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7:39 pm
June 2, 2009
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bc
| | Vancouver, BC | |
| Member | posts 24 |
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after learning much from this site about SO (thanks everyone!) I think I'll take advantage of the June promotion and soon get a SO phone.
but now I'm wondering what people recommend for long distance? (light/occasional LD use only, only Canada->Canada)
I see that the SO LD rate is 20cents/min on top of regular air time, whereas I hear various LD calling cards are only a few cents/min. Actually, I had emailed SO customer support with some other questions about long distance, and even they suggested getting some sort of calling card to use with SO!
anyone here have recommendations? pros/cons etc
for example, anyone here have experience with Yak Cell ?
or how about some of those Canadian calling card companies – CiCi, or justdial.ca, or others? (not sure how reputable those all are, I've only just heard about them…)
any suggestions you might have will be greatly appreciated. thanks
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8:21 pm
June 2, 2009
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iamdrumming
| | Niagara Falls | |
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I highly recommend JustDial.ca
Their rates are $0.025 a minute to Canada or the USA. You can have up to 8 numbers registered so you don't have to enter a pin. I have used them on my travels around North America with no problems.
I have been with them for a few years. One good thing about them is your account never expires.
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9:13 pm
June 2, 2009
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bylo
| | 519 | |
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We use yak LD for both our landline and cellphones. We couldn't be happier. There are several discussions here about yak cell and their local access-number and call back variants.
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10:44 pm
June 2, 2009
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Heather
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I recently purchased $10 on Shaw's Prepaid Calling Plan. No expiry date; top-up & view your account on-line; 2.5cents/min Canada. No pin# when dialing from your activated #'s (you can specify up to 8 tel #'s you'll be dialing from; you can change this list as well). Works well.
http://www.shaw.ca/en-ca/Custo…..ngPlan.htm
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1:57 am
June 3, 2009
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bc
| | Vancouver, BC | |
| Member | posts 24 |
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thanks iamdrumming, bylo, and Heather for your replies. if you don't mind I have a few followup questions…
1) re: justDial.ca – this service sounds good Q: is there some minimum $ purchase when setting up the account? I couldn't seem to find that…
and also, can you refill by any amount?
2) re: Yak – it seems this is NOT a prepaid service ie you get an invoice. is that correct? or is it just prepaid like the others?
3) re: Shaw prepaid calling plan – I had not heard of this one before, thanks for pointing it out. going to their website, it ends up at shop.goldline.net which I notice is same site handling justdial.ca – I guess this is just a single company administering calling cards for various others. at first glance the Shaw offering seems identical to justdial Q: So is there anything distinguishing the 2? e.g. is service/support same from either?
thanks again for your help
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8:05 am
June 3, 2009
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bylo
| | 519 | |
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2) re: Yak – it seems this is NOT a prepaid service ie you get an invoice. is that correct?
Correct. However you get statements via e-mail and they can deduct payment either from a bank account or your credit card. It also doesn't matter how much LD you use in a month. There are no minimums. I've had months with less than a $1 LD.
In practice yak is even more convenient than prepaid because you don't have to worry about running out of credits and everything happens automatically. I've used yak for years. They're reliable.
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12:45 pm
June 3, 2009
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bc
| | Vancouver, BC | |
| Member | posts 24 |
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thanks bylo, that's very useful feedback.
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10:26 pm
June 3, 2009
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Heather
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Re Shaw.ca's prepaid ld… yes, it is the same company as Justdial & same customer support. I went with it only because I'm familiar with Shaw's cable service so I knew it was a reputable company.
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12:24 am
June 4, 2009
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Heather
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One other thing to note with Speakout (SO) service & Shaw (or similar) ld prepaid:
You don't have to bother looking up which is the appropriate local access# to dial when you're travelling in Canada. Assuming your phone is a (604) area code, you would just program Shaw's Vancouver (604) access# into your phone or speed dial. With SO service, calling a # in your own area code is always rated as a local call no matter where you are in the country even though you'll be prompted to dial the "1" first. So I would program in 1+604+vancouver access#. Hope this helps.
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2:37 pm
June 4, 2009
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bc
| | Vancouver, BC | |
| Member | posts 24 |
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thanks Heather for the additional info – I didn't realize that about traveling and calls to/from the home area code all be charged as local calls with SO, that's a great tip about just using the "home" access#. I had previously assumed when physically outside my home area that I would charged long distance for any calls to/from home.
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4:20 pm
June 4, 2009
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Heather
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BC:
Just to clarify & make it easier to remember… the only time you'd need to use the Prepaid LD access# is if you're dialing a number that's not a (604) #. Using the Prepaid LD will get you the local rate + 2.5cents/min for the l.d.
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5:24 pm
June 4, 2009
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bc
| | Vancouver, BC | |
| Member | posts 24 |
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Heather – got it, thanks.
one twist I just thought of… does same apply when you've got overlay codes involved, e.g. here in Vancouver we've got of course (604) but also (778). I haven't picked up the SO phone yet, but I'm guessing it might come with a 778 number… I assume your suggestion would be same regardless of 604/778, correct? (sorry if a dumb/obvious question!)
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5:44 pm
June 4, 2009
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Heather
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BC:
Good question. Here's the Local Calling Grid from this site; I'm not sure it's the latest grid but it looks like you should be ok with 604 & 778 calls.
http://www.speakoutwireless.ca…..g82008.pdf
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5:54 pm
June 4, 2009
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bc
| | Vancouver, BC | |
| Member | posts 24 |
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Heather – I thought I had seen a chart like that somewhere before, but forgot where… thanks again
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11:41 pm
June 19, 2009
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ErinM
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In my research you can't do any better than the CiCi phone card. It has better rates than Yak and others, by roughly a full cent.
I've been using CiCi for a while and LOVE it! *thumbs up*
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12:06 am
June 20, 2009
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iamdrumming
| | Niagara Falls | |
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ErinM,
Thanks for your input on CiCi. I have never heard of them before. Yes, they do have great rates. The only problem I see is that their cards expire after 6 months from first use. Other than that, they look decent.
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12:49 am
June 20, 2009
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Heather
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ErinM:
"BC" noticed that JustDial.ca & Shaw Prepaid LD are managed under the Goldline Company umbrella. It looks like CiCi is also handled by them. I only have experience with Shaw's but agree with you "thumbs up". I've used Telus Talk & Surf in previous years but experienced busy signals so that's why I looked for another carrier.
PS: sorry if this is a duplicate post of mine… I don't know where my original reply went so I retyped this one.
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7:48 am
June 20, 2009
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bylo
| | 519 | |
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| posts 576 |
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The advantage of Yak is that there's nothing to buy up front and nothing to expire. You make LD calls. Your credit card or bank account get charged. Don't make calls. Don't get charged. If you make a lot of LD calls then prepaid cards like CiCi may make sense, but there's also the hassle of buying them to consider.
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