When buying international pre-paid calling cards, make sure you understand all the key facts and “sometimes hidden” costs, before you buy. Reading this article will help you understand all that’s required to buy a cheap and reliable international calling card with confidence.
International prepaid calling cards – 10 Money Saving key facts and figures:
1. Rate per minute
The most important figure to consider when buying international prepaid calling cards. This is calculated by the originating country and the call destination country.
2. Minute rounding
Sometimes referred to as “billing increment”. This denotes the unit a call will be rounded to per call. For example, a calling card with 3 minute rounding will bill you in 3 minute increments, regardless of call duration. A call lasting between 0 and 3 minutes will cost you 3 minutes, a call between 3 and 6 minutes will be billed as 6 minutes and so on.
3. Connection fees
Every time a connection is made, the stated connection fee will be charged against your international calling card. A connection fee is usually charged at the point the call recipient answers your call. This applies to answering machines, wrong numbers or in some cases if the recipient’s phone rings more than ten times.
4. Communications fees
Communication fees apply to each call made with your international calling card. Not all calling cards charge this fee; so shop around. The stated communication fee, if applied, will be deducted automatically from your calling card balance. For example, a 20 minute call made using a card with a 10% communication fee will be billed as 22 minutes (20 minutes + 10% of 20 minutes).
5. Maintenance fees
Maintenance fees are charged by the international calling card provider to maintain call quality. Maintenance fees will be deducted from your international calling cards balance at the stated interval (weekly, monthly, etc.), although not all calling card providers apply this fee.
6. Access number
Access number(s) will be provided when you buy international calling cards. This is the number you call to access your calling card before you make your international calls. This access number may be a local number or toll-free number within the country you are in.
7. Denominations
The denomination is the value of the calling card. Most cards come in denominations of 10 ($10 credit, $20 credit, $30 credit for example). This value, divided by the rate per minute, works out the maximum number of minutes talk time offered by this card.
8. Payphone Surcharge
A payphone surcharge will be deducted from your calling card balance every time you connect to a call using a payphone.
9. Recharge / Auto-Recharge
A calling card is rechargeable if more value can be added to it after the initial value has been used. If you buy your international calling card online, you may have an automatic recharge option. This is an optional service and can usually be implemented though your online account for free. You can configure your account to automatically add more minutes to your international calling card when your balance reaches a certain level. For example, you can set your account to automatically add $30 credit to your card when your remaining balance reaches $5.
10. Expiration
Most calling cards have an expiry date and any call credit left on them will not be refunded.
Conclusion
Shop around and compare these key metrics before you buy. Ultimately, you want to buy an international calling card which gives you the most minutes of talk time for your money.
Follow my conclusive tips below and you shouldn’t go far wrong:
- • Work out how many minutes you get by dividing the card denomination by the rate per minute.
- • 1 minute rounding, or less (the lower the better).
- • Low or NO connection fees, communication fees and maintenance fees.
- • Toll-free numbers to access your calling card.
- • Long expiration date.
- • It may sound strange but “watch the clock” and terminate calls as near to the “rounding minute” as possible will ensure you do not waste minutes and money.
My comparison service allows you to simply select your travel destination and call termination country and review the most reliable calling cards online. My comparison results not only display the call rate per minute but all 10 key metrics mentioned above. Follow my simple conclusive tips and secure the best international call rates online today.
