How to choose the right calling card

Prepaid calling card or phone card is a calling card which is paid in advance. The dollar value could be $5, $10, $20 or more. When a call is made, the value of the card reduced by the cost of the call. The cost of call depends of the per minute rate, connection fee and other fees which are varies from one calling card to another.

The main advantages of this prepaid calling card is because it is cheap and convenient. This calling card offers considerably lower long distance and international call rates than other traditional phone services such as coin, cellular and collect calling.

The problem is there are so many calling cards in out there, find the right one is not easy. Some cards may be cheap but it is hard to make a call and the call is not clear. Or its per minute rate maybe cheap, but there are many other fees. There are other things to consider.

Understanding to pros & cons, how it is charged, what are the things to consider will help you to find which calling card is the right one for your needs. Also, some tips on using the calling card may help you even to save your money.

Pros & Cons of Calling Cards

As an alternative to traditional long distance and international calls, calling cards have some benefits and pitfalls.

Some of the calling cards benefits are:

• Save money. Long distance and international call rates with calling cards are lower than other traditional phone services.
• Flexibility. It can be carried and used anywhere. Also dialing calling card toll free access numbers in hotels can save on the phone bills.
• Set the budget for long distance calling costs.
• Convenience, no confusing long distance statements

Some of the pitfalls are:

• Connection quality may be not as good. This is why looking at the ratings is very important.
• Expiry date. All unused minutes are lost when the card expires. Because of this, buying the right value of card is important to make sure that all minutes are used before the card expires.

Calling Card Charges

Finding the cheapest calling card is not by looking at its minutes its listed nor its rate per minute. There are other fees. All of those charges are discussed here:

Rate per minute
This is how much it is cost per minute. The rate of a card varies depending on the call destination. For example, calling to India would cost $0.06 while calling to Philippines would cost $0.05 with the same calling card.

The other way it is usually listed is by how many minutes it provides with the card value. For example, 500 minutes to Call Mexico with $10 card. That means the rate is $0.02 per minute.

The time increment or rounding vary from 1 second to 5 minutes. For a 5 minute increment calling card, if the card is used for only 6 minutes, it will still be rounded up to 10 minutes.

Connection fee
Connection fee or surcharge is the fee that is charged every time a call is made. Calling cards with a very low per minute rate, may have high connection fees. Calling cards with a connection fee are not preferable for short duration phone calls, but they may be effective for long duration calling.

Initial or Maintenance fee
Some calling cards have initial set up fees which is charge one time when card is used for the first time. Others have maintenance fee which is charged weekly, bi-monthly or monthly. After the card is used, if the card is not used then, it will still charge the maintenance fee.

Pay Phone and Cellular Phone Charge
Federal law requires that all phone card calls originating from a Pay Phone are charged a fee per call. This fee ranges from $.35 to $.79 per call.

Also, calls terminated to cellular destinations may be billed at higher rate depending on the country called. If most calls made to cellular phones, it is better to choose calling cards with cellular phone rates.

Taxes
Depending on where the call is originated, there are FCC/State/Local taxes. It is the same tax with the one that appears on the monthly phone bills.

Expiry Date
Calling cards have expiry dates. They usually expire 3 or 6 months after the first use, or on the date stated on the card, whichever comes first.

Calling Card Ratings

The Card Ratings help selecting high quality calling cards. These are the three aspects.

Voice Quality
Using calling cards especially for international calls can have some broken voice, echo and low voice. Having a low quality calling card can make a voice cannot be heard on the other side.

		Clear voice on both sides
		The voice is clear, but there maybe some echo
		The voice sometimes broken with some echo
		Echo is heard most of the time, broken voice. The conversation is hard to understand.
		Voice is broken most of time, or too low makes it difficult to hear

Ease of Connection
Depending on the network that the calling card uses, sometime a call would not get connected, even though the phone line on the other end is not being used.

		Always get connected
		Sometimes busy, but usually get connected within three tries
		Sometimes, no voice is heard from the other end after getting a connection. Need to try many times to get connected.
		Need to try many times, sometimes have to wait 10 to 30 minutes to be successful.
		It always seem busy.

Time/Billing Accuracy
Some calling cards do not calculate its time correctly as listed. It sometimes charge the card even if the connection is not made (no voice is heard). Overall these are the ratings compared to what the fee is listed.

		It charges exactly as listed
		It charges higher than listed by less than 5%
		It charges higher than listed by 5-10%
		IT chargers higher than listed by by 10-25%
		It charges than listed by more than 25%

Things to Consider in choosing a calling card

After understanding calling card's fee structure, next is choosing the right calling card. These are some aspects to consider:

Call Destination
For international calls, some calling cards have different rate for certain cities. This rate is usually cheaper than the rate for the whole country itself. If this city is the one that is called often, choose the calling card which has this city rate.

Just like calling a certain city, if the the number called is a cellular phone number, choose a cellular rate if available. Since the rate to call a cellular phone number is usually higher, the cellular rate is usually better.

Frequency and duration per call
Some calling cards have high connection fee even though the per minute rate is low. If the duration for most call are short and calls are made often, it is better to find a calling card with no or low connection fee. But if most calls are long, if the minute is low having a card with a connection fee is still ok.

Also, depending upon the use of the card, buying a low value calling card (i.e. $5) or lower (i.e. $20) is another thing to consider. Prepaid calling card has expiry date and maintenance fee, so for people who do not use the card often, it is better to buy a low value calling card. However for people who use it often, having a higher value calling card would be more convenient, as they do not have to buy calling card too often.

Quality expected
Especially for international calling cards, ratings is important role. If the card is used for business calls, make sure the calling card has a good ratings. Do not buy calling cards with low ratings.

If the calls are not too important, perhaps just to call your family, and want to buy cheap calling cards, it is better to have two different cards. one of them should be a good quality one. If at the time one of the card does not work well, the good one can be used.

Using the Calling Card

Along with the PIN number, on each calling card, there is always instruction on how to make a long distance or international call. The general instruction is:

• dial the access number (usually toll free).
• enter your PIN number
  Balance of money in the card is normally given.
• enter the destination number.
  The rate is then determined, combined with the money value remaining, how many minutes remaining is given. Then the call is connected.
• To make another call after done with the call, do no't hang up. Press * or # depend on the service provider then dial new number.

During the conversation, when there are only three or one minutes left on the card, sometimes the caller is notified. After the minute runs out, the call is terminated.

Trying to connect is not always successful. Some times, the line is busy. It could be because the access number is busy or the destination number makes the busy signal. Sometimes, there is no signal at all. Sometimes it takes 10 to 15 seconds to connect. But if there no signal longer than that, just hang up and try again. The card may start to charge even though the connection fails. This is why choosing a card with a good rating is important.