Things To Look Out For When Buying Phone Cards

Phone Card Buyers Guide. The Book of
Tricks
 
I know a lot about buying phone cards.
The reason I know so much is because I am the developer for the phone card price
comparison tool on a website called Time Dial (Phone
Cards). If you don’t buy many calling cards you might be surprised to know
that calculating calling card prices is complicated and if you are experienced
with them then you will know the phone card companies don’t make it easy for
you.
 
Phone cards have hidden fees. The degree
to which they are actually hidden varies from site to site. As we develop the
price comparison tool we are discovering more ways companies add fees and create
different ways of determining price. Offline phone card sellers (highstreet or
phone card machines) are the worst for hiding fees. They often include terms
such as "service charges may apply" or "phone this number for current rates" in
the small print. Service charges will apply and they may amount to more than you
might think. The best place to buy a phone card is online as online companies
hide the fees less.
 
The most obvious charge is the rate per
minute; this varies depending on whether you are calling a local number to
access the service, using toll free access or a payphone. For one company we
work with it is also more expensive if you are calling from a cell phone. Local
access numbers have the cheapest rates but you will pay for calls to the access
numbers which are not available in all areas where as toll free access is free
from landlines and free from cell phones in some countries including the US.

 
Most phone cards do not have a payphone
rate they charge a payphone fee. Often people reach our site by typing in Google
something like “phone card no payphone fee”. We have an option which allows
users to find calling cards without a payphone fee so they have come to the
right place. However if cards don’t have a payphone fee they will usually charge
a high payphone rate per minute or have a very high standard rate resulting in
higher prices than those phone cards that charge a payphone fee. There are very
rare exceptions to this rule for example the "Aussie card" from Cloncom has a
good rate per minute which doesn’t increase when used from a payphone and has no
payphone fee. Cloncom are a good company to work with, have good customer
service and good rates but it really best to go through our site to find the
best possible deal.
 
Another important fee especially if you
make a lot of calls is the connection fee this is a flat rate charged for every
call that is made. The maintenance fee is charged the day after you make your
first call then is continuously repeated after a given period… often monthly
sometimes weekly or daily.
 
You can select an option on Time Dial
for no maintenance fee but again the catch is usually higher rates per minute.
No payphone fee and no maintenance fee options are in an advanced options
section on the site; this section is really best left alone in most
circumstances. All the phone cards on Time Dial charge maintenance fees (if they
exist) to the cards balance so if there is no credit there is no charge. Some
companies charge the maintenance fee to your bank account but only tell you
about this in the small print so watch out for these if you only want to use the
card for a limited time.
 
Taxes are another charge we discovered
when developing the tool. These are not real taxes that go to the government as
they are for none standard amounts usually ranging from 10% to 30%. They are
charged on the rate per minute for the duration of the call; connection fees etc
are not included in this calculation.
 
The final fee to talk about is rounding
which varies usually from 1 second to 3 minutes. Good rounding terms comes at
the price of higher rates.
 
All these charges discussed are
dependant on each other a good value for one charge often means there is a bad
value for another. The best phone card to choose depends on how many calls you
make and how long you talk for. This is where our tool shines as you can simply
answer 7 questions including estimated number of calls and estimated calling
time for your chosen period and it will list the cheapest phone cards in order
of total cost.
 
Each time we add a site to the
comparison tool we have to ask many questions about the calling cards’ charges.
We are quite meticulous about it but still it demonstrates how they don’t make
it easy. For example one site lists local rates in the search results section
labelled “rate per minute” but doesn’t make it clear that you can find the toll
free, mobile and payphone rates per minute 3 clicks away in a long list.

 
An important thing to mention is that
you shouldn’t use phone cards from cell phones in a foreign country. You will
pay roaming charges. Phone cards can be used from any phone in your home country
and payphones / other people’s landlines whilst abroad. You make the biggest
savings when calling from cell phones in your home country.
 
I hope I haven’t bored you too much and
that now you know what to look out for.

Article Source: http://www.search4allinfo.com

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