Thailand forum

cell phone

greenman42

tout
Posts: 61

I have bought a thai sim card, 200 baht seems a little high. Loaded it with airtime and used it all on one half minute call home. I seem to remember calls being cheaper when I was last here, was I imagining it? What is the best way to call home, international phone card?

#1 Posted: 17/12/2009 - 18:53
khunwilko

som tam seller
Posts: 560

Unless home has a particularly high rate there must be some mistake here.

Which service did you use?

with most services calls to most Western countries seem to be around 5 to 8 baht per minute.

A SIM card can be bought for as little as 49 baht - and even then has about 15 baht credit on it.

So your 200 baht card should have had more than 150 baht of credit already.
So if you topped p your phone with even more cash this call would be nigh-on impossible to use in such a short time. - were you topping up correctly?....and checking your balance (for 12Call star-121-hash)?

When dialing an international line from Thailand it is best to use 007, 008 or 009. This is instead of using 001 or "+" before the country code.

Some companies - True offer special low rates but you need to check coverage.
The 2 main pre-pay companies are 12Call and Dtac.

I always point out that with your own mobile not only can you stay in touch but others can ring you - this of course costs you nothing! - and you get the benefit of local calls to hotels new friends etc as well as no need to hunt around for a suitable place to make a call.

#2 Posted: 18/12/2009 - 09:36
shaydan_01

hippy
Posts: 77
Located in:
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I highly recommend signing up with a skype account and useing that to call home. My partner and I were in Thailand for 2 months last year and called home to Australia at least once a week each, spending anywhere between 10 minutes to half an hour on the call, and only used up about $20AUD credit in the whole 2 months! And if someone back home has a Skype account you can both log in and chat for as long as you want for free. We only ever encountered one or two internet cafe's that didnt have skype access, internet connection can affect the call quality though but was hardly ever a problem.

#3 Posted: 18/12/2009 - 10:17

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greenman42

tout
Posts: 61

Thanks Khunwilko, I was not dialing anything before the country code, that will probably make a difference, I will give it a try. I don't know what service I'm using, I just bought a SIM from the 7/11. I'm also phoning South Africa so it will probably be more expensive than most western countries but shouldn't be ridiculous, like I say last time I remember being suprised at how cheap it was.

#4 Posted: 18/12/2009 - 13:47
idreamofdur-
ian

som tam seller
Posts: 561
Located in:

Private message

I don't live in Thailand now, but I used to and would call Canada using IDD (dialing extra numbers first to make cheap int'l calls) and it was only a couple B per minute. Skype's great too or even Gmail calling.

#5 Posted: 18/12/2009 - 17:14

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DSKD01

newbie
Posts: 1

It depends on what suites you. If you don't want to pay for any of it, sign up for skype. An international phone card is good too but a SIM card or temparary phone I think is better. When My uncle went to Greece, he bought one from www.rangeroamer.com See if they have an idea of what you want.

#6 Posted: 18/2/2010 - 09:28