AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life Living in Belize best long distance calling rates to belize

i just got my at&t bill and it's ridiculously high (plus they charge up to 5% MORE on a basic TAX)!

does anyone use a long distance carrier that has a better rate from the USA to BELIZE for less than say 50 cents a minute? anyone used prepaid cards at inexpensive rates? do tell!

i think BTL may have something to do with the crazy high rates to call belize because other countries much farther away are vastly cheaper.

help!



[This message has been edited by gogo (edited 09-03-2002).]

I used the 10-10-220 on this link and the rates quoted are just what showed up on my bill.
http://www.belizeans.com/phonetips.htm

Best rate I've ever gotten thru At&T to Belize was $.78 a minute. That was by signing up for their "World" plan and I had to specify the country I would be calling most often.

We are all still holding our breath to see what advances will be made in Belize communications at the end of the year.

i've been researching and planet earth communications has.518 rates to belize...but that's some funky operation i know nothing about.

reading these quick responses, i checked the 10-10-220 website and the rates quoted on the belizeans.com website are current. 39 cents a minute without hassle beats my 83 cents a minute with a stick. at&t is getting cancelled, it deserves it.

thanks for the help!

Check out using your computer. Plans like
Net2Phone and Phonefree can be downloaded and used to call PC to phone for very reasonable rates.
When I need to call via telephone and am in a hurry, I use 10-10-811. They charge by the minute. No monthly fee. I think their rate is about .65/min.

go to www.belizeans.com and click the link that says "phonecards." They have a card that bills $.24 per minute to Belize, with the fees and taxes added, it comes to about $.28 per minute which is lower than I have found anywhere. Once you register with the site, you can purchase cards online and the PIN numbers and access numbers are emailed to you within 10 minutes. (So you don't get a physical "card," just the PIN and access code.)
We've saved tons of money calling Belize and Panama with these cards. You can buy them in $10 and $20 increments.

gogo, I've used prepaid cards to and from Belize. I believe my 3.5 cents per minute in the US card costs about 19 "units" per minute which is 19 x 3.5 cents = 67 cents per minute. Something like that. When I used it in Belize, I always had trouble getting access so I called the operator who connected me with the MCI operator and then they set me up into the call where it prompted me for my access and pin number. It was a bit of a hassle but I managed to get threw each time I needed to so it was OK. I also use my prepaid card to send faxes to the hotels that want you to fax authorization sheets.
Sounds like Susangg knows the best deal though.

GOGO,

Forget about phone rates - where's part II of your hiking story - I've been waiting patiently

There are many prepaid cards, and their rates are radically different. If you go to the www.belizeans.com web site you need to look up the rates using the destinations you are going to be calling TO and where you are going to be calling FROM. The same card will not work for calling to the Belize from the US and calling the US (or other countries) FROM Belize. Mostly, we use these cards here in the US to call TO Belize and Panama. When I recently visited Belize,I ordered a couple of cards specifically to use to call FROM Belize and saved some money that way too (the rates were lower than using ATT MCI or SPRINT to call via the "115" operator line and way cheaper than calling direct via BTL.)
But they were different cards than the ones I use to call TO Belize.
It's easy to pick and choose the cards using the search directory they provide on the web site.

IDT charges .43 a minute to Belize, it's like $5/month service charge- very good company. I use them all the time.