|
Welcome to Phone Cards 101.
Your information center for Phone Card Questions
Long Distance Calling. Click Here Cellular
Questions Click Here
Calling Cards: FAQ
Section: 1 (This one takes a
little bit of homework)
1. How to find the best phone card for your needs
2. Weekly maint fees vs. monthly maint.
fees.
Section: 2
Phone Card Terms broken down into simple
English, including maintenance fee charges
Section: 3
Simple questions and answers.
Section: 1
How to find the best phone card for
your needs.
First: You will need 3 things.
1. The average length on each call. (number of minutes)
2. Pen and Paper
3. A Calculator.
The purpose of these exercise, is to figure out your true
cost per minute on the calling card you are looking at.
EXAMPLE TIME!
Now we can show you how to apply this knowledge to get the best card.
John followed the instructions, and these are his calling
habits.
John's AVERAGE call is 35
minutes long
NOW. Let's apply John's call minutes to 2 different
cards we carry.
Nobel Pennysaver Card
.01 cent/minute
.59 cent connect fee
3 minute billing
36 minutes X .01 = .36 cents ( 3 minute billing
on this card, so we rounded up to 36 minutes)
Connect fee: .59 cents
Grand Total: $.95 True cost per minute 2.6 cents a minute.
AT&T 100 minute phone card
6 cents a minute
No connect fee
1 minute billing
35 minutes X 6.0 = 2.10
Grand Total: $2.10 True cost
per minute 6.0 cents a minute.
Stacy followed the instructions, and these are her calling
habits.
Stacey's AVERAGE call is 5
minutes long
NOW. Let's apply Stacys call minutes to 2 different
cards we carry.
Nobel Pennysaver Card
.01 cent/minute
.59 cent connect fee
3 minute billing
6 minutes X .01 = .06 cents ( 3 minute billing on
this card, so we rounded up to 6 minutes )
Connect fee: .59 cents
Grand Total: $.65 True cost per minute .13 cents a minute.
AT&T 100 minute phone card
6 cents a minute
No connect fee
1 minute billing
5 minutes X 6.0 = .30
Grand Total: $.30 True
cost per minute 6 cents a minute.
As you can see, it really does matter on
which phone card you use, according to your calling needs.
Now you are ready to find
the best deals out there.
When people know
what they really need, and do some homework,
that's when they start SAVING
REAL MONEY !
Good luck in
finding the best plan for YOU.
Section: 2 Glossary of Phone Card Terms
Payphone Surcharge
If you use a calling card at a payphone, you'll be subject to this charge
Based on FCC ruling on October, 1997
Payphone owners charge phone card carriers for calling toll free numbers from their
payphone(s).
All phonecard providers are passing this charge along to the end user
Providers pass along a rate of $0.24 - $0.50 per call. ( Sorry it cannot be avoided )
Maintenance fees
Maintenance fees are generally
found on calling cards with a low rate per minute. Calling card companies have to pay for
the usage of your line for your calling card, until your card is used up. Maintenance fees
are a way for them to recoup some of the cost associated with this.
If your card has a weekly maint. fee, try
to use the card up within the week, to avoid another fee.
If your card has a monthly maint. fee, try
to use the card up within the month, to avoid another fee.
Bong Charges
Bong charges are a fee imposed if a
call last any great length of time. Calls made longer than this pre-set time are charged a
fee or a ( bong charge )
We do not advertise these cards on our site. We require our vendors to inform us if a new
card they carry comes with a bong charge.
Email Pin Notification or Virtual
Phone Card
Calling card companies have realized they can send you a phone card
without you having to wait for it to come to your home address. This also allows them to
pass the savings to you, by not using materials to make the calling card, and the postage
and handling charge to mail it to your house.
They do this via email. Once you order online, an email will be sent to you within
4-6 hours with all the phone card information you need to place the call.
On the back of every calling card
are 2 important things you need to place the call.
1. The 1-800 access number
2. The calling card Personal PIN number to place the call.
With these 2 numbers, you can place a call
as if you had the calling card in your hand. phone cards have no magical powers,
Only the pin number and 1-800 number printed on them
Section: 3
Q and A ( These are
actual questions received by us )
We will update this page weekly with new questions.
BUSY SIGNALS:
I bought an International phone card to call overseas. Many times I will get a busy
signal. Is the card no good?
That's a great question. The answer is this card is most likely just fine.
The problem is most likely 2 things:
1. You may be calling this country at a peak calling time.
When thousands of people are calling at the same time, the lines for the phone card
company get overloaded, thus many times you will get a busy signal.
Try calling again about an hour later or so. You may notice that you call goes
right through the first time.
2. Another reason we have found is do to overselling of a
particular card. If the card you have purchased is the lowest rate you have found, chances
are many other people are buying same same card due to its great rate. The best
thing to do is to try and call at different time. If you normally call the country at
5:00pm. Try calling at 7:00 or 8:00pm.
High Intrastate Rates
In my state, the cost per minute for calls within my state is 19 cents a minute.
Someone told me I can use a phone card for calls within my state. Is this true?
Yes it is! Because a calling card has a 1-800 number, it over rides your
local phone companies rates, thus you will only pay the rate of the phone card, which will
definitely be cheaper. Most people don't realize that calls within their state are always
the most expensive calls to make. Many clients have started using calling cards to make
long distance calls within their state and have saved hundreds of dollars over the year.
Have a question for us? Click on the Customer Care link at the
top. Were always happy to help in any way possible
| 
