Cell Phones

[Kathryn]

Okay, I know there was a thread on the old site about this but I didn't read much into it since I didn't have to worry about it at that time.

Well..my cell phone bill was pretty expensive this past month..Lol and the 7 minutes we talked when he was in Thailand cost him $60!:oops:(dont know about me yet..yikes!!) But I was just wondering what you girls have done when your men was on deployment. I know about calling cards but someone told me that only some cards work in Afghanistan and you might only be able to buy them there. Also I know about international phone plans but I've heard not too good things about them. :shrug:

So please let me know..any advise would be benificial!! :beggin: I can't keep paying hundreds of dollars a month on phone calls!! Lol THANK YOU!!!

[Christy]

I bought Jason a rechargable calling card and I would put minutes on it from over here for him. He was lucky enough to find phone numbers that were local numbers. I can't really explain it, but when he could call me, it could come up either a Maryland or Virginia number, so the minutes were state to state. When he first got to Kuwait, he called me, the card had like 1500 minutes on it and within 2 days, it was gone. Reason was because the ratio in Kuwait was 11 minutes to 1. We didn't know that. You just have to watch what the ratio is in each country. As far as them not working, I dont know about that. But I know that they did work in Iraq. I know some other girls who got calls from their guys, and they were not in the office like Jason.

I got my calling card from Sams Club. So if you get one, there should be a website that will tell you what the minute ratios are for each country.

[Katie]

Check out if he has Sparware where he is it has been our LIFELINE> it is only like 4cents a min, but I know that some area's don't have the sparware phones.

[Kathryn]

Katie - He's still moving around place to place so I don't know if he will have that. I'll ask though. He still hasn't made it to Afghanistan yet and spends most of the time on the ship and has to use the stupid satellite phone(which i hate). But whenever he stops somewhere he will call me off ship and that's whats making the cell phone bills so high..LOL I sure hope he has Sparware when he finally gets to where he is going!

Christy - Thank you!! I'dd def look into that! Stupid ratio's! booo!:homo:

[Lovey]

Curt and I talk via yahoo pc to pc. Which has been nice cause it doesn't cost us a dime. He only calls me from the landline if it's an emergency.

[Kristen]

Mike is in Afghanistan and we use SPAWAR. Like Katie said it's only 4 cents a minutes or so and we have it set to automatically recharge whenever he gets down to $5. Here's the website:
https://app1.idt.net/debit/drs/account/login.aspx

Also, Mike bought a cell phone off one of the guys from the unit that they replaced and it worked at the first place he was at, but only when the sun was up and when the wind wasn't blowing lol. It's something to look into though.

[Lisa]

I got D to describe to me the exact phone card that he knew worked because other guys were using it and I found it online. I'd be happy to help you find a card online if you get J to tell you what works. (Honestly the same card I got will probably work for him too)

[Kathryn]

Thanks ladies! Next time I talk to J (im gonna start saying J like Lisa says D..lol) i'll see what we can do. But I really think he is just as clueless as me with all this..lol This is his first deployment also and he's never had to worry about calling someone. Like I said, this is a new relationship (started dating pretty much when he left for deployment) and I don't think he's had a girlfriend since he's been in the Marines (I could be wrong)...Anywho..I'll see if he knows anything..ha

[Lindsay]

Aaron bought a cell phone over there for pretty cheap and I got an account on tel3advantage.com it's like 11 cents a minute and I buy like $25 amounts at a time and it gives me like 300 minutes it's a pretty good service. Sometimes it hard to understand him really well cause it's distorted but it works for me :)

[MrsJoey]

we've used:
Skype
Yahoo phone
calling cards

skype/yahoo tend to be the cheapest for us both-for me its just like a local call and for him its so much per month but alot cheaper than him tryin to get a cell or us tryin to get an international plan!

[Laura]

yeah you just gotta look around and see what there is!
when mark was in iraq he had a hadji cell phone for awhile
that he used which was cool but like they said if the wind
was blowin or the sun was up it didn't work [aka RARELY! haha]

then they got this new callin plan over there where he could
buy like 500 for $50 or something outrageously cheap
we had done the math and it was cheaper than calling each other in the states!

then we had yahoo messenger too which was cool
cuz if he was online but i wasn't at home or near my computer he could
send txt messages from the computer to my phone and we could still talk

[Cortnie DeNise]

Yahoo messenger IM or calling PC to PC is cool. At the beginning of his assignment I would by some calling cards so that I could call him and he wouldn't always have to use his minutes, but I haven't done that in a while. The one we use the most would be yahoo.

[Lisa]

Thanks ladies! Next time I talk to J (im gonna start saying J like Lisa says D..lol) i'll see what we can do. But I really think he is just as clueless as me with all this..lol This is his first deployment also and he's never had to worry about calling someone. Like I said, this is a new relationship (started dating pretty much when he left for deployment) and I don't think he's had a girlfriend since he's been in the Marines (I could be wrong)...Anywho..I'll see if he knows anything..ha

Nope I'm pretty positive he hasn't had a girlfriend since joining. I'm also pretty positive that I'll laugh at you for saying J just because you said that! BUT DON'T MAKE FUN OF ME ITS A TIME SAVER LOSER! lol plus I'm just lazy

[ReginaCherie]

we use the stupid ship phones and calling cards. i also just sent him is cell phone and we can use that with a calling card to us long as hes near a port.

[Kathryn]

we use the stupid ship phones and calling cards. i also just sent him is cell phone and we can use that with a calling card to us long as hes near a port.

the ship phones suck monkey balls..Lol half the time i cant hear him and after 10 minutes goes by the phone hangs up! Lol

[Lisa]

yeah ship phones do suck... you can barely hear them anyway and then throughout the conversation theres this fuzzy noise going in and out and you get ssoooo tired of saying
"what?"

[ReginaCherie]

it was bugging one day i was trying to tell scott something rylie did and the phone kept cutting out at the same part. but he could hear everything else fine. like they didnt want him the know that rylie could climb the back wall.

[~SaBrInA_lEiGh~]

haha you can only think there sensoring you

[ReginaCherie]

yup...it really would susprise me. when scott was out at field he told me what do they were coming back and the shut the phone off on us.

[~SaBrInA_lEiGh~]

yep sensoring us.... i wonder if rylie is code name for a mission and they were like wtf how does she know that..???..lol

[ReginaCherie]

that would be freakin funny!

[~SaBrInA_lEiGh~]

or climb over the wall was code

[ReginaCherie]

ok no more of this. lol. im gonna tell him what rylie did at some point then be like ha! i got it out!

[~SaBrInA_lEiGh~]

haha ya that would be funny

[Kathryn]

Haha..that's so weird!! The same thing happen with J and I! I don't remember what we were talking about but the phone kept going off in the exact same part! We were like ahh screw it!!! haha

[ReginaCherie]

yup i fianlly gave up too. the stupid phones suck ass.

[Kathryn]

Agreed!!

[Armywm]

If they have internet or cable access this is the only way to go. $25 per month unlimited worldwide calling. Both my guys have it with a local to me phone number so it doesn't cost me anything to call them.