private adoption question

BostonLove11

 We are going to be putting our profile up on www.parentprofiles.com in a week or two and we are trying to figure out the logistics of the phone we will have birth mothers call.  Is it the norm to do a "pay as you go" phone as well as have a toll free number?  What toll free number service is good?  My husband is concerned that with a pay as you go phone we may get into a long discussion with a birth mom and have it cut out when it runs out.  Then we would have to call back after we add money to it which is not optimal.  Any other options we are missing?  TIA!

Blsd4given

I may be speaking completely off-base here since I haven't been through providing a number for potential birthparents to call... I don't know all the rules and details that it entails... But, just a suggestion...

I don't know if you have a cell phone with a Google account.  If you do, have you thought about Google Voice?  It's free to sign up.  It just allows you to provide a separate number for your existing cell phone number.  The person calling only knows your Google Voice number - and not your actual cell phone number.  You can call back using a Google Voice number too.  It's not a toll-free number... So, it wouldn't be a free call for the birthparent.  Charges to you are no different than using your current minutes/plan.

If it's not allowed or a realistic option, just ignore me...

IRR

We did not provide a toll free number although I have learned from this board that they are simple to obtain online.  Just search past posts.  We did get a "throw away phone" and we started with 120 minutes.  After 80 days we still have 100 minutes.  Our BM used this number to start, but since the phone doesn't work well at our house, we have since given her our home phone number, but used this phone when we traveled to meet her.  We still use the phone to text her every couple of weeks since that is how she seems to communicate best.  We will renew the "time" when it is due next week just to keep the phone active, but once our LO is born we will most likely not continue using the phone.  If you are worried about time running out I would say start will a plan that has more minutes, but honestly, no conversation is ever going to be that long to start (2 hours should be enough) and if after an hour you want to add more minutes because you have used them up, you can always add them.  Not sure the cost of 800 numbers but our lawyer didn't think it was necessary.

crene84

I will also be going live on parentprofiles in the next few weeks.  We plan to use Twilio.  It's $2/month and then 3 cents a minute.  Google voice is a great choice (as suggested above) but it's not toll free.

BostonLove11

Very helpful!  Thanks ladies!