Call Forwarding and Google Voice.. Need clarity please

[smileyboy]

I'm headed to Costa Rica, I thought that if I just forward all my calls to my Google Voice number. I would be safe from call roaming charges.. However, it seems that if I do this I get charged for the amount of time the other person is leaving a message....
Which to me means that I would be charged as if I answered the call in Costa Rica?! $2.99 a min


I started searching on the Google and found something called Unconditional call forwarding. This option seems to indicate that if I do the following:

# On your phone, dial *#62# and click Send.
# Phone number of your voicemail will be displayed.
# Write down the number (including +1)
# Dial **21*+1xxxyyyzzzz*11# and hit Send. +1xxxyyyzzzz is the number you wrote down previously to forward your calls automatically to your voice mail.
# Dial *#21# to verify that the new settings are active.
# When no longer desired, dial ##002# to reset back to normal.



I won't be charged... is that correct?

My plan is to use my email to get any voice messages (since my employees may have questions about jobs) and call them back using Skype via Fring and texts messages via Beejive and Google Voice SMS.

thanks a bunch

 

[Alli]

Unconditional call forwarding is what you want. You will not be charged for this, and it will only forward your unanswered calls that would normally have gone to voicemail.

 

[smileyboy]

I'm planning on having all calls sent to voicemail till I return. So unconditional is what a want?

 

[Alli]

Yes, and you want voicemail to be something other than your visual voicemail - cause that will wind up costing you a king's ransom if you check it while you're roaming!

 

[smileyboy]

word!!!! I tested it out and it works fine......
here's to Google Voice and free wifi.... w00t. Next time I may just get a sim from iPhonetrip.com.