Jan

Using Yak for Long Distance Calling

Written by Neil Galloway

You might think I'm getting paid to write this article, but I'm not. Just writing about something else I'm thinking about. I was sick of not feeling like I could make a long distance a few years ago, because I didn't have a good plan and didn't want to pay for one because I didn't use long distance enough. Plus, my girlfriend was on overseas holidays periodically and I wanted to be able to call her. Anyhow, I found one company that did the trick for me.

If you use a fair bit of long distance on your cell phone (or land line) and don't have a good plan for it. Then Yak might be a good system for you. I have been using these guys for about 4 years now. They offer reasonable long distance rates for the casual user (no minimum fees).

I live in Canada and they give me 3.5 cents/minute on my cell phone to anywhere in Canada or the U.S. and 5 cents/minute from my land line. There is no minimum fee and no special criteria. If you don't use it for a month then you don't pay anything.

Land Line

Just dial 10-10-YAK and then your number. It will go through and you will be billed on your next statement from whoever provides your landline service. You can set them up to be the default long distance provider so you don't need to dial 10-10-YAK everytime as well. I think you need to set up an account though.

A lot of you have good monthly plans so that is still probably offering cheaper per minute rates, but if you don't use up all your minutes every month this might be a better idea.

Cell Phone

This is a bit trickier. They need to enter your phone into the system and you need an account. You can do this online if you want. I have a mastercard set up with them and I am automatically billed every month (they email me my statement). Basically, there are Yak numbers located in different cities. You dial this number, wait to hear a dial tone, and then dial as you would normally. The rate is only 3.5 cents/minute to anywhere in North America. There are even 5 cents/minute to some European countries. Below is screenshot from the top of the cell phone rates page.

The only thing I don't like is that they don't let you use them as your default long distance provider, so you have to dial the local access number every time you dial long distance. I imagine the cell phone companies have some sort of block on this, but who knows.

Trick With Bell and other Cell Phone Companies

Some of you will have older plans with Bell and have the TouchBase feature (I believe they don't offer this anymore) and other telcos might have it. This is where you are allowed 20 calls a month of unlimited duration to a specific number that you choose. It was intended for the number you call the most so you don't use up all your air time. I set this number to be the Yak long distance line for my city. This way, I can place long distance calls in the middle of the day without it using up my air time (unless I do over 20 calls) and only pay 3.5 cents a minute for the long distance call.

All-in-all Pretty Good

If you want to do long distance calling, but won't get better the 3.5 cents a minute out of a regular monthly plan on average, then I would recommend checking these guys out. And if you know of some calling cards or other plans that are better, please post a comment. I would gladly switch.

You can check out Yak here.

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Category: General

Original Post: Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

7 Comments

Rob Says:
2009-02-13 13:09:12
Based on your article, I tried to sign up for Yak on my cellphone. The sign-up page rejected my cell number ("service not available in your area"). When I called Yak to determine what the problem was and if there was a work-around, I was left on hold for about 10 minutes. I gave up at that point. Too bad.

Neil Galloway Says:
2009-02-13 14:49:51
Yeah...customer service is not their strong point. Interesting regarding sign up. It doesn't matter what your cell number is, because you use their local access number wherever you are travelling. Are you sure you weren't in the regular phone line area of their website?

i.e. I use Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary access numbers because those are the cities I am in the most. I don't see why they would care what phone you have...unless it is a U.S. phone. As long as they can register the phone to a credit card I thought they would be happy.

Rob Walker Says:
2009-10-19 10:10:50
I see on my land line phone bill this month (for Sept 2009) that YAK has added a 20 cent minimum for all calls over 20 seconds. So if your call is 4 minutes or under you pay 20 cents instead of 5 cents a minute before this months bill. Since many of my calls can be only 1 or 2 minutes i may be looking for another long distance company.

D R Mohican Says:
2010-07-12 10:52:49
I'm not familiar with cell phone plans or how they work. For ex, let's say I normally live in Quebec City PQ, and I'm visiting and using my phone from Hawkesbury, Ontario. I want to call Montreal PQ and Vancouver BC. But I don't know whether Hawkesbury has "closer" Yak access to Ottawa ON (i.e. keeping the access# inside the same province), or to Montreal PQ (which is physically closer in distance to Hawkesbury)!

So if this is Yak's version of Roaming Access Numbers, which number do I call? and how would using either the Montreal or Ottawa city access number affect my call from Hawkesbury to Vancouver? Thanks.

j douglas spillane Says:
2011-02-19 11:59:21
when I send a fax I DIAL 10-10-925- But a telus operator interjects a LOT I DO not want TELUS!!~ Tell me how PLEASE?

Stew johnson Says:
2011-05-02 06:39:47
My wife is going to the U.S.(new york city). What does she do to call home without paying the huge charge?

Jawad A. Says:
2011-08-08 13:43:30
I am agent with TAC Telecom, and believe we can defeat all this operators' rates for mobile and landline. If you like to give it a try or to represent it, email me at jawad @ tactelecom dot com. Best,