Tips for Choosing Your Cheap International Calls Provider

One of the main criteria in choosing international calls provider is a low price. 

But we've noticed that customers get tricked by one marketing sentence that sounds something like this: "calls to country x - Yp/min."
The truth is that usually the number Y does not show the full price of a call.

But to know that before ordering a service people have to read terms and conditions. And we all hate small letter texts.

So what hidden or additional fees we should look for when choosing cheap international calls provider?


1. Connection fees. 

2. Minimum call charge. 

There may be 30 seconds, 1 minute, etc. minimum call charge. So if you finish your call after 10 seconds, you should know that you will pay more than that.

3. Are your calls rounded up? 

Are you charged by seconds or by minutes? It is a very important question to find out.

If you pay by a second, after a 30-second call you will pay for 30 seconds.

But if your calls are rounded up to the nearest minute, after a phone call that lasted the same 30 seconds, you will be charged as if you have talked for 1 minute.
 

4. Credit/ balance validity period.

You might get thousands of bundled international minutes. But if your credit expires after one month or even after three months, you should consider if there is a point in ordering it. This leads us to the next point.
 

5. How many minutes will you really use up?

6. Account top-up fee.

Usually we think that we top-up our accounts for free but it is not always the case. For example, we came upon providers which ask you to pay 4.99 EUR for topping-up your account by 3,5 EUR.

7. Minimum top-up amount.

Sometimes you have to top-up relatively large sums of money to get low international rates.

8. Access number charge.

Cheap international calls may be provided via access numbers. You have to dial an access number manually (for example, when using calling cards) or an access number may be automatically dialed for you (for example, when using international calling apps).

Cheap international calls provider does not charge you for this part of a call, but your
mobile network operator might do.

Usually calls to access numbers are included in your mobile network operator's inclusive minute bundles. But in some cases your mobile operator might charge you for calling to premium rate access numbers (usually they are not landline numbers).

Our advice is simple - check your detailed phone bills and find out if your calls to access number are included or excluded (charged additionally) from your bundle.

9. Will you need internet for any part of your call?

That's right! Keep in mind, that internet costs as well;)

Customers get tricked by one marketing sentence that sounds something like this: "calls to country x - Yp/min." 

Have a nice day!

MOREmins

www.moremins.com

Why Regular Calls Sometimes End up on Viber?

Recently we've got a couple of questions regarding regular mobile calls which unexpectedly ended up on a call receiver's Viber app. It happened while making international calls (also when calling with MOREmins).

Why our clients were worried about regular mobile calls received with Viber?

First of all, in some cases the quality of the sound/voice was really bad because the receiver of the call did not have good internet connection. To use Viber you need good 3G or Wi-Fi connection.

Secondly, callers had to pay regular international calling rates to their mobile operators even if calls were received with Viber.

It turns out that Viber has a new feature called Viber-In Calls. But MOREmins could not find much information about it.

At the moment (26/06/2015) this feature is described in apps shortly: “Receive regular incoming calls with Viber, when possible“.

  

 If you click on the link “Learn more“ all you can find is this:

We think that Viber-In Calls feature is useful when you receive calls while traveling abroad to avoid roaming charges. Just keep in mind, that to answer your phone calls with Viber you need good Wi-Fi connection.

If you are not traveling abroad, in our opinion, it does not make sense to use this feature, because it doesn‘t cost a thing to answer your phone calls. 

And the caller has to pay for his/her calls in both cases: whether they reach you on Viber or in a regular way.

Apparently Viber-In Calls feature was turned on automatically to some of Viber's users.

We've found out that you (and especially your call receiver) can easily turn this feature on or off using these simple steps:

More (or menu symbol for Android users)/ Settings/ Calls and Messages/ Viber-In Calls.

Also MOREmins came across an old but quite informative article about Viber-In Calls feature in GeekTime tech blog.  http://www.geektime.com/2013/07/02/exclusive-viber-testing-new-business-model-hijacking-your-cellular-calls/

It seems that these days more people are searching for information regarding new Viber's function and find this GeekTime post. 

"This is quite a problem for me, all foreign numbers are ringing via Viber app which has a significant worse voice quality as a build-in phone app. I have to turn off my mobile data to receive calls from foreign countries so the other side can hear me well." someone commented below the article 4 days ago.

  

Wishing you a nice weekend,

MOREmins

http://www.moremins.com