How does a Phone Card / Calling Card Work?How does a phone card / calling card work? Pre-paid phone cards sometime know as "calling cards" are purchased in denominations, such as $5, $10, $20, or in other available denominations, or in other currencies such as sterling. When you purchase this card, the card is pre-charged with a value of call credit which is usually the same as that of the card value. (Sometimes cards may give extra value such as a $25 for $20). Callers can then use the card to call from almost any touch tone telephone to call either domestic (local) or International. Because cards are pre-paid, phone card producers are able to purchase 'minutes' in bulk from line carriers such as MCI, WorldCom, Deutche Telecom, BT, etc. Purchasing in bulk means savings, and these savings are passed onto the phone card user. Typically, on international calls, callers can save over 80% over a standard dialing service, and in some cases over 90%, thus making phone cards a very attractive method for calling abroad. Phone cards are then generally supplied to phone card resellers. Normally first line customer services are supplied by the card operator, details of which are normally sent with the order. As the physical card is not needed, many orders are now made via email or over the phone. The phone card resellers then send details to the customer, the details would normally include :-
Using phone cards /
calling cards 1) Using a touch tone phone, dial the access number (usually free phone / toll free or local access). 2) At the prompt, enter your PIN number (sent to you via email or on the back of your phone card). 3) Your balance for this card is normally announced at this point. 4) You are next asked to dial your destination phone number. In many cases this will be the full international dialing code. (International Access Code, 00 in Europe, 011 in the USA, then the country code for the country you require).
5) With most cards you are then informed of how many remaining minutes you have for making a continuous call to this number. 6) After finishing the call you can then normally enter a follow-on call using a code (phone card specific). This normally is the ###, or **, at which point you go back to step 3). 7) Alternatively you may hang up the phone. The next time you use the phone cards, repeat step 1). With each call, the balance of your phone card / calling card will be reduced until the value on the card is reached or expires (which ever comes first). You then simply purchase another card. Not only can you use phone card to make great savings on international calls but they also make it easy for budgeting the money spent on such calls.. so no more nasty phone bills at the end of the month! Other considerations when selecting phone cards / calling cards. Payphone surcharges Quality
considerations Maintenance charges Some cards may have a daily maintenance charge. You should check the product details before ordering. Expiry date Most cards will expire a certain number of days after first use. Typically this is 90 days for many cards. Minute billing Billing is sometimes done by the minute, or every two minutes or even by the second. Please check with the card specific details, again before ordering. Mobile charges When calling mobiles (cell phones) calling rates usually are different to that of calling a land (or geographic specific line). If in doubt please confirm with the customer services number or phone card reseller. Free calls Some card suppliers state that a card has £5 or $5 worth of extra calls. The supplier should make it clear if the rates shown include (i.e. have been adjusted for) these extra calls. Local access or 1-800 / 0800 toll free / free phone access If the access number is a toll free of free phone number then the line you are calling from will not normally be charged with accessing this number. Cell phones / hotel phones / pay phones, may charge for toll free or free phone numbers. Our job is not to question whether this is ethical or right but to make you aware that it exists. When using a local access number, a local call rate is normally charged to the line you are calling from. This is in addition to the charge made to the card. For example, in the UK, accessing an 0845 number is normally charged at 1-3p/minutes depending upon time of day and supplier. Mobile phones may be charged more. In Summary Whilst there are things to watch out for when using calling cards they still remain probably the best method of making cheap long distance or international phone calls. This may explain the explosion of pre-paid phone cards sales all over the world in the past few years.
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