There are hundreds of ways for people in the US to make business or family oriented calls to India. India being one of the most happening call destinations in the world, it’s understandable that many service providers offer special rates for calls to India. Of these the most economic ones are listed below.

India LD
Not really the cheapest, but one of the best ways to make calls. At a calling rate around 1.9 cents per minute, it uses VoIP to take your voice all the way to India. First you have to buy a fixed amount of minute credits each month, which is within the range 1000-3000. The more minutes you buy, the cheaper the calling rate will be. Once you’ve set this us, you will be provided with 10 United States phone numbers that redirect your calls to India.  This a good option if you’re ok with monthly payments, an account opening fee and the balance not carrying over to next month.

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IndiaMinutes
IndiaMinutes is one of the newer VoIP providers that offer cheap calling rates to India.  Similar to India LD, this service is for making calls from the US to India. The calling rate offered is also around 1.9 cents per minute when calling to mobile, however the rate is higher(2.4-3 cents per minute) while calling landline. Just like India LD you have to buy credits to start with, but the difference here is that you’ll be provided with only a single local toll free number, which prompts you to enter the Indian phone number.

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SmartVOIP
SmartVOIP arguably offers the cheapest calling rates to India, just 1 euro cents per minute to both landline and to mobile for making calls via the SmartVOIP softphone. The softphone is a software which allows you to call a landline on mobile using the internet. SmartVOIP also allows SIP integration to allow phone to phone calls.

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Call Cards
If you are too busy to be concerned about buying VOIP credits, there’s always the easier but relatively more expensive option, Call cards. The calling rates are higher for call cards, but they are preferred for one time or short term calls. Even if the call rates offered by some of them are really high (5 – 8 cents per minute), there are a few service providers like Reliance who provide special offers every once in a while. For example, with Reliance Global, all you have to do is buy a call pack (available as 1 time, 7 day, and 2 day packs) and you get rates as low as 1 cent per minute.