How to Make Free Phone Calls to Landline Phones - A Guide

With multiple voip providers popping up all over the place, international calling is cheap and getting cheaper. Did you know that calling internationally can be done for free? Yes, you read that right. Lets dig deeper.

There are a few communication providers that let you make free calls from your phone. You'll have to dial the number provided by them before you dial the main number you are trying to reach so that you can access their network. The good part is that you won't need to ask for a different company or a different number. No switching needed. Just use your current network and number.

How do these companies let you make free calls?

- So that we're clear, calls made to landlines aren't unlimited. This is not some loophole that few people know about. There are a small number of calls that you can make.

- There are advertisements before you are connected to your main number. The advertisers are in essence paying for your listening time. So, your calls are free.

- There are a few services that will give you the device that lets you connect to this free calling network. But, there is a small initiation fee or membership cost associated with it (e.g. MagicJack). Sometimes, you have a low-cost yearly membership. So, this qualifies under the dirt cheap and almost free category. If you do go down this path, check the fine print to confirm that your destination country is on the list of approved countries. Sometimes such lists exist. Its better to check in advance.

No-cost or free Landline calls using voip

You must've heard of the PC to PC calls using voip being free. Did you know that voip calls to a landline can also be free.

There are services like VOIPCheap that let you make calls to a few numbers (that you provide) in a list of countries without any costs associated with it. The only caveat is that you will have to buy credits in advance of making the calls. If you use this company for other services then being able to make these calls is worthwhile. Using this service just to make calls might not be worthwhile.

These days a few people are using an innovative way of making calls from various personal numbers using voip. Lets assume that you have signed up with vonage world where you pay $29.95 a month. To implement this strategy, you set your vonage phone to forward to any international number that you can dial (as part of your vonage international plan). Then you call your own vonage number from any number e.g. your mobile or your work phone. Since your vonage phone connects is forwarded, you are connected to the international number for no additional charge while using a local number. So, if you know someone who has vonage world and the country you want to call is on their country list then you ask them to forward their phone to the international number and you can call their number (which could be local or long-distance depending on whether they are out-of-state). I personally love this way of making calls since I only make a few calls and don't need a monthly or yearly subscription.

To learn about more cool ways to use voip and save money click here.