www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Gents,

I think I have figured out a pretty reasonable way to call CR from USA: pingo dot com; about 0.06 per minute from my city. My question is:

When I call a cell phone in Costa Rica from the US – How much does it cost them at the receiving end per minute, if anything? Do they have to pay ICE to receive international calls?

Thanks, I don’t recall this coming up before.

Gracias y Pura Vida

Novice,

Unlike the US, incoming calls are free on cellular phone in Costa Rica.

Dildo Man

I hope Dildo man is sure about this because I get charged on my regular phone in costa rica every month. Its even listed as a seperate line item on my ICE bill as "cellular". I asked ICE about it and they told me that I am charged a cellular charge everytime someone calls me from a cell. Additionally, I am charged whenever I call a cell.
Thats my experience, sorry it differs with a brother.
LVSteve

_________________
Just an old horney, fat gambler.

I was always charged for incoming minutes in Costa Rica. In Panama, incoming calls are not charged.

Cheapest way to call international is through online VOIP call services. I do all my international business and calls now via computer through VOIP...less than 10cents per minute most anywhere worldwide. Screw these high priced monopolistic phone companies...they'll get the message sooner than later. Unfortunately the uneducated poor will continue to pay ridiculous high phone prices.

Uneducated or not, I'm still paying ICE about $6.00 a month. Couple of years ago, Nevada Bell charged me close to $50.00 for the same service.
I'll stay uneducated, thank you.
LVSteve

_________________
Just an old horney, fat gambler.

The way I do it is by using a pre-paid calling card. You can buy one here (NYC) just about anywhere and it's only 3-4¢ a minute. And there is no connection fee, but they get you with a semi-monthly "maintenance" charge of 49-69¢.

So on a $5 card, I can get about 138 minutes if I call in one shot. If I hold the card for a while, every 2 weeks they take out 49-69¢ of the balance. I usually just buy a $2 card, and I talk for about an hour and it's done.

I found this recently. I haven't used it yet. It seems like it could be good. No fees, no expiration. It's prepaid.
http://www.peanuts-ld.com/

My total phone bill for the month of May, both land line and cell is 6110 colones (about $12.00). Admittedly I do not make any international calls but I did not make any when in the US and my phone bill, land line & cell, were over $100.00 per month.



Hope they get the message much much later. Can not afford those wonderful deals US phone companies give their customers.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I've still found the best bargain to be the Tel 3 card you can get through CRT. Very reliable and no maintenance fees. Automatic recharging. Check them out in the discount section.

dapanz1

_________________
Paradise= Sitting outside the Bodega in Panama City about 1 am. Drinking cool Balboas with cool friends and blazin' hot Colombianas. I want to be there..RIGHT NOW!

Tel 3 card thru CRT is one of best deal I've found... I use it to call from my cell in US to Cell phone in Costa Rica. I am paying .07 minute I believe.... nice feature is you can pre program all numbers on line then when calling from cell phone only need 2 digit code to call....

On Computer have been using SKYPE with a USB phone thru a WIFI broadband connect..... good voice quality ... computer to computer is FREE worldwide, USA to CR cell .08 minute, USA to CRF landline is .065 minute.. Costa Rica ( wireless connection on my computer) to cell or land line phone in USA is .02 minute...

Happy with both Tel 3 & SKYPE

PIDD

Here in Vancouver I found the 20/20 card of help,
long distance code card same as others in the US

Toll free # to a main city, Vancouver, Edmonton , ect....
for $ 10.00 I get 350 min to Costa Rica So they say, but for some reason those min disapear real fast.
I called El Ciego one night in USA , it was real cheap.

I guess it works out to $ 0.10 / min to call CR, a bargain compared to the
$ 2.30 a min the local phone company charged ,
before I discovered the code card.

Fiedler

About a year ago, I ran into a guy by the name of Dave Helper. He's an Escazu business guy who provides an access number for calls to the states. This service is for calls FROM Costa Rica to the US.
What you do is deposit like 5,000 colones in his bank accout (has has accounts at 4 or 5 banks), you go home, call his customer service and advise that you made the deposit. You then call the access number, put in your pin and vioal, you have 100 mins. for calls to the states. Usually lasts me about a month as I only make 5 or 6 calls a month.
LVSteve
PS: If any of you residents need his number, send me a PM.

_________________
Just an old horney, fat gambler.

Fellow CRT'ers

If you have a high speed internet connection, A VOIP service I just started using is located at: www.voipstunt.com

A fellow who is here now in CR on a job consulting at ICE for making the transition to CAFTA has been using it for a year. (BTW, he tells me at the ICE office in Sabana North, the employees only put about 3 hrs. a day work, the remaining time is coffee breaks and lunch). Does that give you a clue about the lousy service from this government monoply??

Here's the deal. You give VOIPSTUNT a deposit of $10 euros on your credit card, calls from CR calls to the US are FREE, read on!!! I believe after some 300 free minutes per month, you are charged $00.01 per minute. The $10 euro credit expires in 120 days.

You call from your computer to the person in the US on their phone, land line or cell. On their web site, they also list a number of countries where the calls are billed as described. There are some countries where you start being billed at $00.01 per minute.

The quality is not as good as Vonage, but then it's hard to beat that price.

BTW, I have no connection with this company, just a customer. Hope I explained it clearly!!

Flyboy