Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

lessonlearned wrote: »

Perhaps if we'd had the good sense to get out of the rat race earlier he would't be ill now. Who knows.

Aye, now there's the secret! Telling fortunes!

Good luck, and best wishes to your husband for his recovery.

WishI'dReadSooner

shelleyus wrote: »

Thanks for a great article. I'm new to this forum lark so please be patient. I can fully understand the avaiability of free calls once you've registered and paid a fee, but does anyone know if you can use it as a regular free UK to UK
landline/mobile alternative.

Look here for the rates http://www.nonoh.net/en/rates.html

Normal UK phone calls are free (up to 5hrs worth a week) but calls to mobiles in UK are 7p a minute.
Fortunately it's the US we phone most - everyone there seems to use mobiles rather than fixed lines - fortunately for us calls to mobiles in US as free.

We've still got 79 days left of free calls & easily would have spent FAR more than we initially paid in the last 41 days & the full credit is still waiting for us.

If you live abroad then calls within the country can also be free.

It's MUCH cheaper than any alternative we've come across.

droopsnout

Re NoNoh ... What's to stop people using only the link you furnished, WIRS, and never signing up to create an account?

I'm a bit puzzled, because having made a couple of test calls using the link (and three text messages, all free), I then signed up, and now when I enter numbers, it does nothing when I click on "Call". But if I use your link,it works fine!

Well, no problem for me as I have free calls through my ISP anyway, but would like to recommend the site to my nearest and dearest. Therefore, I have to explore it and test it to destruction!!

WishI'dReadSooner

The free link worked for me for around 2 hrs (far longer than the 60mins)worth of 3-5 minute calls & then they said I'd used up my allocation of free calls.

You need to SIGN IN after you put money on Nonoh - then you can add phone numbers, name them, store them & click on them for unlimited time phone calls. The free ones are just for 3-5mins.

Surprisingly, after you put money on IF you forget to sign in (I've done it quite a few times) then the link for the trial free calls works again & it doesn't come up on the list of calls that make up your 5 hours a week. If many of your calls are under 3-5mins then presumably the 5hrs per week could be extended to much more than 5 hrs using this method.

Remember to sign in & you can speak for an unlimited time not just 3-5mins.

Believe me we've tested it well & it hasn't destructed yet - every call has been perfect quality too, so far.

Maybe my link is MAGIC droopsnout?? My feeling is you're forgetting to sign in? Also remember to use the country code in front of the number - minus the 0. I forgot a few times to put the country code in & was phoning Malaysia instead of the US. lol

droopsnout

Thanks for the info. I did try the site again and made another free call which was cut off without warning after five minutes. I couldn't find any reference in the main blurbs about limits on call times. (But see later for comments on the Ts & Cs).

No, I didn't forget to sign in. However I didn't put any money in the account, and the on-screen info said I had 0 free days left (not surprisingly), so I presume that a deposit is required to go any further.

Having made that deposit, if I understand correctly, there follow 120 days during which calls are free of charge. After that, between most developed countries, calls continue to be free of charge. I am not keen on making a deposit to make calls that (for me and my family and friends) would pretty well always be free (can't think when they wouldn't).

The calls I made were simple, and, yes, of good quality. I didn't have to download any software. But the Terms and Conditions do talk about a software download. The Ts & Cs also say that the software enables users to contact other Nonoh users. Oddly, there doesn't seem to be a mention of being able to reach ordinary phone subscribers - even though plainly you can!

At the very end of the Ts & Cs, we get the info that we wanted on the very first page: exactly what do we get?

"New users can try Nonoh out for free for a total of 60 minutes. During this trial period you can only call the destinations marked as free. Register your account by buying credit in order to extend your free calls.

Registered users get max 300 minutes per week of free calls, measured over the last 7 days and per unique IP address. Unused free minutes cannot be taken to the following week(s). If limit is exceeded the normal rates apply. During your Freedays you can call all destinations listed as "Free" for free. When you have run out of Freedays, the normal rates apply. You can get new Freedays by buying credit."

Fair enough. But why not tell us at the outset? And perhaps WIRS could tell us if there is a minimum deposit, as I didn't come across this info.

The upshot for me is that the system looks OK for those who are bright, alert, and happy with modern technology. If I didn't benefit from free calls through my ISP, I'd probably use it. But I think that most of my rellies, who are not always very tech-savvy, would find it a little difficult to get to grips with. And on a more philosophical note, I just don't like the way they seem to try to keep the nitty gritty info away from the end user. You're kind of built up into having great expectations, then let down as you discover that it's not quite as simple as you were led to believe.

My advice to others would be to play around with it and experiment, to see if it suits you. Certainly the opportunity exists to make very cheap phone calls.

The site advertises itself as "cheaper than Jajah". For those who know Jajah, that probably tells you all you need to know, as I suppose it's a copy of their idea. (I wouldn't know, as I don't know Jajah). Oh, and I was interested to see that the company behind Nonoh is Betamax, a German company.

One final point. Charges are made in euros. I don't know what charges your bank cards would make for a deposit made on a UK sterling account. That obviously doesn't apply to readers already living and banking in the euro zone.

Thanks to WIRS for an interesting site. I'm sure that it will be useful to many Brits abroad.

Edit: Sorry, I know it's a long post already, but I should have added that when I had signed up, I received an email confirmation which said:

"you can now make free calls to several countries. these calls are limited to 1 minute per call.

if you want unlimited calls to our free destinations please go to our website and buy credit.
click here to go to our website: http://www.nonoh.net/en/buycredits.html"

I do think that the free SMS service is a cracker!!

WishI'dReadSooner

AH - I thought you'd made a deposit not just signed up - that makes sense now.

I deposited 12.5 Euros - which gave 120 days free + after tax I'm left with 10 Euros for future calls - which aren't free BUT they are pretty cheap. (see 1st post) - around £9 will give near 9hrs of calls once the free calls have ended - then you just pay another 12.5 Euros & start making 120 days of FREE calls again.
This was by Credit card - Nationwide - so NO charges & great exchange rate.

You can deposit using other methods. Some are cheaper (half or so but you get 60 days only). We were more than happy with the 12.5 Euro deal so I didn't look at all the different ways of paying. Quite honestly didn't think it was worth looking.

There's no software to download - I haven't downloaded any!

You get your 120 free days or whatever THEN you have to pay for calls - even to free places & pay for both connections - to your phone & the other phone BUT even the paid for calls are VERY cheap - comparable to the cheapest around + no connection fees.

Yes, it's a shame they hide their conditions until after you've signed in. Why they do this I really don't know as I went through them & the terms & conditions are pretty good - NOT something that needs hiding! They also hide how much you need to deposit - again WHY? Their prices are wonderful!

Having a hubby who is from US over the years we've tried many different different VOIP & prefix ways to phone the US. This beats the rest of them hands down on charges.

We've already saved loads & we're just a third the way through our free days PLUS we get to call Turkey, Spain amongst others - which normally costs quite a bit.

It is VERY simple to use. I've not tried it yet but it seems that once you sign in you should also be able to call from abroad using a friends phone - as long as you have a broadband connection. I can't see anything to state otherwise.

droopsnout

Hmm, thanks for the extra info, which certainly adds to what is available on the Nonoh site - like having to pay for both directions of a call, and having to pay for calls to "free" destinations.

All in all, too weird for me to bother with, except for the SMS messages. WIRS, from where do you use this service? (I mean, from what country? Are you permanently resident there?)

For those living in or settling in France, I would advise that using Alice as your ISP will give you free calls - every day - to the whole of the EU and North America. Just plug your ordinary phone into the back of your wifi router and dial. Depending on where you live, you can also transfer your line to Alice and pay no further line rental to France Telecom, saving 16 euros a month. It's included in your monthly Alice subs of 29,95€ (£20).

WishI'dReadSooner

At the moment in UK but hopefully in not too much longer we'll be living in Turkey. Hopfully they'll add Turkey to their list of charges before we get there. At the moment calls to Turkey are free but have no idea whether we'll be able to use when we get there.

You only have to pay for calls after the 120days run out - most places are just 0.007 per minute - so 1.4p a minute (paying both sides) & no connection fee - pretty comparable to the best available elsewhere, more so, when you take into account the 120days before you have to start using the small amount (approx £9) you credited initially.

Around £20 should last us a year. Considering that we normally have charges of around £10 a month we're well pleased.

donny-gal

Calling any Spanish Readers.

As you may recall we have a house out here which we will be spending 4-5 months a year out here but in 6-8 week stretched. We have a Telefonica line, and are using dial up via either Telefonica or GoNuts. Driving me nuts as the connection keeps dying, sometimes it just disconnections other it doesnt show as disconnection but wont change pages.etc.

Would love BBand but think it is not very OS for the time spent here. I understand Orange is maybe thebest offer at the moment, but not sure I understand the deal fully (anyone on BB and better Spanish than me fancy having a read?)

Does anyone know a cheap 24 hour dialup option, preferebaly one which will do a month by month basis option?

Thanks
DG

sandy2_2

probably be better if you asked on one of the many Spanish forums