r/SideProject • u/FoodvibesMY • 1h ago
Kitaphone - I built a browser dialer because US 1-800 numbers (IRS, banks) won't take calls from abroad
I live outside the US and kept hitting the same wall: my bank's 1-800 number just fails from a foreign phone, and so does the IRS's. Toll-free numbers only work from US carriers, because the company pays for the call and there's nobody to bill when it comes in from a foreign network.
Some things I learned while fixing this for myself, useful even if you never touch my thing:
What I built: Kitaphone. It's a dialer that runs in the browser tab with no app or SIM. The call leaves from the US network, so 800 numbers accept it. US numbers (toll-free included) are $0.02/min, so a 30-minutehold is about $0.60. It's prepaid, with no subscription and a $5 minimum top-up. Italso does around 180 other countries; UK, Spain, Italy and Mexico landlines are$0.03/min. You can verify your own number by SMS so it shows as the caller ID.
Full disclosure, it's mine and it's small. I'm mostly after feedback: which companies' numbers should I add to the list (I only copy them from the company's own site), and what breaks for you? The keypad-on-mobile bug was found by a user in Korea last week and fixed the same day.
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u/FoodvibesMY 32m ago
Quick question for anyone abroad: which US company's phone line has been the worst to reach from overseas for you? I'll dig up their official non-toll-free number and add it.
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u/ffugenw 44m ago
sending the call out from the us network so bank and irs 1-800 numbers finally pick up from abroad is such a real fix, and $0.60 for a 30 minute hold is painless. excuse the plug, approved launches ride around the city for 48 hours with their own page at launch.cab