I find the whole cell phone, calling card, long distance business really confusing. Sometimes I long for the old ATT monopoly. In any case, I want to find a calling card I can use to call Uruguay from my land phone and my cell phone (from the US).
The cards I found so far have all kinds of bizzare twists like the second call being more expensive, weekly maintainace fees, etc. This reeks of a rip off. I’d rather pay a little more a minute for a straight forward fee structure.
Can anyone recommend a good calling card for me to buy?
I buy calling cards online from pinzoo.com They offer me the best rates for my international calling - far lower than any card I have ever found in a gas station. They have various kinds of cars, none of which have connection fees, but some do have maintenance fees, but I have always used the entire card before ever getting charged one.
Because they vary so widely, it’s hard to recommend one that you can buy in a store, but I will say that AT&T’s international calling card rates are absolutely atrocious, and I would not recommend them in the least.
Another thing to note is that most of the time, calling an international cell phone costs quite a bit more than calling an international landline, due to the fact that in most other countries, people do not get charged for the incoming calls on their mobile phone. Therefore, the charge falls to the person making the phone call. Which is a system that I really, really wish would catch on here.
Oh, and I’d recommend that this belongs in IMHO, and not in GQ
I’ve had bad luck with pinzoo, the rates they quotes were about 1/3 what I ended up paying for some reason. Maybe its because I bought the cheapest cards, but I read the fine print so I don’t know why they were charging me so much. Maybe they were charging connection fees, weekly fees and rounding up in 5 minute intervals. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3310&item=5730886021&rd=1
This ebay seller is charging $10 for $20 worth of calling cards, he says Uruguay is $0.10 a minute too, and he says no connection fee, maintenance fees and billing is in 1 minute increments. I honestly don’t know if thats true or not but its worth looking into. WHen he says fixed vs mobile I don’t know if he means the reciever is mobile or the caller is on a mobile phone.
Pinzoo’s rates do vary by the kind of card you buy. There are the bronze, silver and gold cards, (among others) all which offer different rates and fees. Usually it works something like the higher the per minute rate is, the lower the maintenance fees are. Strangely, for the countries I call, the “bronze” card offers me a much better rate per minute than the gold one. At any rate, make sure that the rate you’re thinking of applies to the card you’re actually buying. If you don’t notice, you could look at the great gold rates, and buy a bronze card. Or vice versa.
I use Powernet Global for my long distance. Good rates for around the world, you don’t have to pay if you don’t make any calls (no minimum monthly rates) and they have good rates for USA calls as well. No need for a calling card…you just sign up. And no, I have no business relationship with them other than just being one of their satisfied customers.
In a previous long-distance service thread, someone posted a link to this site: http://www.saveonphone.com/. I went through it and figured out that my best bet appeared to be 3U. The site was really handy because it makes it very easy to compare a variety of long-distance carriers. You can sign up through links on the site.
I’ve used 3U since the beginning of October and had no problems (there are cheaper services, but not for my combination of in-state and international calls).
You can make them the long distance carrier on your land line or you can register your cell phone so that you can take advantage of the same rates. Not sure if you can do the same with other services. My one fear is, of course, that rates will change suddenly, but that hasn’t happened so far.
Oops! I lied. I was just comparison shopping and realized that I pay no monthly fee as I always have a bill of at least $15 a month. There is a fee if you don’t make any calls. And although I liked what I read about 3U, and I would like to have cell phone calls to Germany, I see PowernetGlobal is still a teeny bit cheaper when calling to Europe.
Still - lots of great plans to choose from, and when you think what it used to cost to call Europe, well…this is pretty good news to see your options today!
