Giveaway: Skype Headset & 1 Year Skype Service

Believe it or not, I’m one of those people that doesn’t like to just follow the crowd.  I’ve always been that way-If everyone in school thought a particular boy was cute, I wouldn’t-just to be contrary!  I refused to read any of the Harry Potter books until after the 4th one came out-just because everyone was going on and on about them.

So when I started hearing a couple years ago about Skype I admit it-I just ignored everyone.

That is until I started hosting Frugal Coast2Coast and my phone signal from home was so terrible that I turned to Skype in sheer desperation! Although of course the Skype to Skype calls are all free, I needed to be able to call the Blog Talk Radio call in number-on a regular phone!  So I paid $29.50 for a years worth of service. usually it’s $2.95 a month if you pay by month, I saved $6 by purchasing a year at a time.

That’s $2.95 a month for calling anywhere in the US or Canada!  If you want folks to be able to call your “Skype” phone from a regular phone, it is just $30 a YEAR additional with your paid subscription. So basically, you can get all of your phone needs met for $60 a year. The kicker? You do have to talk at your computer, although I believe there is a gizmo out there that can make it work with regular phones. . .

Although I have read that some people experienced some call quality problems during peak times, I never saw that.  Instead I had clear quality calls. Yes!

So I was a convert to using Skype to call in for my radio show, and to do business calls, but still I balked at using the other services.  Why did I need to use anything else?  Then my sister who lives in Hawaii gave birth to a beautiful little baby girl.  There is very little chance that I’ll get to fly to Hawaii to see her, so she finally was able to convince me to try the video Skype with her . . . and I was hooked!  Now I use the text/chat, calling & video calling regularly.

I use the chat to have longer back & forth conversations with folks than I can on twitter. After all-sometimes you just need more than 140 characters.

When Lynnae and I host Frugal Coast2Coast we always open up a Skype chat with both of us plus our producer, so if we need to “discuss” anything while on the air we can.  It is also helpful during any kind of business conference call-you can have an “under the radar” discussion with someone if you need to.

Now that you know my whole back story, you can see why I responded with a resounding YES when I was approached about this Skype giveaway.  Not only is Skype a great service that I can whole-heartedly endorse, but I also have the opportunity to give a great prize to not one, not two, but THREE of my lovely readers!

Yes, that’s right, I am giving away THREE SKYPE PACKAGES each of which includes a Skype Unlimited U.S. and Canada subscription and a Skype Freetalk Everyman Headset. *note: you need your own web cam to use video skype-that is not part of the prize pack.

Call me a geek if you like, I just think this is a fantastic prize, especially for the online community!

***Edited to add: Just for clarification, the Skype package is just for calls to US & Canada-international calls will be billed, but the rates are pretty low.  Now if you are calling skype to skype I don’t think the international thing matters***

So now, on to the exciting stuff-how to enter!

This giveaway will run from Tuesday, September 29 to Monday October 5th.

Contest available only to US residents and APO’s.  My family members are not eligible to enter.  You are not eligible to enter if you have won a prize in the last 3 months.  Three winners will be chosen from valid entries via the Random Number Generator.

To enter:

Leave a comment telling me who you want to use Skype to talk with!

Entered once but want additional entries? Leave me a comment for each of the additional entries.

1) Tweet/and or post to Facebook once a day about the contest linking back to this post.

2) Subscribe to Frugal Upstate. (or leave a note if you already are)

3) Blog about the contest with a link back to this post.

4) Subscribe to the Frugal Coast2Coast Newsletter (aka Joint Frugal Upstate & Being Frugal.net Newsletter)

Good Luck!

***This is a sponsored post***