jajah.com

[Gargoyle]

I've been trying out jajah.com
It's an internet callback system- enter your number and the number you're calling, both ring and you talk that way.

Calls from the U.S. to Italian cell phones are normally expensive - from .28 US to .50 US per minute, and calls from a wind or vodafone cell to a US landline are around €.50/minute. This costs 0.213 US per minute, and since I don't pay for inbound calls on either the US landline or Italian cell, there are no other costs.

It seems to work quite well, quality is good (not perfect, but good). Anyone else try them?

They give you about .60 credit when you first sign up, then you have to deposit money. They just started accepting credit cards this week, which makes it much easier. One of the other options is moneybookers- avoid them! They are a complete mess, make you jump through a load of hoops just to send money; I spent 5 days trying to make a payment with them, with no success.

[Yazcedric]

Hi, Gargoyle,

I have been using Jajah primarily for calls from US landline to landline in Japan (where my parents live).
The first 30 minutes/day (and I forgot the detail, but they set additional "fair usage policy" in their terms - xxx minutes/wk and xxx minutes/month, something like that) is free between "active" members (I will mention this "active" status below).

I actually set up my account in US and ask my parents to set up another account in Japan.
In order to receive this 30 minutes' benefit, both sides need to be "active" members.
Jajah claims that active members should use either call or SMS at least once in 2wks.
I remember this when I opened up my account - please confirm.
Unfortunately, my parents are not so savvy about computers/internet and
I ended up paying a fee for blank SMS once every 2 weeks (from their account to my cell in US) to maintain the member status
(since callback triggered from my side does not count for "activity" on the recipient's side).
It's not bad considering how much I have been saving using these free calls.
But I think if both sides take turns in triggering call-backs (within "Jajah's fair use"), you probably do not need to send SMS.

I have heard stories that this benefit can be different depending on where the calls are triggered (or aimed - sorry, I forgot the detail),
ie, the free talk time can be shorter than 30 minutes/day.
But I have not yet confirmed where this story comes from.

Call quality is OK (US landline to Japan landline) - I probaly have very high tolerance in delay/call quality
since I used to experience really "bad" quality in transpacific calls about 10-14 yrs ago.
At least I can say that I have not experienced any dropped voice in these "free" calls.
The most attractive part is that I don't need to sit in front of computers once the call-back is triggered.
Call-backs happen instantaneously.
Also, the recipient does not need to have special equipment.
Calls extending 30 minutes used to be automatically disconnected,
but now I realize that they deduct from your balance without hanging up (I am not sure whether it is good or bad).

This is my review of Jajah.