Hi,

Bringing our iPad Mini to Europe. Places we are staying have wifi. We plan to call home a few times with Skype. Besides buying Skype Credit, do I need to have a "Skype Number" or anything else? My understanding is having a "Skype Number" simply allows people to call me. Not looking for that. Just curious, if I don't need a Skype Number, does anyone know what show's up on the person I'm calling's "Caller ID"?

Thanks.

Paul

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A Skype question
Posted by: pja1 on Sep 23, 13 at 5:18pm
Bringing our iPad Mini to Europe. Places we are staying have wifi. We plan to call home a few times with Skype. Besides buying Skype Credit, . . .</i>

Skype is free. All you need is a "handle" and agreement from the other party that you can call them. You can use it with or without a web cam on your computer. I don't know anything about the iPad Mini.

My understanding if calling home to someone's home or cell phone, you need Skype Credit. Skype to Skype is free as I read it.

I used Skype w/ an iPad mini last spring. I loaded some $ for regular calls (I seem to remember it forced me to get a phone number - but no one knew it)

Used Skype regular and three skiype phone calls (to non- Skype people) w/o any problems. One thing to watch out for is they will add credit automatically and charge you I I think every months. So you maybwantnto watch out for that and cancel if you don't need it.

you are correct, pja1 and you will have a skype address when you sign up.. as will your skype friends and family.

Didn't see the other 2 posts - Skype is only free fre "Skype to Skype" calls. For regular phone calls it costs. But it was very economical . . . And saved my ass one time when I need to make an urgent call.

Much cheaper than my cell service would have been.

Right. Skype to skype is free. Skype to phone is not. If your inbound calls are only from people using skype you don't need a number.

One good thing I found out was that using skype you can call US toll free numbers (for free). Don't know any other way to do that from abroad.

pja1, I've used Skype when traveling for 6+ years. I have the Skype app on my iPad and iPhone and just keep $10 or so in my account. I think there's even a feature you can chose to automatically bump the amount up in $10 increments once your account gets down to $2.50. I use it to call my Mom back home when we're traveling. She has a laptop at home and we could call computer to computer but she doesn't want the hassle so it's much easier and loads cheaper to just call her cell phone via Skype. And no, you don't need a Skype number.

Just an FYI, you may want to get a set of earbuds with a microphone, even tho your iPad mini has a built in microphone it's much easier to hear one another with the earbuds, you can get a set from the Apple store or someplace like Fry's if you don't already have a set.

>>If your inbound calls are only from people using skype you don't need a number.<<

My guess is most folks knows that. It is regular (outgoing) phone calls via skype that we are talking about. Believe it or not the majority of folks (probably the vast majority) don't use Skype. I needed to make a very urgent phone call to a business -- no Skype possible and I didn't have a mobile phone w/ me. Picked up my mini and called them. easy peasy.

Folks you already share Skype video calls w/ isn't the issue.

Skype application to Skype application, irrespective of the implementation is free as long as the underlining internet is paid for. That means pc-mac, pc-pc, smartphone running skype app - another smartphone running skype app, etc. The internet must exist whether on hotel Wifi, mobile internet (smartphone on data).

Skype application (pc,mac,smartphone) to phone (land, mobile, etc) may or may not require credit.

Skype to a toll free number requires no additional expense. This is how I call my bank in US if my CC is having a problem.

Skype to a non toll free land/mobile number must be funded somehow. You can either buy skype credit (I have this). If you still have a calling card,(yes, ancient) you can use that toll number then call regular phones. I still use a Verizon calling card I bought in 1990's.

You need to buy Skype credit to make outgoing calls to phones (except 800 numbers). I bought a $10 credit back in 2007 when I went to Italy, and I am still nursing it, have about $2 left. You need to buy a Skype phone number ($18/ 3 months or $60/year) to receive incoming calls from phones. This might be useful if you forward your US phone to your Skype number while you are away - then people can actually call your US phone (say a cell phone) while you are overseas, and you can "answer" it or get voicemail via Skype.

When I go overseas, I connect to my home VPN in the US, then I use Google Voice and Gmail to make free phone calls back to the US with my netbook. (Gmail/Google Voice calls do not work overseas unless Google thinks you are in the US, which is what my VPN does.) I don't know if you can do this with an iPad - probably, but it's probably not something the average person would do. (You can subscribe to a paid VPN service but that would sort of defeat the point; I have my own VPN setup at home so it costs me nothing.)

One thing to be aware of though is if you use Skype for video calls it is very greedy in bandwidth, which will not go down well with other users of a WiFi hotspot (even in a hotel), and could result in a poor connection. Better to use it purely for voice to voice calls.

Thanks for all the responses. We're just planning to use Skype for voice calls from where we are in Germany and Austria to land lines and/or cell phones back home. Since the iPad mini is wifi only and we won't be carrying it around with us all day, we won't bother with getting a Skype #. We'll just buy Skype credit for calling.

Thanks again for the help.

Paul