At the suggestion of Whitespider I would like all BMs to post in this thread the best ways they know of to call Thailand. I would like to make a comprehensive list of as many different ways/companies to use from as many different countries as possible. Many of us are using cheap ways to phone and sometimes that comes with mixed results. So if you are going to rate things like quality of service or connection quality we should try and stick to a similar formula - poor, fair, ok, good, great. That will give us a simple formula for determining if the quality is worth saving a couple of pennies or if spending more gets us the quality we would prefer.

I would like to see maximum participation with this as it can be a big help to everyone and it is a topic which will come up frequently. I will bump the topic to the top regularly.

UK to Thailand

From a landline dial 08444626464 then follow the simple instructions

Calls to Thailand are as follows:-

To Landlines 1p per minute

To Mobiles and some landlines in certain provinces 2p per minute.

Most of you will pay the 2p charge as most girls have mobile phones.

There are others at similar prices but this one is 99% reliable, i.e. almost always makes the connection while some of the other cheap services struggle to do this.

UK - Mobile - Thai Mobile

I have 800 minutes free as part of my monthly bundle. I am with O2 and I can call Thailand using these minutes. This is done through Planet calling

www.planetcalling.com

I am not sure what the charges are for other Networks.


You are Calling from a UK Mobile to THAILAND MOBILE

This call is FREE with O2 using your network inclusive minutes, and may have a small surcharge per minute using other networks, please check with your provider, you can dial this destination during the following times:

Weekdays
PEAK
08:00 - 17:59 Weekdays
OFF PEAK
18:00 - 07:59 Weekends
sat 00:00 - sun 23:59

Please dial the following access number Weekday Peak: 0870 041 3488, Weekday Off Peak & Weekend: 0844 545 6005 followed by the international dialling code and the international number you are calling.

Come on folks! Give me more information than this to work with. I know there's a bunch of you sad bastards out thewre making regular phone calls because I'm one of them myself.

Imagine you are cold up there now. Just got home. No snow and golfing here but not real warm.

Best deal I've found for calling is 7/11 phone cards. They have a few different ones but I use the World Card. 10.7 cents a minute and no access charges. Canada and US is only 3.9 cents. I use them for everything now. Can't beat it.

I'm with Telus for my cell and they have a plan that for $2 I can add a text messaging packaging to my caller id plan. It gives me 100 texts a month to anywhere in the US and Canada. These are normally 15 cents each. When I text Thailand they credit me 15 cents for each one so only charge me 5 cents a text as they are normally 20 cents each. After 100 you pay the 20 cents.

The boys here love the pictures of my judging at the FLB.

Forgot to add that when you use your cell phone for the long distance calls you only are charged local time plus the 10.7 cents. Most of us have plans with more minutes than we use each month so really doesn't cost any more from my cell or at home.

Was texting a girl after my hockey game a couple nights ago. Got messages back right away. Impressed the boys! Told them no stories this year though as they can't keep their mouths shut.

To call Thailand from Australia the wife and I use phone cards. We use a company that lets you select the country you want and then it comes up with a list of the best options and then you just buy whichever one you want from them online.

http://www.phonecardselector.com.au/store/customer/home.php

Our current card is Chats. 7 cents a minute and no connection costs except for the local call. The quality of the connection has been fine.

This post has been edited by thegrogmonster: Mar 11 2007, 11:18 AM

Moneysavingexpert.com

The CallChecker scans the cheapest providers daily to provide the most up to date call costs for calling all countries. Once you've found the cheapest provider for your chosen destination, dial the override provider's access number followed by the number you want to dial, remembering the international code.

Works for calls from the UK.

This post has been edited by somnomna: Mar 11 2007, 12:38 PM

Okay, I have recently joined the ranks of those that are phoning Thailand on a regular basis. My first couple of calls were from my mobile but at 99p a minute, that soon stopped. Then I checked with my landline operator what their costs were and again it was enough to make me concerned about talking too long.

So it was out hunting on the WWW

The best deal I've found for dialling from the UK is Telesavers which advertises its rates as being 1p a minute. You simply dial 0844 8612525 and follow the instructions (i.e Dial 00 66 8 xxxxxxxxx followed by #). I think that you can programme this in to modern speed dials by inserting a 'pause' between the access number and the Thailand number.

Hope this helps a few guys.

I've made maybe a dozen calls using this system and haven't encountered any real problems. A couple of failed connections, but when I have got through, the quality is as good as speaking within Pattaya. (i.e. acceptable, but not perfect)

US (California) to Thailand

I use 3uTelecom ( 3utelecom.com ) as my long distance carrier. Pac-Bell ( SBC ) is the local phone company - landlines - and their rates were way too high for long distance service. Now I am charged for long distance calls .. $ .08 for calls to Thailand, $ .03 for in state calls and $ .05 for out of state calls. Per minute rate rounded to the nearest second. Because 3uTelecom is assigned as the long distance carrier, I dial the number I want to call - no 10 number access codes - dial the international number of the person I am calling. Great rates and easy to use.

Verizon is my cell phone company. I pay $5 for international access per month. Again, dial the number I want to call. The rates are a little higher than my landline rates, so I use the landline whenever I can.

wallyc

Australia to Thailand

I have found CallThai to be good. They charge 2.5c a minute to a Thai mobile. There are no connection or maintenance fees. The few times I have used the card to call the line quality has been good. You can buy as little as $20 at a time.

I use phone cards ok rate, well certainly better than the normal land line rates$$$$

Had a few different ones all work same, mostly good connection.

I've tried a few of the available cards here in Oz and so far the best in terms of value and quality has been CallThai. I believe that that website gives yo a USA to Thai option as well.