Best rates / strategies for calling a mobile in Portugal from the US

February 24, 2008 3:39 PM

Best rates / strategies for calling a mobile in Portugal from the US

I have a very good friend in Portugal and we talk very regularly. Right now we're splitting the cost of the calls, by taking turns on who initiates the call, but its pretty expensive for both of us.

When he's at a computer, he uses Skype. But a lot of our conversations are directly over the phone.

My cell phone company is charging me around $0.40 per minute and the best rate I've found is around 0.21. I know there's a premium for calling a European mobile because the caller pays for the recipient's minutes.

But it seems like there should be a better way. For example, is there a way I could get a local number in Portugal that would forward to my American number at the usual landline long distance rate of around .06? I could text him, he could call me back, and we'd both save a considerable amount of money.

Are there any other options I haven't thought of? I've looked into Jajah and similar phone-to-net-to-phone services but can't get better than the 0.21 rate for either of us.

posted by pandaharma to technology (4 comments total)

I call a friend in Greece regularly on his cell from CA. I'm on Skype, and I call his landline which is forwarded to his cell - costs 2 cents/ minute. Or you could try 1010987 if you don't have Skype. But definitely call forwarding from a landline is the way to go - international calls to cells are universally expensive.
posted by forallmankind at 4:11 PM on February 24, 2008

I use the VOIP service, Vonage, and use it to call my friend's mobile in Ethiopia for around 25 cents/min. (I think landline and mobile are the same price.) I'm currently looking into making the calls with Skype as I think it will be even less expensive.
posted by keith0718 at 6:00 PM on February 24, 2008

Truphone and Fring are also mobile VOIP clients, but I don't know their rates.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 3:12 PM on February 25, 2008

For a fixed cost through Skype, your friend can buy an American number that's local to you. I think it's $60 per year, or alternatively, roughtly a quarter of that for 3 months. You could then split this cost, and then you always initiate a call to this number when you both want to chat.
posted by cotterpin at 2:39 AM on February 27, 2008