Cheapest and simplest way to call Canada from US?

For the next six months or so I’ll need to make frequent phone calls to Canada. My phone company gives me unlimited long distance within the US but charges .14 a minute to Canada.

What’s a cheaper alternative? I need something simple since this will be a short-term situation. Any ideas?

Have you looked at some VOIP solution like Vonage? It looks like they have unlimited plans for the US and Canada for $9.95 a month.

I have no idea how good the call quality is compared to a normal land line

Prepaid calling cards?

Pingo is also a good option. I just used their service recently for a long trip to Italy. Between US and Italy was 2 cents a minute, so Canada should be at least that good. They have a good website, if you choose to pursue further.

Vonage is a good bet. VoIP isn’t too much of a bandwidth hog so call quality should be decent/comparable to normal phone calls. If you do the math and find it to be cheaper, Skype also offers calls to Canada (and most other international destinations) for around 2 cents/min.

Even a old-fashioned international calling plan is a better deal that what you’re getting. If you subscribed to my plan (from AT&T), you’d break even if you chatted over about 110 minutes/month.

I’ve had Vonage for a couple of years now and we love it. There is no loss of quality, we’ve never had an issue with power loss and $30 per month is great for unlimited service.

However, a friend I work with recently got a Magic Jack. It is VOIP, when I’ve talked to him the quality is the same, the features are the same, calling to Canada is unlimited and it costs around $20 - $30 per year. If you talk for more than 34 minutes per month for 6 months it comes out ahead of the phone company.

As much as I love the Vonage, I am seriously thinking about switching.

You could stand on the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Windsor and simply holler. :slight_smile:

Skype?

I was thinkin’ that, but if you go over to Minnesota, you can walk right up to the border and call Canada. Lemme know if it answers.

My VOIP with my cable package comes with Canada included standard.