Triangle Trip

I personally hate AT&T with a passion.  But for 2 years it has been an necessary evil for having an iPhone.  Not only does AT&T give you no service in Manhattan between the normal working hours of 9am to 5pm, but it charges and arm and a leg for international calls from your cell phone.  One alternative could be Skype, but the evil AT&T has colluded with Apple to only allow Skype calls over WiFi.

Recently, Google Voice came out of beta and is now available to all within the U.S.  You can do a lot with Google Voice, one of which is make international calls for very cheap.  Once you sign up for Google Voice, you can make cheap international calls on your cell phone.  Kudos to this post for explaining how: http://readystate4.com/2009/07/31/google-voice-skype-the-unrelenting-phone-industry-and-a-cool-iphone-tip/

In a nutshell, you will need to use this formula when saving international numbers on your iPhone:

(aaa) aaa-aaaa , pppp, 2, 011 bb cccccccccc#

Where:
a = your Google Voice number
p = your Google Voice pin number
b = country code of the number you’re dialing
c = local number of the number you’re dialing

Recently, the New York Times had an article describing iPhone users’ frustrations with AT&T: dropped calls, missed calls, late voicemails, etc.  If you have a Google Voice number (or even a home landline with an answering machine would suffice), there are small ways in which you can alleviate some of this awful AT&T service. (The tips below should work with any cell phone on the ridiculous AT&T network and not just iPhones.)

For one, if you have ever been frustrated with calls that you never ever received because of AT&T’s poor service, you can have AT&T forward calls to your Google Voice number when you are not reachable on AT&T’s network (which unfortunately happens way too much).  On your cell phone, simply dial *62* plus your 10-digit number Google Voice number to which your calls should be forwarded and then #.  This will forward all your calls to your Google Voice number when you are not reachable on your cell phone.  Google Voice keeps track of all missed and received calls.  Or even a home landline with caller ID in place of Google Voice works well too.

Secondly, if you’ve ever received voicemails several hours or even days after the fact (which annoyingly has happened to me a lot with important voicemails), you can setup to have all your calls forwarded to your Google Voice number or a home answering machine if you do not answer your cell phone.  On your cell phone, simply dial *61* plus the 10-digit number to which your calls should be forwarded and #.  This will enable the caller to reach your Google Voice voicemail or your home answering machine, bypassing AT&T voicemail altogether.  Visual voicemail is overrated anyhow.

Lastly, if you’ve just been sick and tired of AT&T’s poor service to the point that you don’t care to answer any calls on your iPhone altogether, you can have all your calls immediately be forwarded to a different number: simply dial *21* plus the 10-digit number to which your calls should be forwarded and #.

AT&T… More bars in more places?  Are they drunk (pun intended)?

Recently I lost my wallet one night (during a drunken stupor but that’s another story). The next day I had to book car service, a hotel, and take a flight out. But even without my wallet I was able to do all of these because I had a lost wallet contingency plan. Here are a couple steps I always take:

1) Keep your cash and credit cards separate. I always keep my cash in a money clip and my credit cards in a wallet. The reason being is if I lose one I’ll still have the other.

2) Always have a backup credit card and a backup bank account debit card. I always keep a backup credit card with no annual fee at home. I also have a backup bank account that I keep $100 in with a debit card I leave at home. This way I always have access to cash and credit in case I lost my wallet.

3) Always have your passport handy at home or in your bag even while traveling domestically. Your passport is probably going to the best candidate for a backup government issued ID. Also, if you lose your license while traveling you might face difficulties going through airport security without a backup ID handy.

And in case you lose your cell phone, always remember your username and password to your cell phone carrier’s website. That way you can lookup phone numbers you frequently dial on your online cell phone statement when you don’t have anyone’s phone number.

Lastly, for those of you who are looking to save money on accessories during this recession, I’ve found that this can replace the functionality of a money clip at a very low cost: the binder clip.