Cheap, Reliable Phone Card to Call Philippines
Looking for a cheap and reliable pre-paid phone card to call your family and friends in the Philippines? Here's a review of my personal experience with Globe Kababayan Prepaid phone card.
I started to use Globe Kababayan phone service more than a year now. For that span of time using their international phone service to call my loved ones in the Philippines, I can say that I am quite happy with their service.
Cost and Connection
I do not call my family and friends a lot of times, so, this phone card is ideal for me. For $9.00, I can already talk to my loved ones for 90 minutes. Talking with my sister, mother, and relatives for an hour and a half for only nine bucks is awesome! The phone connection is clear, except when my family at home has to look for a good reception because they live in a remote place where phone signals are sometimes elusive. If I do lose the line, calling them back was not a problem.
Method of Calling
In able to connect your phone to the recipient's phone in the Philippines, you need to dial the local access number in your local area or use a toll free number. These numbers are provided on their website. In my case, I use a local access number. It takes a few seconds to get connected to the number, but, not really a big deal. A recorded voice will guide you through on what to do. Of course you need your PIN for this. You can either write it on a paper or refer to your online copy.
What I like : Everytime I re-dial, the recorded voice informs me of how many minutes is left in my card and then connects me to the number I dialed.
What I don't like: The line just cut-off without warning when I ran out of credits. Sometimes I'd wonder if the reception was bad or the total minutes remaining in the card is already 0. I wished that the system notifies me at least 1 minute before I go off air. That way, I can formally say goodbye to the person.
Free 10 Minutes Call
Almost a month ago, I had a problem with connecting to my family in the Philippines. A recorded voice kept telling me that I couldn't call the number because it ran out of balance. I told my family about it and they said that their phone still had credits in it. So I decided to email the customer support. I was informed that they were conducting maintenance and the service will resume with a notice. They also a promise of a free PIN after everything is fixed. After the problem was fixed, they sent me a 10-minute PIN for free! That's a good consolation at least for a loyal customer like me. I wished though that the next time they have a problem with their system, they should notify the consumers through their website. A "notice" is always appreciated.
How and Where to Purchase
Globe Kababayan prepaid phone card has a website where you can purchase a PIN that you will use to connect your phone from the US to the Philippines. You can either buy the $5 or $10 card, with 10% off. Meaning, instead of paying $5 for the 35 minutes of call, you will only pay $4.50, and $9.00 instead of $10 for 90 minutes. By the way, the 35 and 90 minutes is for the Globe and TM numbers. For landlines and other cellphone numbers like Smart and Sun Cellular, the length of call in minutes is reduced (please refer to their website for this matter).
You can buy the PIN and pay it using your credit card or Paypal. I don't have any problem with any of the purchase I made using my Paypal account. All my transactions were smooth. Right after payment is made, the PIN immediately appears on the same page you used to pay.
Recommendation
As a customer of Globe Kababyan prepaid phone card for more than year now, I highly recommend this international phone call service to everyone out there who is looking for a cheap, effective, and reliable phone card to call the Philippines. I rate this service 8 out of 10.
Hello,
Just wanted to say this was a great review. I've been trying to look for reviews on what people had to say about Globe Kababayan before I go ahead and make my first purchase. The sites offering the cards have good things to say. I just wanted to hear it from an actual customer. Thank you for this.
Glad my review helps! :)