# Remember Pay Phones and Dial Arounds? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 15, 2018, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662 "2018-08-15T16:21:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/61 "2018-08-25T03:41:37Z")
Where would Clark Kent change into Superman these days, with no phone booths around? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/62 "2018-08-25T04:04:43Z")
I’d never heard it called a dial around. I remember commercials for 1-800-collect and those 10-10-220 numbers on TV for long distance back in the 90s though. When OP said ‘dial around’ I thought he may have meant a rotary phone. I remember our first VCR had a remote control that had to be attached to the VCR with a cable. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/63 "2018-08-25T11:34:52Z")
I used the alternative calling services from the mid-90s until I got Skype. For pay phones, Japan went to magnetic prepaid cards starting in the late 80s. By the early 90s they were ubiquitous and those of us doing sales no longer had to carry pockets’ full of 10 yen coins. Iranians would sell doctored cards in the streets near Shibuya and the phone company played cat and mouse making improvements to the pay phones to keep doctored cards from working. In the long lasting battle between the two, eventually cell phones won. Outside of major train stations would be scores of payphones in booths. Now there are only a few remaining. It’s said that when McDonald’s first tried the Japanese market, not only did they goof by trying to put stores in places convenient for cars and not near train stations, they also make the mistake of not having pay phones. In the US, you didn’t want pay phones because people who couldn’t afford a home phone would give out that phone as a number and then hang around when the needed to get calls. Japanese pay phones would not have an incoming number so that wasn’t a problem. Customers preferred having phones available and eventually they gave in. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/64 "2018-08-25T15:23:55Z")
A brief history of (my) long-distance business calling: 1. In the 80s, we were issued both company CCs and calling cards. The business policy allowed us one (1) call to our home a day when we were traveling. The accountant would get all upset if we talked for over 10 minutes. We memorized the long-distance carrier access number and the 5-digit PIN. 2. In the late 80s, our company used a digital PBX that allowed us to call in on a toll-free number and then route out of the PBX to a second number. As I recall, it ended up costing us $0.03 per 0.1 minutes (6 seconds). Yes, it was billed in 6-second increments. 3. In the late 90s, many of us switched to cell phones and then we had to itemize the local and long-distance calls that we made on behalf of the business. The accountant didn’t like this either, since we never used out plan minutes on behalf of the company. 4. In the early 00s, my company issued business cell phones, along with a policy that we could use them for local personal calls, but had to reimburse the company for long-distance personal calls. I hated, hated, hated this, especially since they expected us to keep the phone on at all times. I always turned it off outside of business hours. Many arguments ensued… 5. With the advent of unlimited calls as part of the typical mobile plan, my company decided not to reimburse us for ANY calls whatsoever. “Use your own cell phone and shut up!” 6. I formed a partnership and a company with a friend. When we started making company policies, #2 was, “Charge all your personal cell phone bill to the company…no questions asked.” (Policy #1 was, “We don’t stay in cheap hotels and we don’t eat crap food unless we want to.”) So, it’s been a little bit of time since I had to dial-around. But I know you can still get the cards and do it. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/65 "2018-08-25T17:22:42Z")
Back in the day, I always kept an old rotary-dial phone in the filing cabinet at home for black/brown-outs. The touch-tone phone and answering machine wouldn’t work without power, but the rotary could be plugged in and I could talk to people, since the phone lines had their own independent battery power. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/66 "2018-08-25T17:36:13Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I also remember rotary dial phones. I wonder when those were completely phased out. As has been already answered they aren’t all gone. I have one on an extension into my bedroom, and my mom has two on extensions, into the basement and the garage. We both use touchtone in the living/main room. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/67 "2018-08-25T21:32:19Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never heard of a dial-around. I assumed it was some sort of thing where you dial a random number and talk to whomever picks up. > > So… A ‘dial-around’ is just a phone card? Yeah, is it? I too have never heard of a dial-around, but I’m old enough yo remember phone cards, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/68 "2018-08-25T22:04:24Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I’ve never heard of a dial-around. I assumed it was some sort of thing where you dial a random number and talk to whomever picks up. > > So… A ‘dial-around’ is just a phone card? The number was often written on a credit-card sized card, but just for reference purposes. The dial-around number was actually an 800-type number into a private phone exchange that bought time in bulk from the major carriers. Once connected, you could dial out from that, being billed less than dialing directly from the originating phone. Of course, you needed to enter additional digits to to show your account and password, so it was a freakin’ lot of numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/69 "2018-08-25T23:18:06Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > 1. In the early 00s, my company issued business cell phones, along with a policy that we could use them for local personal calls, but had to reimburse the company for long-distance personal calls. I hated, hated, hated this, especially since they expected us to keep the phone on at all times. I always turned it off outside of business hours. Many arguments ensued… Around that same time, my employer provided cell phones with people on various calling plans, based on usage. So someone like me, who barely used the phone, was on a 200-minute-per-month plan, while a salesperson might be on the 1000-minute-per-month plan. And then they’d go through periodically and upgrade or downgrade the plans that people were on, based on usage. Later they bought a giant pool of minutes (something like ten million) and dropped the whole individual plan stuff. Today, of course, calling minutes are basically irrelevant, but data charges are still an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2018, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/70 "2018-08-26T05:09:21Z")
I thought the OP meant rotary phones too. Never actually heard of dial-arounds. ---
**Author:** ![john\_b\_2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a9a28c/32.png) [@john\_b\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/john_b_2)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2018, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/71 "2018-08-26T08:00:53Z")
There are still a few wooden sit down phone booths around where I live, which is a modern city, though built on a very old grid. They’re not common but they can be found in variety stores and the now literally handful of independent pharmacies. Many state and city municipal buildings I think still have them, such a courthouses. They’re dying out, but it’s an amazingly slow death. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2024, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/72 "2024-02-17T00:35:50Z")
I saw someone using a pay phone last week for the first time in 5+ years (at a guess). ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2024, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662/73 "2024-02-17T22:21:25Z")
Airports and some main line terminus stations will still have payphones here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/remember-pay-phones-and-dial-arounds/819662.md?page=3)