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Discover The Secrets Of International Calling Cards!

By: Rodger Strouden

Do a search on one of the major search engines like Google or yahoo for international calling cards and you will find more than a million pages offering them to you. Many state that they're the best, but how do you really know? It is important for you to educate yourself on many different things before making a purchase. Rates per minute can be attractive sometimes, but other things like maintenance fees can really screw up your investment. For example, sometimes you'll have pin-free access to a card, but the voice quality will suffer.

The bottom line, and most important thing to think about, is how you are going to be using your international calling card. If you're going to be speaking a lot, it may make the most sense to purchase a product with a low price per minute, but no monthly maintenance fee. However, if you're only going to speak now and again it might be better to buy something with a higher rate per minute and no maintenance fee. I hope that the information in this article will help you in choosing how to select your international calling card.

International calling cards and their rates.

Rates on international calling cards can vary greatly. There are many factors that come into play when purchasing international calling cards. The country that you are calling from, and the country that you are calling to are some of the most important things to consider because many times international calling card companies purchase their own time from companies like Verizon and AT&T. You will actually often find their rates on the calling cards are cheaper than long-distance.

Is quality important to you?

The world we live in today is much different than the world that we lived in even just five years ago. Today, we have technologies like VOIP and others allowing calling card companies that offer international calling cards, to have extremely high quality phone lines. Typically, AT&T, Sprint and other companies simply resell their phone lines to international calling card operators. On many sites, such as zcallingcards.com, you'll actually find quality ratings from users who have previously purchased the cards you are looking at online. This can be extremely helpful to you in making our decision.

The ease of recharging or refilling my card.

If you are going to be using your card often, and purchasing a lower dollar amount, you want to make sure that you are purchasing a card that is easy to recharge. Some cards don't allow you the ability to recharge them quickly. In these cases, you actually have to go online and purchase a brand-new card, get a brand-new pin, and have a whole new card number. My personal recommendation is to look for international calling cards that are easy to recharge. These cards can be charged by simply logging on to the Internet or calling a certain phone number. Quickly, efficiently, and easily.

Getting connected can cost money.

Some international calling cards that offer extremely low per minute rates will often have a connection fee associated with calls. It is important that you make sure that you understand this connection fee. Most of the time the connection fee will be around $.15 to $.25, and there will normally be a call minute time that the connection fee will be charged after, should you buy a card with a connection fee. While it all depends on the length of your call, my opinion is not to have the fee.

Re-occurring maintenance fees

Once again, many cards that are on the lower per minute side will often have a weekly or monthly maintenance fee. This can be as little as a penny per week, or as much as five dollars per week. if you are going to be talking a lot, it's a good idea to have a maintenance fee because you're getting such a low cost per minute that it makes up for it. However, if you are not going to be talking that much on the phone, it is important to not have a maintenance fee.

Minute rounding can get very technical.

Get this... international calling cards have many different rounding intervals. Some cards may round at three minutes and others may round at one minute. Your goal should be to find international calling cards that have the lowest minute rounding possible. That way, when you speak for 45 seconds, you will be charged for one minute... not for five. Sure, a four second per minute rate sounds great on many international calling cards! But it's not so great when your minutes are depleting like crazy on your card because you have a five minute rounding point.

Are you going to be using payphones often?

Apparently, a lot of people. International calling cards often have a pay phone fee. What this means is that if you need to use a pay phone to make a phone call with your international calling card, you will be charged a fee. The pay phone fees on these calling cards vary greatly. I have seen pay phone fees as much as five dollars per call. I have also seen them as low as $.89 per call. Now keep in mind, pay phone fees are not on every single card. When purchasing your card, just be sure to read the fine print to find out if yours includes one or not.

In real estate, "location, location, location!" is what is often thought about. When dealing with international calling cards, your motto should be "lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle!" Grab a piece of scratch paper and simply write down how many minutes you think you're going to be using in what time frame. Also consider the number of calls that you're going to be making. Then gets a calculator and do the math. It may sound like a lot of work, but this will ensure that you are getting the best deal for your situation.

Article Source: http://www.articlemap.com

Calling Card Guru Rodger Strouden can help you to find international calling cards for free online by searching his international phone cards on thousands of calling cards.



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