Low cost national and international calls

[french knocker]

Has anybody any experiences or views on the 'Phonexpat' low cost local and international phone call service?

[Baz]

Your best and possibly the fastest way to get an answer to your posting is put Phonexpat into the search box at the top of this page and you will find many replies.

Baz

[french knocker]

Thanks Baz - great help

[Ssc]

Hi, Have used Phonexpat for 6 months now. No problems at all. Facture by e-mail in both French and English. My phone bills have plumetted since I joined them.

If you do sign up and use someones referal code ( mine is 102329) you and I will get 240 free minutes off your next facture.

Tony

[Dotty0]

I joined phonexpat recently.  My 1st and only bill is lower, however I didn't check the small print and didn't realise that every time you make a call you are automatically charged 12c for the connection.  Things aren't always as cheap as they seem.  Always read the small print.

Dotty

 

[Ssc]

Dotty,

Yes there is a connection carge for every call but its the same as France Telecomm charge. The actual expat call charges are a lot lower for international and within France. As my wife usually chats for an hour at a time its saving me a fortune. There are some suppliers that do not make a connection charge but usually their call charges are higher than expat. Depends on the types of call you make as to which works out cheaper. As  I struggle with French on the telephone there is tha added benefit of being able to e-mail or phone Expat and speak English. There are some companies even cheaper than Expat but I weighed them all up and decided to go with them.

Tony

[Dotty0]

Tony, I'm not disagreeing with you, just pointing out that there are connection charges.  When you browse phonexpats website it shows 'call UK for x amount 'and 'call USA for x amount.'  Its just it isn't x amount but 12c plus x amount.

That's all.

Dotty

 

[Deimos]

For international calls there are far cheaper services than

PhoneExPat – ones that require no account to be opened, no computers, nothing

like that.  Easy to use, no paperwork,

etc., no quality problems,  and far

cheaper.  However, the fact that people

continually go for PhoneExPat does not surprise me due to their selling

techniques (the “quote my reference number and we will get loads of free calls”

– though everybody forgets that PhoneExPat are not a charity and somebody has

to pay for those calls !!).

 

Of course there are some carriers more expensive than

PhoneExPat but there are also cheaper and easier ones as well.

 

Ian

[Ssc]

I simply chose Expat because it was the easy option and that I could save substantially on my phone calls. If you have better French than I do then I am sure there are providers who are cheaper. Expat was easy in that there was one form to fill in, I retained my FT number and simply pick up the phone and make a call without prefixes etc.

I would urge everyone to shop around and pick what they think is best for them. I quoted my code simply because if the message originator (or anyone else) did decide to choose Expat we could both benefit from a few free calls.

Tony 

[Deimos]

[quote

user="Ssc"]

If you have better French than I do then I am sure there are providers

who are cheaper. Expat was easy in that there was one form to fill in, I

retained my FT number and simply pick up the phone and make a call without

prefixes etc.

I would urge everyone to shop around and pick what they think is best for

them. I quoted my code simply because if the message originator (or

anyone else) did decide to choose Expat we could both benefit from a few

free calls.

Tony 

[/quote]

 

The provider I was thinking of does not require you to speak

any French as there is no paperwork, no account to open, nobody to call to

start it – you just dial a prefix number and then your e.g. UK number (00 44

1234 …) and pay e.g. 1.4 cents per min off-peak.  If you don’t want to use it you just stop dialling the prefix

number.  Calls billed through whoever

your normal provider is.  No change to

any phone numbers, all through your standard telephone (no computer, nothing

like that).

(But you see what I mean about the “we could both get free

calls” selling technique – unfortunately these calls need to be paid for and

this is effectively done through PhoneExPat’s higher (than others) call rates.)

Ian

[Ssc]

Diemos - I'm not saying that Expat is the cheapest or the best, just that I found it easiest to set up when I first came to France.

Can you give me details about the other prefix based service you mention as if its as easy as you suggest I may use them instead.

Thanks - Tony

[peebee]

Deimos, I have been following this thread also.  Can you let me know the details of the prefix based service as I want to investigate all options before we arrive in March.

Many thanks

Pat

[Ormx]

Hi,

Not sure what prefix based one Deimos was thinking about but I used Telesoldes.com for about 6 months and it's been great, easy to set up, 11c initial charge plus 1c per min to Ireland. However my broadband provider (Free) has just announced free phone calls to Ireland since January, so I don't even have the 7-ish euro bi-monthly bill from telesoldes anymore. Fantastic!