Is Talk360 like Skype for calling US landlines?

Functionally yes, for the calling-phone-numbers part of Skype. Talk360 is a pay-per-minute app that dials US landlines and mobiles at $0.04/minute, billed to a top-up balance. The differences: Talk360 requires an app (Skype could be used in a browser), credit stays valid 12 months with reset-on-topup (Skype Credit's was 180 days), and Talk360 doesn't offer a Skype Number equivalent for receiving calls. For the Skype-Credit-replacement use case (calling US banks, the IRS, family landlines from abroad), Talk360 and WorldDialer both charge $0.04/min, and WorldDialer runs in a browser with no app. KeepCalling and Rebtel publish their own US rates.

Can I still use my Skype credits after the shutdown?

Yes, through the Skype Dial Pad inside Microsoft Teams or the Skype web portal — "for an indefinite period" per Microsoft's shutdown notice. You can't buy more credit, the mobile and desktop apps are retired, and Microsoft refused refunds on remaining balances. Your data export (chat history, contacts) has a June 2026 deadline; export before then. Once your credit runs out, you'll need a replacement service for calling US phone numbers — Talk360, KeepCalling, Rebtel, Viber Out, or browser-based options like WorldDialer.

Why did Skype lose to Zoom during the pandemic?

Skype was built for one-to-one conversations between Skype users; Zoom was built for group meetings with anyone, even people without accounts. When schools, workplaces, and families needed multi-person video in 2020, Zoom's "click a link, join the call" flow beat Skype's "both parties have accounts, add each other as contacts" friction. Skype also fragmented its product across consumer Skype, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, and Skype Lite — each with different UX. Zoom grew 1,900% while Skype managed 70%, and Microsoft eventually consolidated everything into Teams. The shutdown on May 5, 2025, was the final step.

Will Microsoft refund my unused Skype Credit?

No. Per the Washington Post and Microsoft's own shutdown notice, Microsoft refused refunds for prepaid Skype Credit balances when the service retired on May 5, 2025. The remaining credit stays usable through the Skype Dial Pad in Teams or the web portal "indefinitely," but you can't convert it to cash or transfer it to another service. For users with large balances, the practical move is to burn it on calls before Microsoft decides "indefinitely" has an end date. If you paid by credit card and the charge was within 60 days, a chargeback dispute might recover it — beyond that window, the credit's effectively stranded.

Does WhatsApp work for calling US landlines now that Skype is gone?

No. WhatsApp only calls other WhatsApp users — both parties need the app installed on their phones. WhatsApp can't dial US landlines, US mobile numbers without WhatsApp, US 1-800 toll-free numbers, or any US institution. The IRS, Chase, USCIS, US doctors' offices, US hospital billing departments — none have WhatsApp accounts. WhatsApp replaces Skype's free-chat-with-other-Skype-users feature, not Skype Credit's call-any-phone-number feature. For the phone-number-dialing use case, you need a service that bridges to the PSTN: Talk360, KeepCalling, Rebtel, Viber Out, or WorldDialer.

Skype Shut Down: What Happened to Your Skype Credit

Microsoft retired Skype on May 5, 2025. If you used Skype Credit to dial real phone numbers from abroad, your bank, a government office, a doctor's billing department, that is the part you lost, and it is the part nothing free replaced.

Most of the advice written about this shutdown was published while the deadlines were still open. They have all passed now. This page covers where each piece of Skype ended up, using Microsoft's own support documentation, and what still needs a decision from you.

What Happened, and When

Microsoft's support page states it plainly: "As of May 5th, 2025, Skype is retired." The consumer product went away on that date, along with the desktop and mobile apps.

The dates around it are worth having in one place, because several of them landed well after the shutdown itself:

April 3, 2025. Automatic top-up ended. Microsoft's retirement page: "Starting April 3, 2025, automatic top up services will no longer be available."
May 5, 2025. Skype retired.
December 1, 2025. The cutoff for the chat-history carve-out described below. Swedish Skype Numbers were also discontinued as of December 31, 2025, for local regulatory reasons.
April 1, 2026. Deletion of Skype data began.
May 2026. All Skype Number subscriptions ended.
June 15, 2026. The last day the export portal accepted requests.

Microsoft has not published a date on which Skype accounts stop signing in. What it published instead is the data timeline above, plus the instruction to sign in to Teams Free with your Skype credentials. If you read a specific sign-in cutoff date somewhere, it did not come from Microsoft's support pages. Treat your old credentials as a Microsoft account login now rather than a Skype login.

What Happened to Your Skype Credit

Remaining Skype Credit stayed spendable. Microsoft's guidance: "After May 2025, the Skype Dial Pad will be available to remaining paid users from the Skype web portal and within Teams Free, where you will continue to be able to use your subscription or Skype Credits." You cannot buy more, and the balance does not convert to a Microsoft account balance or to any other Microsoft product.

The refund question needs care, because two different things get conflated.

Subscriptions. Microsoft's retirement page says: "After May 1, 2026, if you have remaining subscriptions which have been cancelled, you are eligible for a refund." That sentence is about Skype calling subscriptions.

Credit. Microsoft has not published a shutdown-specific refund path for unused Skype Credit. Its standing refund policy is the one that applies: Skype Credit can be refunded only if it is unused and the request comes within 14 days of purchase, and charges older than 90 days are outside the policy entirely. Since every Skype Credit purchase is now well past both windows, the published policy does not cover a shutdown refund.

So the honest version is this. Microsoft documented a refund route for cancelled subscriptions and did not document one for leftover Credit. Plenty of people have asked for one on Microsoft's own Q&A forums. If you still hold a balance, the two things worth doing are spending it through the Dial Pad while that remains available, and opening a support request if the amount justifies the effort. Do not count on the second one.

What Happened to Your Skype Number

Skype Numbers were portable, and the window is closed.

This is the single most commonly mangled fact about the shutdown. Microsoft ran a port-out process and told users to start it from the receiving end: "To transfer or port your Skype Number to a new carrier, please reach out to your new carrier directly." French numbers had an extra step, an RIO code obtained from Voxbone/Bandwidth before the new provider could proceed.

That is over. The same support page now reads: "All Skype Number subscriptions have ended in May 2026. Skype Number port-out requests are no longer available."

If you did not port before then, the number is gone and may be reassigned. Two practical consequences. Check anywhere that number is still published, old business cards, a website contact page, an email signature, a directory listing, and replace it, so callers are not sent to a stranger or a disconnect tone. And if you need a US number that receives calls, you are shopping for a new one rather than recovering the old one.

Save Your Contacts and Chat History

The export portal closed on June 15, 2026, and deletion started before that, on April 1, 2026. An export taken between those two dates may not reflect a full history.

There is one carve-out worth checking before you assume everything is gone. If you were an active Skype user between December 2024 and February 2025, and you then signed in to and used Teams Free before December 1, 2025, your Skype chat and call history stays reachable inside Teams Free. If both halves of that are not true, the data was slated for complete deletion after June 15, 2026.

So the action here is a single check: sign in to Teams Free with your old Skype credentials and look for your history. If it is there, export or archive it now, because it lives at the mercy of an account you have to keep active. If it is not there, there is no recovery process, and the useful move is to rebuild the handful of contacts you call most.

Why Teams Does Not Replace Phone Calling

Microsoft pointed Skype users at Teams Free. For chat, contacts, and video calls between people who both have the app, it is a reasonable landing spot.

Dialing a phone number is a separate matter, and Microsoft draws the line itself: "Microsoft Teams does not support paid calling plans on the free version of Teams, but small businesses can consider the Teams Essentials offering." Outbound calling to landlines and mobiles sits behind paid licensing, which for an individual means buying a business calling product to make a few personal calls a year.

The gap is specific and it is worth naming, because free apps keep getting recommended into it. WhatsApp, FaceTime, Zoom, and Teams Free all call people who have the same app. The IRS does not have WhatsApp. Neither does your bank's fraud line, your insurer, a US hospital billing department, or a US toll-free number. Reaching those requires a service that connects to the actual phone network, which is exactly what Skype Credit did and what you are replacing.

Your Migration Checklist

Six items. Most people are done in twenty minutes.

Sign in to Teams Free with your Skype credentials and see whether your chats and contacts came across. This also tells you whether the carve-out applied to you.
Export or copy anything you find there. Contacts first, then any conversation you would miss.
Check your Skype Credit balance in the Skype web portal or the Dial Pad inside Teams Free, and spend it rather than saving it.
Open a Microsoft support request if the leftover balance is large enough to be worth the time. Have the account email and the amount ready, and expect the published policy to be quoted back at you.
Retire your old Skype Number everywhere it is published. Website, signature, invoices, directory listings, client onboarding documents.
Pick a replacement and test it with one short call before the call you need it for. A fraud alert at 2 AM is a poor moment to discover your setup does not work.

What to Use Instead

The right replacement depends on which half of Skype you used.

If you used Skype for free video and chat with other Skype users, Teams Free, Zoom, WhatsApp, and FaceTime all cover it at no cost.

If you used Skype Credit to dial phone numbers, you need a pay-per-minute service. On price to the US, Rebtel and KeepCalling both publish $0.01/min, and Rebtel sells a $3/mo US Unlimited plan; KeepCalling's 1¢ tier covers five countries, so it is a US-and-neighbors rate rather than a global one. Talk360 publishes $0.04/min to the US. Those are worth knowing before you decide.

WorldDialer charges $0.04/minute to US landlines and mobiles, dials 200+ countries, and runs in a browser with nothing to install. Credits start at $5 and never expire, which is the part that matters if you are replacing Skype because you called five times a year and resented the balance rules. There is an optional Premium tier that takes 20% off every call and adds a dedicated US or UK number with inbound calling, SMS, and voicemail transcription, for people who need to receive calls as well as place them.

For a ranked comparison of the pay-as-you-go services that replaced Skype Credit, see the best Skype alternatives in 2026. If your specific problem is calling US clients from abroad and sounding like a professional while you do it, that is covered in the SkypeOut replacement guide.

Skype is gone and the deadlines are behind us. What is left is a small decision about how you make the next call.

Skype Shut Down: What Happened to Your Credit, and What Now