Cheapest International Calls to Portugal

Hello, I arrived in Zurich last Monday 25th, I've got a pre-paid (1 month) Sunrise card.I'm not happy with the service,the connection is always dropping.Anyway I need to call Portugal everyday.Do you know the best mobile network with the lowest rates to call Portugal?Landline and mobile? Thank you very much.

Skype isn't an option?

TalkTalk has the same International tariff from your fixed line and mobile : www.talktalk.ch

www.freecall.com

www.justvoip.com

Skype - you have internet so just fire up skype and use it only 3rp or under a minute or free depending on if the receiver has skype

Yallo is a very cheap mobile telephony provider ( www.yallo.ch ).

You can get a SIM card at the Post office.

Cost for phone calls to Portugal is 0.03/min to landlines and 0.25/min to mobile phones.

When I choose my mobile contract, I did the following:

1. I choose the cheapest contract that support free calls to landlines (from Switzerland to Switzerland)

2. I bought credit on Easyvoip.com and use an app called "mobilevoip" that calls a swiss landline (for free) and then forwards me (by using the Easyvoip credit) to (in my case) Dutch landline for as little as 0.4 dollar-cents per minute!

In case you use your own land-line or a mobile phone that does not support apps, you can call directly to a so called "local-access" number and enter the portuguese number via the keypad (or save this whole process as a single number behind a contact)

With this construction, I can call with my mobile phone from any place where I have network for 0.4 dollar-cents per minute (because I call for free to the swiss land-lines and pay 0.4 cents to easyvoip). At the beginning of the call I get charged immediately 4 dollar-cents, even if the other side is not answering, I believe. Although this seems high compared to the rate per minute, it is still very cheap!

To find which voip-provider is the cheapest, you can have a look at "www.lowcaller.com".

First of all thank you all for the replies.

Skype could be an option but Yallo is definetily cheaper and since I have to call my mother in Portugal and she doesn't really work with the computer, this seems to be the best option. And calling the landline is not a problem.

I will try the voip calls as well, although Yallo seems to be the quickest choice.

I will use cablecom as an internet provider at home. No TV or telephone for now, so calling from landline is not an option right now.

Cheers

Another possiblity is to use SIP phone. It is like a landline phone. But you only need an internet connection. With a SIP phone, you can use the cheap Voip phone service.

....also with yallo you can consider to call with your yallow-phone to the "local access number". It may (or probably will) still be cheaper to call with the yallo-phone to a land line instead of calling to Portugal!

Good luck!

I understand how difficult it is to get a non computer person on-line, but the results of SKYPE are amazing! You actually have the feeling of a real visit! There is nothing like looking into the eyes of a loved one, whilst far away.

Our daughter works and lives in Haiti. She and I SKYPE daily and she even SKYPES with her 90 year old Swiss grandparents once a week. Granted, someone else turns on the computer for them, but they anticipate this "visit" with big pleasure.

It is the cutest image to see the grandparents leaning over the computer screen to speak to their granddaughter! If this weren't an open forum, I would post a photo!

( Boa Sorte! Personalamente, eu tenho saudades de Portugal!:-)

Thank you so much everyone. For now I'm using Yallo. My mother doesn't have landline phone now and no internet either. And Yallo has great internet prices as well.

I use http://www.localphone.com

I use VoIPStunt. You can also try another one of the programs from the same company that operate under similar scheme (like VoIPBuster), just choose one with "Free" calls to Portugal.

While not as straightforward pricing as the likes of Skype (the paid-for calls to landlines in Skype, Skype to Skype is free of course), VoIPStunt pricing can be very cheap depending on your usage to call landlines.

You can charge under 15 Eur in the account and receive that (with Luxembourg VAT deducted) in credit, at very cheap rates (like under 0.02 per minute), but the real deal is that during the next 6 months you can call for free as long as you don't overdo it (like call for hours each day - it only happened to me a couple of times in years of usage). And if you do overdo it, all that happens is it starts deducting from the credit at the very cheap rate for that day (next day is reset and starts free again).

When the 6 months are up, you can either use up the remaining credit you have, or charge right away for 6 more "Free" months and pile up more credit. I usually just exhaust the credit I have before recharging.

The calls aren't really free (hence my quotation marks), but given the description above you can get extremely cheap rates for calls.

There are lots of sites like that, most of them come from Betamax. As far as I know the service is always exactly the same, it's just the prices and "free" countries that change.

This used to be a great comparison table for all their sites, but it seems it hasn been updated in a while. I personally used 12voip for calls to Portugal.

I use the Cheapvoip and make call by SIP method.

Basically I have a fixed phone to call with those prices

OH uses Lebara to call his family and friends in Portugal. Their prices are quite competitice, and they often have special sales where you recharge for X francs but get double that.

If VoIP is an option and you know someone in Portugal with MEO or SAPO ADSL you can ask them to create a voip user for you. You can then call at local portuguese rates.

There are two interesting phone-contracts available:

At the Swiss Post: "Das Abo". Without phone, you pay CHF 40 per month for unlimited calls to many countries.

Sunrise: Freedom Flat + "My Country" unlimited for CHF 35 per month would do the same trick for neighbouring countries (including Portugal) as well

It still costs something, but then you are free to call anybody on any phone without worrying about costs or internet connections

Yeah, i've many friends who switch to Das Abo and are very happy.

Even the limit to 500MB isn't a big problem as once you reach the limit, they propose you to buy more at quite cheap price - when you like...