Does anyone use Vonage or another VOIP provider?

[coreys]

My At&t phone bills are sooo high--like consistently $55-60 per month and I hardly even use their long distance--mostly use my cell for that. I do love the caller id feature though. Thats something I can not give up. What do you guys use?? What do you pay?

[kork13]

Hi, don't use VOIP myself, but there have been a couple threads on this topic in the past you might find useful. Here's the most recent one: http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/f...ence-voip.html

[poundwise]

I use Vonage and pay about $20 per month. That is the 500 minute plan at $14.99 plus taxes and fees. Their unlimited use plan is $24.99. We've been with Vonage for about three years now and have had no problems.

Some notes:

Vonage has lots of features, including caller ID, call waiting, voicemail, etc.

If you wish to port your current number to a VoIP provider, that is possible and is commonly done, however, it will take a little longer to transfer that. When I signed up, I just received a new number and I was making calls immediately and receiving calls to my new number shortly thereafter.

You need a decent Internet connection to have good success with VoIP, but it is the upload speed that matters most. I recommend no less than 256kbps. Typically, a standard broadband connection will offer more than this but some 'lite' packages don't. If you have more throughput, all the better.

Something cool that Vonage offers is called Vonage Access, which allows people to call a number local to them, input your Vonage number, and call you without paying long-distance charges themselves.

If you decide to go with Vonage, you can PM me and I'll be glad to send you a referral. Though not necessary, people who are referred get their first two months of service for free.

[coreys]

Thanks poundwise for the info. If I decide to go that route I will use you as a referal. How does the clarity sound? Have you had many dropped calls?

[coreys]

I will cehck out that previous post as well. Thanks!

[poundwise]

Thanks poundwise for the info. If I decide to go that route I will use you as a referal. How does the clarity sound? Have you had many dropped calls?

The calls sound the same or better than my old land line service. I have not ever had a call dropped completely though there has been a time or two where one party could not hear the other.

The best thing I can say is that I have no regrets about switching and would do it again without hesitation.

[spacecadet610]

I had a good experience with Vonage. Just remember though, if your internet goes down your phone goes down.

[arthurb999]

VOIP doesn't work with a monitored home alarm system so I cannot get it.

[minnie1928]

Has anyone used Magic Jack? I'm thinking this might work for my mom. I recently moved out of state and she doesn't like the fact that calling me is long distance. She also needs to cut her expenses massively, but that's another LONG story! :-)

magicJack

[arthurb999]

I hear magic jack does not provide you good call quality... but you get what you pay for. You alos have to keep your computer on 24/7 for it to be like a real phone. If you both have broadband... is msn messenger and do video calls... it's free.

[Tiggy818]

We have had Vonage for close to 1 year. It's fine. We don't use our phone much and we are considering getting rid of it. Not sure if I am ready to do that.

[klhmc729]

Vonage

We have been with Vonage for over 2 years now, and we've had no complaints. My sister in law studied abroad in Nigeria for a year and we could speak with her for $0.03/minute We don't make a lot of international calls now, so we end up just paying the base price of $25/month, but that includes free domestic long distance as well as free int'l long distance to Canada and Mexico.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

My DH uses Skype.

[normaldude]

I'm mainly a cellphone-only user. The cellphone has free nights & weekends.

But to supplement my cellphone, I also have a Skype VoIP plan ($3/month, unlimited calling to landlines in the US). I use Skype to minimize the usage of my cellphone anytime minutes.

The best thing about Skype is that you can set it up so that your cellphone number shows up as your Skype caller ID. That way, I maintain my cellphone number as my only phone number, and my friends always know it's me when I call them (when I call them with Skype, it appears as if I'm calling them from my cellphone).

[Coleroo]

We have had vonage going on 10 months now - the (recently upped to 17.99 / mo) plan for 500 mins per month. We live in the suburbs of a large city....clarity is same as our old landline. We don't use it often as we have our cellphones - so for the price and features (voice mail, caller ID, national calls, voicemail-to-email, call forwarding, simu-ring), it's well worth it.