Tag Archives: Google voice

Thrift Tip: Unlimited Minute Cell Phone Hack

(I’ve decided to start a brief series on money saving ‘Thrift Tips’. It’s practical and I love learning these types of things from others so I figured I’d share mine too)

168108824_8022e0b076 The last thrift tip was a general overview of how we do phones in our house, but I mentioned a great cell phone tip I wanted to share today. Unfortunately, this only applies to T-Mobile MyFaves, Verizon Friends & Family or Alltel’s My Circle, sorry everyone else.

So, here’s the trick.

I mentioned yesterday that we use Grandcentral Google Voice as the number I generally give out to others, and that Google Voice calls are forwarded to our cell phones. Well, this is how I’ve managed to make the incoming calls free using Google Voice and MyFaves.

  • You can set incoming calls on Google Voice to display the callers number in the caller ID or Google Voice’s number, I choose Google Voices (there is still a call screening after you answer so you’ll still know who it is before you actually connect the call).
  • Then, you set one of your MyFaves numbers to be your Google Voice number. And “viola!” any call coming through that number counts as a MyFaves call and is unlimited!
  • In addition, when checking voicemail messages on Google Voice (also free since your calling one of your MyFaves numbers), you can press ‘2’ to connect the call to whomever left the message. I simply keep as new one message from each of the people that I call frequently and I’m able to make an outgoing call to them for free also! (you can even automate this by saving the number with necessary pauses and numbers to go through the voicemail menu).

Now, this might simply be a terrible teaser post, since it turns out Google Voice is not open to new sign-ups yet. They just switched from Grandcentral (bought by Google 2 years ago) to being branded as a Google product. So, my guess is I’ll be getting invites from Google to pass on soon. If you want to be on my list, leave a comment. There are some competitors out there, but I’m not sure that any of them do the same thing. That’s it for the phone related thrift tips. If you have tricks you’ve used let me know!

[photo credit]