Have you ever called a landline or mobile phone from your computer without paying anything?

Maybe you have. But have you ever wondered how this is possible?

Has it ever occured to you that how could somebody give you something for nothing for any length of time? So do free calls make sense? Or is there some hidden cost behind such calls?

On the face of it the idea of making free pc to phone line doesn't make sense. No VoIP service provider could provide such free minutes continuously without getting into financial trouble.

Free pc to pc, or computer to computer calls, a standard feature of most VoIP providers, is understandable Such calls may not cost that much to the VoIP providers who gain publicity for their other paid products by giving you this free facility.

But calling landline or mobile phones from a computer is something quite different. Here a phone or mobile company, not related to the VoIP provider, comes into play. It will charge the VoIP provider for completing the call coming from the computer.

So a VoIP provider may give out some free minutes as a promo of a paid service but such a giveaway can't continue indefinitely.

Even then free pc to phone calling is a reality. Some VoIP providers like Globe7 and Adphone, to name just two, do allow you to make free pc to phone calls.

The answer to this question is that it comes from YOU! Not in cents or dollars but in your time.

You go to a free pc to phone site to make calls. Here you have either to buy the calling minutes or earn them. You could do this by viewing ads or completing offers of third party merchants who want to promote their products and services and hire the services of the free phone sites.

So it is you that make the world of free pc to phone calling go round!

You provide the means to the phone provider to make money and therefore are a welcome visitor to such sites. They encourage you to tell your friends about the service for which they may give you some incentives in free minutes. Sites like Globe7 throw in lots of attractive features totally free for you to make you a regular visitor to its site.

Winners All

In this game all come out winners. You get free minutes. Merchants get the exposure to their products. The phone site gets revenue and potential customers for its paid products and

The number of minutes you earn depends upon the kind of the promotional offer you go for.

If you are just asked to view some ads you will get less calling time than when you become a lead for a merchant by signing up with the site or asking for more information or subscribing to the merchant newsletter. The reasoning here is that by allowing the merchant to email you, there is a likelihood that you may become a paying customer sometime in the future.

However the free trials are the highest paying offers when it comes to earning free minutes. Here your level of commitment is high as in most such offers you have to give out your credit card details. You won't be charged during the free trial period but it is upon you that you cancel the offer before the trial period ends. Forget to do that and your credit card would be charged for the next period.

Understandably the merchants are glad to pay out more for such offers because here there is a higher chance of you becoming their paying customer. You have gone to the trouble of giving out your cc and agreeing to their terms and conditions.

And even if you don't become a paying customer there is a chance you may forget to cancel your commitment at least for the next month as many do. So do be careful in this if you don't want to continue receiving the product or service beyond th free trial time.

Another Way To Earn Free Minutes

Some sites will give you free talking time if you maintain a certain minimum balance with them. This means that you have to be a paying customer first and then enjoy the free calling to their selected destinations. This way the site gets a committed customer who will pay for calling those countries which are not included in their free destination list.

What all this comes to is that free calling is not free. It is not a free lunch but comes very near to it because you get to make free calls with it. So explore such sites Understand what you have to do earn free minutes and make those calls that you have always wanted to make.