Tips to buy an international calling card

International calling cards are easy to use - and they can save you a lot of money if you make frequent calls overseas.If you are a traveler and often use to visit out of the country or make international calls than it is the best option for you to purchase a calling card.

But buying the right calling card is much more confusing than it should be. That’s because:

1. Calling card pricing is nonsensically difficult
2. Calling card companies use unclear marketing techniques

To ensure you are buying the cheapest calling card you possibly can, pays to be a smart shopper!

This page provide you  tips that will help you buy calling cards that meet your individual calling needs. The main points are to understand:

• how calling card pricing works
• what your personal calling patterns are
• how to choose a reputable calling card company

If you remember only 2 things from this page, they should be:

• low per minute rates are often not the best deal
• only buy cards with 1-minute or 3-minute billing increments

So let’s get on with it so you can buy calling cards today!

1. Buy cards with 1-minute or 3-minute billing increments:

In general, you want to choose a calling card with either a 1-minute billing increment or a 3-minute billing increment.

• Pick a 1-minute card if you usually make calls shorter than 10-11 minutes.
• Pick a 3-minute card if your calls are usually 12 minutes in length or longer.

Cards with 1-second or 6-second billing increments are almost never cost effective - for any call span. The reason for this is that the more accurate metering benefits of shorter billing increments are almost always offset by the higher per minute rates you get charged.

2. Buy cards with advanced dialing and billing features:

Many calling cards and prepaid phone cards have advanced dialing and billing features that can make things much easier. Cards bought through online vendors will tend to have better advanced capabilities.

Dialing features are things that allow you to place calls more easily. They include:

• PIN-less dialing
• Speed dial
• Toll-free vs. local access numbers
• Worldwide access numbers.

Billing features are things that allow you to manage your account and your cards more easily. They include:

• Call tracking
• Rechargeable cards
• Expiration date
• Auto-recharge
• Balance transfer

Keep these features in mind as you shop for a phone card

3. Look for other charges and service fees:

In addition to the per minute rates, calling card companies apply a lot of other charges and service fees to their pre-paid phone cards. Not all cards carry all these charges, but most cards have at least 2-3 applicable fees. Since these fees can really add up, it pays to look at them closely before you buy.

The most common fees are:

• Carrier service fee
• Toll-free access surcharge
• Connection fee
• Maintenance fee
• Payphone surcharge

These calling card pricing elements work together in difficult ways and can really drive up the actual per minute rate you pay. But because there are so many fees and they each are applied in different ways, it can be hard to guess how many talk time minutes you are actually going to get for a given price.

4. Understand actual vs. advertised per minute rates:

Normally, the actual per minute rate you pay will be higher than the per minute rate advertised by your salesperson.

Your advertised per minute rate is the stated rate you will be charged per minute of billed time. The advertised rate is the most significantly cited rate promoting a particular calling card - like, for example, a card to India advertised at 5.9¢ per minute.

Your actual per minute rate will be the rate after applying billing increments calculations plus other fees and surcharges (such as connection fees, maintenance fees, etc.). Actual per minute rates will be different from person to person depending on your actual calling patterns and the specific fees that apply to your card.

Because salesperson use so many pricing factors, it can be difficult to guess what your actual per minute rate will be. If you are really careful, you can do so by estimating your average call length and number of calls and then applying the various charges to roughly estimate your costs. Click this link to see a detailed example of how to calculate your actual calling card per minute rate.

5. Billed time is different than talk time:

Billed time is not broadly discussed, but it is the actual sum of time you are billed for a given call. Talk time is the amount of time you are actually talking to your party.

Billed time is almost higher than your actual talk time due to the impact of billing increments. All calling cards have billing increments. The most commonly seen billing increments are: 6-seconds, 1-minute, and 3-minutes. You may also see 1-second and 5-minute increments.

Billing time is calculated by dividing your actual talk time by your billing increment and rounding up. Your call will be charged at the advertised per minute rate times the billed time of the call.

So, for example, if you make a call that lasts for 10 minutes and have a card with a 3-minute increment, your billed time for that call is 12 minutes [ 10 ÷ 3 = 3.3, then round up to 4 ].

Or if you have a card with a 1-minute billing increment and you talk for 1 minute 22 seconds (1:22), you will be charged for 2 minutes.

6. Watch for overplay minutes:

Many phone card companies overplay the number of minutes you will get when using their cards. They do this by hopefully stating total minutes based on a best situation.

For example, the stated minutes may take for granted all your minutes in one single very long phone call vs. making several calls over time. Or they may assume you do not use their toll-free access numbers. Or do not use a payphone. Etc.

This problem has led to many consumer complaints against calling card companies. In some cases, it has led to successful false advertising suits by government authorities.

Nonetheless, the problem remains all too common, especially with cards sold via retail outlets.

7. Low per minute rates aren’t always the best deal:

Many people want to buy cheap calling cards, so calling card companies advertise very low per minute rates to attract you into buying their cards.

But sometimes the calling cards with the lowest advertised per minute rates have the highest service fees. In other words we can say that the calling cards with lower rate per minute are often higher than others.

 For example, a card with a 4.9¢ per minute rate ended up costing more than another card costing 7.1¢ per minute. The reason was that the lower priced card had a longer billing increment and two additional fees: a 15% service fee and a 49¢ connection fee.

8. Buy cards online - not in retail stores:

Calling cards are available in an increasingly wide range of places. The main options are to buy through an online salesperson or to buy at a retail store.

 Four main reasons:

• Easier to compare calling card prices and features
• Easier to identify and compare vendors online
• Easier to verify vendor credentials and reputation for online vendors
• Easier to set-up and manage features like PIN-less dialing and speed dial

While there are plenty of perfectly good cards sold at retail, it seems that most of the notable phone card scams have involved store-bought cards from no-name brands. The biggest problem is that the packaging of cards in retail stores makes it hard for companies to fully disclose fees - even if they truly wanted to.

This can’t be said that all online vendors are good or all retail cards are bad, just that online shops are a better gamble overall for buying quality cards.

If you buy cards at retail shops, we advise you pay extra attention to the brand. Buy cards either from well known carriers or from card vendors you already know and trust.

9. Watch for hidden fees

In the calling cards industry hidden fees are a very big problem.. That’s because not all card vendor fully or clearly disclose information on all applicable rates and fees.

As you go for a card, carefully see which rates and fees apply. If they are not showing any fee, doesn’t mean you aren’t going to be charged for it - it may be declared in the fine print somewhere. For example, it is not uncommon for fees to be disclosed in the details of long contracts or terms of service which many people wouldn’t even think to read.

In our opinion, a very good indicator of a calling card vendor’s honestly is how clearly and prominently they display applicable rates and fees. Ideally, you want to buy from a vendor that provides an organized and complete listing of all possible fees - including ones they may not even charge for.

10. Buy from high regarded companies

Unfortunately, there are a lot of calling card salesperson out there, so your first priority is finding a highly regarded company to buy your calling cards from.

Finding good salesperson is not hard - if you know what to look for. Once you’ve found a good salesperson or two, then you can hub on choosing the right card.

Below are more than a few factors you should consider in choosing a reliable, reputable calling card vendor.

• Provides advanced features (like PIN-less dialing Serves the country you are calling
• No complaints found via Google search
• Offers competitive rates
• Has full disclosure of rates and fees 
• Offers online account management
• Has 24/7 live customer support