How To Make An Overseas Phone Call

I remember the first time I needed to make an overseas phone call for work--I looked at the number given to me, and I thought, "What do I do with these numbers? This doesn't look like the telephone numbers I'm used to."

If you're not used to making international phone calls, there can be a little confusion when it comes to calling another country. Different countries have different codes, and you need to dial certain numbers before dialing the country code and the phone number.

BTW--I should mention that I'm talking about calling from a landline phone, rather than calling via Skpe. I do use Skype for most of my overseas calls, but every once in a while I need to make a call to another country over a landline phone or cell phone.

Plus, I've found that even if a Skype call is scheduled, it's always good to have a backup way of doing the call in case there are internet connectivity issues for either party. So, even if I'm doing a call via Skype, I like to get the person's phone number just in case and also be ready to call if necessary.

If you're in this situation where you need to make a landline call overseas, here's an easy way to figure it out--go to the website How To Call Abroad.

You tell them what country you're calling from and what country you're calling to, and they tell you the codes to dial when calling the number.

Let's say that I'm getting ready to make a call to the Philippines. This is what the page looks like when I'm searching for how to do that:

 

You can see that I've already chosen calling from the United States to the Philippines from the country list.

 

Then I click on Submit Query, and this very helpful page appears:

See, now we're getting somewhere! I know what code to dial before the actual telephone number.

Then I click on the drop down box, and a list of locations in the country I'm calling appears:

You simply select the specific city that you're calling, and you also have the area code that you need to dial before the actual phone number. 

One other aspect of this phone call making and arranging deal is coordinating the days/times.

I like to use Time Zone Converter. There are a lot of time zone sites, but I've just found this one the easiest one to use.

When coordinating call times, sometimes it can get a little tricky, especially if the person you're calling is in a drastically different time zone where they are actually on a different time and day.  That's where the time zone converter comes in extra helpful.

I hope this helps you make your international calls!