grovesk wrote:
Hi
I think I need an online number but just checking.
I'm in the USA and run a small business. I'm about to move to Europe and will be in England, France, Spain and other locations. I want my USA clients to be able to call a USA number and have it go to a UK cell phone (which I need to get) or to my computer for voicemail.
In addition to just regular contact, I sometimes have conference calls with US clients and all of it needs to be as seemless as possible for my clients and myself. I need to be able to answer the phone wherever I am.
Also, how reliable is an Online Number?
Thanks for any and all advice.
K
You are correct. An Online Number would allow people to call a US number, and you receive that call on Skype wherever you are logged in. If you want to forward those calls out to a UK mobile number, you would need to keep Skype Credit in your account to cover the cost of the forwarded calls (click on "Pay As You Go" below to see what the rates are for calling UK mobiles) or purchase a subscription that covers calling to UK mobile phones. Note that there are no "unlimited" subscriptions covering calls to those mobile phones (which is the case for almost all European countries, where calls to mobiles cost more than calls to landlines), but there are subscriptions with monthly allotments of 60, 120, and 400 minutes.
Will you be taking on any clients in the UK? If so, you could also get an Online Number in the UK. These would be classified as "landline" numbers, and are available for many area codes across that country. This would help if you plan on needing to stay in touch with these clients, and you happen to be outside of UK - and don't want them ringing your UK mobile directly. You can get up to 10 different Online Numbers on a single Skype account.
If you need to have the ability to call back to the US while in Europe, you may also want to consider a second subscription. The Unlimited USA & Canada subscription covers calling to landline and mobile phones in those two countries for US$ 2.99/month, or it can be purchased on a yearly basis with a 15% discount (just over US$ 30/year). This would effectively give you a US "phone line" that you can use wherever you go, making and receiving calls to and from the US. With Skype, as with landline and mobile phones throughout the US and Canada, there is no difference in the rates to call a landline phone compared to a mobile phone. This will hit home a little more when you get your UK mobile phone, and see the rates from your mobile carrier over there.
Some on these forums will insist that Online Numbers do not work. For many, the issues related to Privacy settings (not allowing calls from any number to your Skype Online Number). For others, there are claims that there are intermittent outages that prevent callers from reaching the Skype user on their Online Numbers. I've not had any problems with my numbers, and I have 4 of them (USA, UK, Australia, and Mexico). I've had two of them for over 4 years, and the other two for over a year. That's just my opinion, even if some will accuse me of being a Skype "fanboy". As always, your mileage may vary, and do report any issues to Skype's support if you have problems.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
Patrick
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Patrick
Location/Ubicacion: Arizona USA
Time Zone/Hora Local: UTC/GMT -7
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