The other day my friend whose family lived in India and, whose company was scaling down operations because of the economic downturn, was asking me how to save money on calling international.
Besides nudging him to go to Washington and asking for bailout, I asked him how he has been calling and he mentioned that he bought the prepaid international calling cards from grocery shops.
Having being duped by such companies before; proof of my tell-all grey hair, I showed him the following ways they low ball rates to attract customers, and then charge fees to make profits.
1.Connection fee: When a customer call is connected, a connection fee is charged per call. This can range from 25 cents to up to a dollar depending upon the teaser rate posted on the calling card.
2.Maintenance fees: This is similar to booking fees charged by travel service companies who are actually brokers. The fees can be daily, weekly or monthly. So even if you dont use your calling card, they are charged, and you will notice the credit decreasing every few days until the Prepaid International Calling Card is useless.
3.Rounding: After a call ends, the billing clock doesnt stop but continues ticking. This can be from a minute up to 3 minutes. That means that if you talked for 10 minutes, you might be actually paying for 13 minutes. As you can guess the extra 3 minutes goes into the pocket of the prepaid calling card company.
4.Long talk time: You would think that a calling card company would want more people to talk longer and consume the minutes so that they can buy another card. Wrong! Some of these companies charge more if you talk longer.
The reason is simple, if a customer buys a $5 Prepaid International Calling Card and uses all those minutes to make few long duration calls, and then there is not a lot of rounding and connection fees or rounding charges to apply, so to get back that revenue, this long talk time came into fore. Sleazy, Smart huh!
5.Expiration Date: Guess not many people know that a calling card expires. When the prepaid card doesnt work, they think that its because they didnt have any balance money. Well the reality is that the card was rendered useless, because after 30 or 60 days, the balance is forfeited and goes into the companys coffers.
6.No Billing: Do we get a bill with the calling card that was bought from stores? There is no way to track your minutes or see how much was spent or if there are any erroneous charges. Most of them against the customer -- I bet.
So is there an alternative?
Yes, with the internet, its possible to buy from online prepaid calling card companies. You signup for an account, put money into this virtual Prepaid International Calling Card using pay pal or credit card and start making calls.
Although not all online calling card companies are the same, and some are an offshoot of the grocery store model, you can do some research before buying the international calling card from a particular company and check their web pages for different kinds of charges if they have any.
You can check your billing every day on their website and if any issues, just ask for refund on the remaining balance. Try to get a refund from the grocery store!
With virtual Prepaid International Calling Card, quite a few additional features are available that are not possible from the cards bought from the grocery store.
Some of them:
1. Rechargeable card: If your balance drops, just add more money online. No waiting time or buying another card.
2. Pin less dialing: Instead of entering the PIN# which is usually 10 to 14 digits, you can setup so that if you call from your regular phone, the system will automatically recognize your caller id number and allow you to bypass entering the PIN#.
3. Speed dialing: Allows you to conveniently make an international call without having to enter 10 or 12 digits.
Other good to have features:
4. Redial last number: In case you forgot to say something important right after hanging up the call, push a shortcut key, and connect again.
5. Ability to call from outside US: Very useful feature if you are abroad and need to call back and get in touch with your family.
Lately, some online companies have starting charging taxes to make up for lost revenues in this economy. Beware, since again, just like the grocery store model, they low ball rates and then charge taxes, so your actual rate is much higher. You would think these taxes were recently imposed by the government -- not so fast. They have been there before, but now by separating the two, these companies, legitimize their higher rates.
Hope, that just like it helped my friend to become little bit wiser, you can use the information to make a smart purchase. Happy calling... Without a bailout.
Sameer Kumar
www.talkloop.com
[email protected]
No Monthly Fees, No Service Charges, No Games - Period
Phone# 1866-721-6342
Besides nudging him to go to Washington and asking for bailout, I asked him how he has been calling and he mentioned that he bought the prepaid international calling cards from grocery shops.
Having being duped by such companies before; proof of my tell-all grey hair, I showed him the following ways they low ball rates to attract customers, and then charge fees to make profits.
1.Connection fee: When a customer call is connected, a connection fee is charged per call. This can range from 25 cents to up to a dollar depending upon the teaser rate posted on the calling card.
2.Maintenance fees: This is similar to booking fees charged by travel service companies who are actually brokers. The fees can be daily, weekly or monthly. So even if you dont use your calling card, they are charged, and you will notice the credit decreasing every few days until the Prepaid International Calling Card is useless.
3.Rounding: After a call ends, the billing clock doesnt stop but continues ticking. This can be from a minute up to 3 minutes. That means that if you talked for 10 minutes, you might be actually paying for 13 minutes. As you can guess the extra 3 minutes goes into the pocket of the prepaid calling card company.
4.Long talk time: You would think that a calling card company would want more people to talk longer and consume the minutes so that they can buy another card. Wrong! Some of these companies charge more if you talk longer.
The reason is simple, if a customer buys a $5 Prepaid International Calling Card and uses all those minutes to make few long duration calls, and then there is not a lot of rounding and connection fees or rounding charges to apply, so to get back that revenue, this long talk time came into fore. Sleazy, Smart huh!
5.Expiration Date: Guess not many people know that a calling card expires. When the prepaid card doesnt work, they think that its because they didnt have any balance money. Well the reality is that the card was rendered useless, because after 30 or 60 days, the balance is forfeited and goes into the companys coffers.
6.No Billing: Do we get a bill with the calling card that was bought from stores? There is no way to track your minutes or see how much was spent or if there are any erroneous charges. Most of them against the customer -- I bet.
So is there an alternative?
Yes, with the internet, its possible to buy from online prepaid calling card companies. You signup for an account, put money into this virtual Prepaid International Calling Card using pay pal or credit card and start making calls.
Although not all online calling card companies are the same, and some are an offshoot of the grocery store model, you can do some research before buying the international calling card from a particular company and check their web pages for different kinds of charges if they have any.
You can check your billing every day on their website and if any issues, just ask for refund on the remaining balance. Try to get a refund from the grocery store!
With virtual Prepaid International Calling Card, quite a few additional features are available that are not possible from the cards bought from the grocery store.
Some of them:
1. Rechargeable card: If your balance drops, just add more money online. No waiting time or buying another card.
2. Pin less dialing: Instead of entering the PIN# which is usually 10 to 14 digits, you can setup so that if you call from your regular phone, the system will automatically recognize your caller id number and allow you to bypass entering the PIN#.
3. Speed dialing: Allows you to conveniently make an international call without having to enter 10 or 12 digits.
Other good to have features:
4. Redial last number: In case you forgot to say something important right after hanging up the call, push a shortcut key, and connect again.
5. Ability to call from outside US: Very useful feature if you are abroad and need to call back and get in touch with your family.
Lately, some online companies have starting charging taxes to make up for lost revenues in this economy. Beware, since again, just like the grocery store model, they low ball rates and then charge taxes, so your actual rate is much higher. You would think these taxes were recently imposed by the government -- not so fast. They have been there before, but now by separating the two, these companies, legitimize their higher rates.
Hope, that just like it helped my friend to become little bit wiser, you can use the information to make a smart purchase. Happy calling... Without a bailout.
Sameer Kumar
www.talkloop.com
[email protected]
No Monthly Fees, No Service Charges, No Games - Period
Phone# 1866-721-6342
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