What to Look for When Choosing Phone Cards
If you are like most people, when it comes to long-distance calling, you dial from your home phone and always try to cut the conversation short. Major phone carriers usually bundle their long-distance with local service, but the international rates are so high, long-distance calls always feel like a luxury.
Or, if you’re not a frequent caller, you buy a phone card from a local grocery store, and just call from your basic landline. There are lots of phone cards to choose from, with different rates and regions focus. But there are also problems: stolen minutes, lack of customer support, and unused balance after card expiration. Are you really saving? Not really.
A better alternative would be a credible online calling card or dial-around plan, which you can get over the Internet and pay with your credit card. I prefer paying with my credit card in any purchase anyway. In doing so, there’s a good chance I can get my money back if I don’t get the service I was promised, or the product that was advertised.
Calling cards, or dial-around service, let you “dial around” your local phone provider through their access numbers. After you dial the access number, you need to put in your PIN and then the number you wish to reach. Some calling cards offer PINless dialing feature that saves you the trouble of dialing your PIN. The other features of online calling cards are:
- Savings - Save up to 75 percent on your long-distance cost;
- Online account – Real-time access to your account and call records anytime, anywhere;
- Online recharge – Add balance anytime, and extend card expiration date;
- Customer service - 24/7 phone and email support;
- PINless dialing – Saves you the trouble of typing your PIN;
- Prepaid – No bills, No monthly fees;
- Online phonebook - Just dial 2 digits to make international calls;
- Local access or even broadband access – pay less than with toll-free access.
Then you can start making international calls at a few cents a minute, and not worry about any catch or stolen minutes. Just talk, and relax.
Yes using a credit card is much safer than buying with your cash. In fact, 90 percent of my purchases are done using a credit card.
You can add on the list the hidden charges of calling cards. The one reason I am using Onesuite is because the rates are upfront without any hidden charges. I mean the rates aren’t the lowest but I know the effective rate is the one on the website and there will be no add ons like hang up fee, tax, communication fee etc.
Just recently I’ve read about one company who lost a lawsuit and will pay up $300k for false advertising of rates.
yah right… Onesuite do not have any hidden charges, of what the rates they are offering that’s the only amount they will charge on your Onesuite account. And also, unlike any other prepaid phone cards company, once the account had expired, whatever balance that is left into their account will not be carried over, but with Onesuite, even if your account had expired, and once you reactivate it, of what balance you have left in your account it will be carried over. You don’t lost money, plus they don’t get your money. ^_^ that’s what i love from oensuite.
I have never used a phone card before, but these are some great points. My daughter is getting ready to go on a trip to Paris for 2 weeks before school starts and this might be a good way to go for her.
I definitely like buying things with credit cards as well… as it is much easier to get your money back when you are not happy with a product or service.
@Doug Dillard
Nice to see you here Doug. I think that’s one of the perks with credit cards. You still have a chance of getting your money back if you are not satisfied with the service than paying with cash. Also with calling cards, you don’t get tied up with plans or anything and you can buy on increments with $10, so no surprises when your phone bill arrives.
Good luck with your daughter’s trip to Paris.
Sincères salutations,
Michael
I’ve used OneSuite with great satisfaction for several years. I’m originally from England and make numerous calls to friends and relatives back home. OneSuite has been a great way to keep in touch at very little cost. However, I recently had a nasty experience. I had set up our three phones (two cell and one connected to my computer) for OneSuite’s zip dial feature that eliminates the need to enter a PIN number. This has worked wonderfully for several years; however, after returning from a recent trip to England (and leaving written instructions for my husband on how to reach me by dialing the toll free access code number followed by the number where I was staying, I tried making a call to England and was prompted to enter the PIN. This has happened just once or twice during the four years I’ve used OneSuite and I assumed it was a rare glitch, so I entered the PIN and proceded with my call. Then I received my cell phone bill - wow, over $400 in international cell phone charges. After hours on the phone with T-Mobile and OneSuite the only thing I learned (from OneSuite) was that when we are dialing the 800 number, instead of our own phone number, a totally strange number that the system doesn’t recognize (a previously unpublished, now disconnected number in Minneapolis) is showing up, triggering the PIN prompt. My husband didn’t even know the PIN and as I had told him he didn’t need to enter one he just continued his call by dialing the overseas number - but his calls bypassed OneSuite’s system and were charged to our T-Mobile account. Since then, every time we use our cell phones to make a OneSuite call we get the PIN prompt (it doesn’t happen with the MagicJack connected to the computer). Is this a new way for cell phone providers to make more money - like hidden bank costs? Most of you would probably think to enter the PIN, even though it was supposed to be PINless, but just in case, be forewarned.
@Frustrated
Hi, Frustrated
We understand your frustration. Please let us know how we can help you troubleshoot and avoid the same situation.
From what’s stated in your scenario, there might be one possibility that could happen to cell phone users. We’ve had a few cases where customers dial our access number, enter PIN, enter the destination number, but instead of waiting for the system to connect the call, the customer pressed the “call” button. By pressing the call button in the middle of voice promts, the caller would actually disconnect from our system, and dial the destination number from the cell phone network. One of our blog authors explained the situation previously:
http://blog.onesuite.com/?p=301
Please let us know if this helps and how we can assist you further.
Regards,
OneSuite Blog Support
The problem is not pressing the send button prematurely - it is being asked for a PIN number for a zip dial phone number (no PIN required). This has just started - previously I was not prompted for a PIN. when calling from a zip dial number. I called my MagicJack phone from my cell phone using the OneSuite toll free number. The incoming number registered was different than the number from which I was calling. I have spoken twice, at length, with OneSuite representatives as well as my cellular service provider and no-one can explain why this is happening. The best I was able to accomplish was $50 off my $500+ cell phone bill. I still don’t know if this is a OneSuite problem or a cellular provider problem. Anyone else experience this?
I like your Pinless and Rapidial service. Really helps especially when I’m calling overseas with long set of numbers.