....after receiving a $300 bill from Softbank (calling cabs in the AM and being on hold for like 10 minutes!!!), I just called my husband that is in San Diego on his phone, and the convo lasted 4 minutes. Can someone please let me know how much to expect to pay for fear I will go into cardiac arrest again if I get another surprise!!!!

http://mb.softbank.jp/en/global_services/call/

Her is what I found, I am not sure if you have to have an international plan or not to get that price.

Do you not have a home phone GM1?

Use Skype to call the States.

Two rules about your Japanese cell phone:

1) Don't use it to call the States, unless you have a calling plan with reasonable prices that you understand completely.
2) Don't take your Japanese phone outside Japan and use it FOR ANYTHING (voice or data) (except in a wifi-only mode).

I have a SB iPhone, use it extensively, travel overseas a lot, and have never paid more than around $70 depending upon the exchange rate.

I don't know about Yoko, but here in Iwakuni there are signs all over the Softbank store warning you about this, saying you can conceivably run bills over $1000 if you fail to heed the above. Furthermore, when you get a new account you also sign & acknowledge a statement to this effect lest there be any misunderstanding. It was probably in that stack of papers they gave you that you didn't read carefully when you signed up for your service.

With all the free & low-cost options for calling the States, there's no need to call using your cellular services. Why not install Skype on your phone and call for free?

Just a question... but is your husband in the US with a Japanese cell phone? AND have it turned on? IF the answer is yes, have him shut it off ASAP and find other ways to communicate. Your bill is going to be outrageous just in his roaming charges alone. Japanese cell phones should never be used outside of Japan. The only way he should have his phone on, if applicable to your types of phones, is WIFI, like ThaiGuy said.

We don't have a house phone.... he went to San Diego for some training, I called his phone really just to tell him to get back on Skype lol ( I missed his first 2 calls),. We stayed on so long because he was trying to figure out the number at the gateway for me to call back. So luckily I will never call it again while he is in the states, it was just a temp problem. He did find the gateways number and I just called him back from my vonage phone. I am just worried about those 4 minutes lol! But yeah, I never plan on doing that AGAIN!!!!! I will check that link out to see whats up with the rates.

Oh another question, just the fact the phone is on and not in use will rack up charges?

It will rack up charges if it's on and someone calls the number, leaves messages etc. I know someone that went to Hawaii and left his on for a week, never answered it or checked his messages until he got back on Japanese soil, his bill was over 1,000. You can take your phone anywhere....... just turn it off until you get back in Japan, that way you have a phone when your at the airport.

iPad>skype>WiFi=free globally
iPad>MagicJack>WiFi=free globally (rings like a telephone)

I'm sure the newer iPhones will do that too.

Oh I will def let him know that!!!!! I never intended to call him on his phone, just a one time thing, but yeah, I'll make sure he turns it off!! Luckily I'm the only one with the number lol! But yeah, we have a lot of other ways to communicate, it was just this one time to get the number where he was staying, and we started playing Skype tag.

Posted By yokota on 02-06-2012 8:41 PM
It will rack up charges if it's on and someone calls the number, leaves messages etc. I know someone that went to Hawaii and left his on for a week, never answered it or checked his messages until he got back on Japanese soil, his bill was over 1,000. You can take your phone anywhere....... just turn it off until you get back in Japan, that way you have a phone when your at the airport.

iPad>skype>WiFi=free globally
iPad>MagicJack>WiFi=free globally (rings like a telephone)

I'm sure the newer iPhones will do that too.

If your phone is on, you can incur charges EVEN WITHOUT USING IT.  If it's a smart phone, it's always sending out digital bits & bytes, for instance the facebook app is checking for updates, twitter is checking for tweets, etc.  You don't have to use it & you don't need to have anyone call you to ring up international data roaming charges.

For the iPhone, as soon as I step on the plane to fly out of Japan, I put it in Airplane Mode which means the cellular/data function is utterly disabled.  It stays in Airplane Mode until I once again land in Japan.  Just turning it off isn't enough; you have to disable the cellular function, however that's done on your particular phone.

The iPhone (and other smart phones) have awesome wifi capabilities.  Install the skype app; I've heard there's a magicjack app now for iPhone, but I've never seen it. Use them only in wifi mode.

GOod to know! I'll tell him to have it on Airplane mode.

I agree with Thai guy. While I was in hong kong my phone stayed in airplane mode the entire time.

Once I had a $300 bill and went to Sb counter at exchange. For 100 yen you can request a copy of your bill. My overcharges were calling people after 9pm

I personally think getting a home phone is worth it. It is about $30 per month and you can call all SN numbers and it gives you another way to call your friends ESP after 9pm or if they have another carrier besides SB - whenever I meet someone new I always ask which company they have and note it in their contact so I know that instead of calling them I text or email them so as not to be charged per minute. Remember we are not in Kansas anymore and here in Japan the home phone is not obsolete. Plus depending on what access your husband has if aboard a ship they can call you on the DSN line while deployed.

You can have a home phone for 20.00 a year using magic jack, all long distance calls are free and if you dial he base access # you can call all the base DSN #'s too. Just buy the Magic Jack in BX or NEX and plug it in, plug your phone into it.

Oh I didnt realize the base numbers were good too! I will check and see if I can use my vonage for those..

I have a magic jack. Are you saying there is a number to call while using the magic jack that can access all the DSN on the base instead of having the phone service thru the base?

wait a second....... maybe not, I just looked up what I dial on Yokota and it's a local Japanese # to get the DSN calls 0425522510 and then you dial the last 5 numbers of the DSN (on my Japanese cell phone). So that wouldn't work using MJ, but..... I can dial 0345800135 from MJ and then 1-415-692-8297 and that gets me Allied Tellesis on base.

I would look into getting a home phone. We pay $30/mo and use that for all our base calls. Way cheaper than the SB per/min charge if you are using it to call on base numbers frequently.

I would also go into SB and see if they can give you a copy of the usage. If he's had his phone turned on while in SD...the bill could be insane. Better to be prepared!

Posted By GM1sHoney on 02-06-2012 10:14 PM
Oh I didnt realize the base numbers were good too! I will check and see if I can use my vonage for those..

Wait a minute... you have Vonage!?!  So why did you use your cell phone to call the States?

Regarding the other internet-phone services, I do not have a base phone or Japanese phone, but I do have Vonage World. This allows unlimited calling to more than 60 countries, which includes Japan.  So I just use my Vonage phone, dial 011-81-xxx and call any Japanese landline for free.  Including on-base numbers.  It's not free to call Japanese cell phones, so I use my SB phone when calling cell numbers.

Well, he has a japan cell number, so either way, we would incur a roaming charge just for calling and answering his phone.... but like I said, it was just to get the number to where he is at the moment. I sent him an email telling him to switch his phone to airplane mode and shut it off for good, until he gets back though.

Was it your first bill? If so there's a lot of extra first time charges. 3000 yen for activation on each line, I believe.

Yes. It was my first bill.... ok, that would make a lot of sense, but I didnt think the activation fees were that high. Could be, I am just mistaken thats all....we have like 4 lines (one of which is a photo frame with no monthly charges)...but my bill from here on out should be like $175....

I'm fairly certain the activation fees are about $40/line. And there may be more hidden start up fees depending on if you paid for the phone outright or if you're financing it over the life of the contract.

Softbank sucks ass, i only used for 15 days in dec. and went to the U.S. for vacay. The phone was turned off and in the luggage the whole time. I was charged over $600. Needless to say im not a softbank customer anymore, i got a dsn line and domatic (vonage). I been fine without a cell phone. Both Au and Softbank are bad.

I have an AU global that I take and use in the states all the time and my phone bill never changes. :o/