TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin The Queen's phones

I was wondering what the charge would be to call one of these phones from the US. We know that incoming calls are free on the phone, but we have an older relative that might want to call and need to know what they will have to pay.

It's a regular international call. It depends on their calling plan. If they have no international calling plan at all, it's often like $2 or $2.50 a minute. You could tell them they could call you and you will call right back. Either that or make specific arrangements to call them at a certain time.

I have Charter Cable for my telephone and when I call the island from home it's under .30 cents a minute. Think .22 but not 100% sure

Buy an international calling card and you can get it down to pennies a minute

We use an international calling card to call the island and it is around 12 cents per minute.

Where are these cards available?

You can do an internet search or probably buy one at a local store. You have to watch the charge per minute and what other fees might be involved. They are basically a "virtual calling card". You call a central number from a predetermined number, have credit on your account/card and then call the country.

I just checked the one we use and it was 13 cents per minute in March. You can get started with as little as $10 in credit. $10 would give you about 75 minutes of calling time to SXM.

Below is the site I have used. Check it out and see if it works for you.
https://www.idirectdial.global/

Try skype
About $0.03 per minute
You just need the free app and a wifi connection
Keep your phone on airplane mode
There are several free wifi points around the island

When we let our family and friends know our number we tell them to simply text us a hello and we call them back.

Remember, the original question was about calling TO the island from the states.

I am still in the dark ages and don't have a smart phone. For $20 I was able to be in touch with home for 2 weeks. It works well and I can add other numbers so if someone (mother-in-law, sister, etc) needs to call they can do it at my expense. If I have to worry about the difference between a 3 cent call and a 13 cent call then I probably should not be in SXM.

I have my "island phone" - an old iPhone that Sharon put a SIM card in for me. I add $$ to it every couple months to keep it active. I use that all over the island for calling taxi's, restaurant reservations, etc. My "smartphone" is a Verizon iPhone 6, for $10.00 a day it works just as it does at home. Being self employed, we don't get vacations where we can cut the cord, but this enables us to still be in contact all the time and take multiple vacations. So sure, $10 a day is steep, but that's calling home, texting and data, and phone acts like it's still in CT. Worth every penny.

It is not always about what is the "cheapest", especially if you need to be in touch with home or a business. When I get a smart phone I will get your mom to show me the ropes!

Oh jeez!!! Good luck with that!!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" />

Thanks to all. This gives us options to look into. We are looking into ease of calling as she is in her 80's and not phone smart. It would be nice if the charges were low, but not necessary.

Maybe the easiest thing to do then would be for you to set up a time to call her?

For 32 cents per minute for an outbound call from Sharon's phone, that is what I would do. In the case of an emergency, she can call and hopefully that is not the case.

Why not get a skype number in her local area. That's what we did. We got a Vonage phone to call the states and got a Boca Raton number so it was local for my MIL.
Very easy.
She doesn't need a computer to call your Skype or Vonage number.
Cheers
irina

Thanks for all of the input. We probably will get one of Sharon's phones and pick a time each day to call. There is someone near we can call who is local, but my wife is POA. She is doing well now, but you are always concerned about your mother at that age. Last year we could e-mail but her father passed and her mother doesn't know how.

OK, hope it works out for you. Having elderly parents ourselves, we certainly understand.

Probably best and I hope it works out. The less complicated the better.

You can also use www.CALLSXM.COM & they can provide you with a US phone number that when someone calls that number it will ring on your SXM phone from me. You are pre-paying for the amount of time you want & many of my customers with older parents use this. $13.00 gets you about 65 minutes & there is no PIN number or any other numbers Involved except the US phone number the company would provide you with.

Sounds like a good deal.

Sharon--thanks for posting that. I didn't know that was available. It sounds like a good option for older folks, so they don't have to go through a bunch of hoops that they don't understand.

Exactly! I'm excited to know about this for our next trip.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ this !!!

Perfect solution for many......thank you Sharon <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

I used Callsxm.com this past March for phone calls from my brother's Doctor in the states. The doctor was able to call me direct with no worries that it was an international call. I highly recommend this service even if you don't have someone with medical issues at home.

That sounds like a wonderful solution! Thanks a lot!

Rebtel also provides a similar LD service, they assign you a local US number for a connection to an international number...this can be set up for tel. numbers in SXM, as well as most other countries in the world...this is also useful for making international LD calls from the US with your cellphone, without having to sign up for an international calling plan with you cell provider

we've been using the service for several years for calling family living outside the US

Rebtel Long Distance