every so often, you’ll only be charged by the minute for that much talking time, and so on and so forth.
2) International cell phone chips.
These are specially made additions that you can get added to almost any type of cell phone out there on the market now, that enable international calling as an addition to your standard plan. For example, with a Verizon international cell phone of this sort, your plan is upgraded and the chip is added so that you can get long distance access as an additive to your current plan arrangement. This way, through most services for just $5 to $10 more a month you can get international calling minutes to be used whenever you would like to use them.
What’s more, they are also great for enabling your phone for use abroad, so that you can also steer clear of the roaming charges that you might face were you in a different country needing to call the US. This way, you can bypass a lot of international calling charges that you would incur otherwise, and that could practically bankrupt you if you’re not careful.
3) Prepaid international calling cards.
An oldie but a goodie, this type of prepaid calling minutes has been around for a really long time, and works by literally purchasing a card that has a certain amount of minutes provided, that you can use for calling to any participating or supported country. However, you have to be careful of a few things, namely some countries can cause your time to run out faster than others. Let’s say you want to place a call to Portugal, but they are not covered under the same rates as a country like Spain, you will lose more than one minute, per minute that you stay on the line.
What you also have to remember is that these calling cards still work with your standard cell phone so you can’t go beyond what they provide in terms of minutes as well. This is not like having AT&T international cell phones, and if your plan only provides for 100 minutes, if you exceed that when you’re on the card you still go into penalty minute charges with your phone provider.