Saturday, May 24, 2008

Save on Your Phone Bills : iTalk from TM

5 comments
Save on your phone bills : iTalk from TM

Believe it or not, one of the best ways to reduce your Telekom Malaysia (TM) phone bills is by using a solution from TM itself. It's like an oxymoron, reduce your costly TM bills by using cheap TM solution. Yes, what I'm referring to is iTALK from TM.

My home phone bills used to come up to RM70, and now, only around RM20, that being RM15 for the rental and ~RM5 for local calls and taxes.

Yes, I'm saving $$
.

The rates to call from iTALK (home phone) to any national or mobile number are a lot cheaper then calling direct from your home phone.


From TM's iTalk website http://www.tmonline.com.my/italk_mobile/sec-callrates.html
Call using Fixed phones Mobile phones
1 800 87 3535 15 sen per min 17 sen per min



Note : iTalk is charged based on a flat rate. The call rates are in per blocks of 20 sec.

Compared to TM's published rates for Personal (home phones) national calls plucked from http://www.tm.com.my/personal/telephony/long-distance-call.asp#national
Distance (km)
Homeline/Businessline to
Homeline/Businessline
Full Rate
7.00 a.m. -
6.59 p.m.
Reduced rate
7.00 p.m. -
6.59 a.m.
Operator Assisted**
(charge per 3 mins)
Band A (Not Exceeding 50km)
10 sen/50 seconds
10 sen/60 seconds*
35 sen
Band B (50km - 150km)
10 sen/20 seconds
10 sen/40 seconds
90 sen
Band C (Exceeding 150km)
10 sen/7 seconds
10 sen/14 seconds
RM2.7

Note:

* Currently, TM charges for each 75 seconds
** Operator Assisted
- Service charge per effective call is RM1.50
- Per block of 3+3


Assuming above are latest rates published by TM, as of date of publishing this blog entry, you can see that for any calls exceeding 50km, you get a significant savings.

The best way to get iTalk to work for you is, buy a iTalk card, set it up in your house phone following the attached step-by-step. And you're done, just call the 1800+ number and iTalk automatically detects your phone with the loaded credit. In other words, no need to key in Pin Number everytime you call. And when you top-up using your house phone, it automatically adds it to your current balance. This is a big benefit compared to some other calling cards where you can't combine cards.


Another great thing is the call-me-back feature (missed callback). Yes, I believe a couple of other local companies introduced this before iTALK came about. Once you have set-up your house phone (or if you're setting up just your mobile) for iTALK, call the 1 800 87 3535 number, you can also setup your mobile for Missed-Callback. Once setup, just dial 1 800 87 3636, the call will terminate and call you back, key in the number to call and wait.

Below is the comparison
iTalk rates from http://www.tmonline.com.my/italk_mobile/sec-callrates.html
Call using Fixed phones Mobile phones
1 800 87 3636 ( Missed Callback ) 24 sen per min 25 sen per min

Compared to TM from http://www.tm.com.my/personal/telephony/long-distance-call.asp#national
MTX Area
Homeline/Businessline to Mobile
Full Rate
9.00 a.m. -
8 .59 p.m.
Reduced rate
9.00 p.m. -
8.59 a.m.
Operator Assisted
(charge per 3 mins)
Band L (within MTX)
10 sen/20 seconds
10 sen/30 seconds
RM2.10
Band M (Adjacent MTX)
10 sen/8.6 seconds
10 sen/15 seconds
RM2.10
Band N (Non-Adjacent MTX)
10 sen/8.6 seconds
10 sen/15 seconds
RM2.10

Note:

  • The above call charge is effective from 1st Jan 2005
  • A service charge of RM 1.50 is levied for the effective call made via Operator Assisted service
  • MTX denotes Mobile Telephone Exchange Area

You can also make International Calls using iTALK. Comparisons by going to the below links.
For TM International Call Rates http://www.tm.com.my/idd/country/a.asp
For iTalk International Call Rates http://www.tmonline.com.my/italk_mobile/sec-callrates-pg2.html

I'm not going to compare each country as it's too much. Lets just take USA as an example,
TM

Country
Country Code
Rate per minute (RM)
Time Difference
(hours)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1
0.90
-13 to -16
Calls are charged in blocks of 6 seconds or part thereof

Vs iTalk

DESTINATION

COUNTRY
CODE

Normal Access
1 800 87 3535
(per min)

Mobile Call Back Service
1 800 87 3636

(per min)

IDD


FIXED

MOBILE

FIXED

MOBILE


USA

1

0.15

0.15

0.30

0.30


So even with Call-me-back, it's a lot cheaper.

Note, that for some countries like India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, there is an a lot cheaper calling card in the market, which is not only cheap, but based on my experience the connect rate is higher. I will share this in my future blogs.

Local Calls - Just use your house phone. "Each local call is charged at 8 sen for the first 2 minutes or part thereof and 4 sen for each subsequent minute or part thereof."

Tip1: When making calls using Missed Callback, do not press the 'SEND' or 'YES' or 'CALL' button on your mobile phone as this will instruct your mobile phone to make a direct call instead of via iTalk

Tip2: Usually if you buy higher reload values at shops, you might be a slight 'discount'.

Summary - iTalk is a real saver.

PS- I noticed many people searching for below numbers, so here you go:
i. To make call and activate thru Fixed Line, dial 1800-87-3535
ii. For call-back to your mobile and to activate thru your handphone, dial 1800-87-3636 or 03-5636 3366

Thursday, May 8, 2008

KFC Discount Voucher till 31st May 2008

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Not sure if this are true and valid, forwarded to me by a friend. I can't find it on KFC's website, but if you're going there, why not just print it and give it a try?
I'm sure planning to...Getting hungry now.













Yup, it's Linger Licking Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Visio 2007 Free Viewer

0 comments
I never thought there's a Visio Free Viewer.
Yes, now (in fact probably since long ago) you can view Visio files without having to install the costly Visio software.



Surprisingly or not, Microsoft provides a free viewer for download at the below link. Good luck and tell me what you think.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d88e4542-b174-4198-ae31-6884e9edd524&DisplayLang=en




Thursday, May 1, 2008

Is Dollar Cost Average a Myth?

1 comments
Is Dollar Cost Average a Myth?

This time I'm blogging to find out and not to tell all. When my agent or friends use to talk about DCA (Dollar Cost Average), it was pretty convincing, but something always seemed wrong.

So does curiosity kill the DCA concept. I was curious, so started surfing, and found that just as there are many sites, fund etc promoting DCA, there are many which don't agree with it.

Quote Timothy Middleton in his site http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/p104966.asp
"Popular wisdom says scheduling your investments is the best way to make money. But it's actually a sales gimmick to wheedle over time what you won't commit up front."

You can read more in the above website or do more searches. But personally to me, by my experience, DCA comes in useful when you invested in a high market, and the market keeps on dropping, buying monthly would help you average out. But if you bought during a low market and market's going up, why would you want to average out when you already bought at a low price?

Buy low sell high?

Takaful Malaysia Payment Received!

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Yes, after faxing in my particulars using the steps I outlined in my previous blog, after waiting for a couple of weeks, I have received my 10% Mudharabah check.

I am impressed. Usually I'd expect Insurance/Takaful agents to take foreever to make payments/refunds or claims. But this experience left me all smiles. Good job Takaful Malaysia.
 

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