Monday, April 30, 2007

Calling Cards vs. VOIP: Round One

It's easy to look at VOIP services like internet telephony, especially free ones, and get swept up in the high-tech appeal. So why would a gadget-loving gal like myself still recommend calling cards over something like, say, Skype?

1. Convenience
It's true, not all of us are at our computers 24/7. I've scheduled many international "calls" and waited patiently with my headset on while the other party booted up and tried to connect. On an especially frustrating night I ended up footing the bill for a 10 minute ($9 plus tax) call during which I played international tech support before giving up and discussing the details of the pending photo shoot over the phone.

2. Speaking of Headset...
My mom can barely handle turning the computer on. Getting her to speak audibly into the microphone? No dice. She has a phone. Most people have phones or know where to find one. It may seem like everyone has a computer and a decent internet connection (in addition to a microphone and speakers), but the real number in America is closer to 2/3 of all households.

3. Can you [static] now?
Call quality is subject to a variety of factors, but phone connections aren't nearly as variable as ones made through internet telephony. The VOIP danger: any time IP packets are lost or delayed at any point in the network between you and your call destination, the audio drops out momentarily. This is more common over long distances and congested networks. Echo and "jitter" (when you sound like a skipping CD while talking) are also common over VOIP calls.

4. Sorry, my payphone crashed.
That's right, if your power goes out or your computer craters for some reason, your call is gone. I can't recall ever having been accidentally booted off of a phone call. I don't like relying on computers for certain tasks (see also: my frustration at finding Windows error messages displayed on ATMs), and it will be a long time before I trust mine to handle my important calls.

Internet telephony isn't useless by any means, but it doesn't work in all situations. I used it as a broke grad student to stay in touch with my friends, and I have high hopes for its future in mobile applications. I even helped my nephew get set up to converse with his pen pal in Germany for free, because most high school freshmen would rather face computer delays than have to borrow money from mom and dad. For the calls that really matter, though, I still recommend sticking with the plain old telephone and its trusty sidekick, money-saving Calling Card.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Three Calling Card Advantages: Business Use

You may not be surprised that the advantages of calling cards for businesses are similar to those for personal use. Lower overhead never hurts, though, especially in micro or small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).

Advantage #1: Save $$$
Yep, this again. Business phone systems and services can be overpriced expensive, especially for long-distance calling. Calling cards save you money on each minute of your call and can be used from any phone. I know, by this time next year you'll be trying to write off all those calls, but wouldn't it be better to save the money in the first place?

A friend of mine has an increasingly successful web design business, but international clients (and talkative executives) have always meant high phone bills. (Trust me, there are details that can't be worked out over email, and you don't want to try to teach some of these folks how to use Skype.) Calling cards now save my friend more than a thousand dollars each year in overhead....


Advantage #2: Flexibility and Accountability (no pun intended)
As I said before, calling cards go anywhere you go. Sure, company cell phones do, too, but those also get lost, run out of minutes, go out of area, and sometimes "accidentally" make extended personal calls. Calling cards work from any phone, so your representatives can always stay in the loop.

Online account management allows an administrator to keep track of all the calls made from each phone card and to recharge the cards as needed. Keep track of your calls at a glance with instantly updated info that includes frequently called numbers and call duration - and without the complications or delays of other systems' reports.

Advantage #3: No Mystery Charges
In our new world of CPC bidding and user-generated content, we have to accept some mysterious things. Your phone bill shouldn't contain any of them, though. CallingCards.com only offers clean cards with full card disclosure (never any connection fees or inexplicably missing minutes, just the mandatory taxes). You don't have to sign up for a service package or deal with overage charges, rate tables, or anything else; you can go back to spending your time on your clients rather than deciphering your phone bill. With auto-recharge, you don't have to worry about running out of minutes during a call, either.

Saving money and simplifying your accounting process? Sounds like a smart business strategy to me.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Time Saver: Rechargeable Phone Cards

Did you know that nearly all phone cards offered by CallingCards.com are rechargeable? This means:
  • You can keep the same PIN or security code
  • You can keep the same access number (handy if you've stored it in your cell phone)
To recharge your card, just log in to your account and click the recharge link next to the card you wish to recharge. You'll be prompted to enter the recharge amount and your payment information.

Most of these cards also offer auto-recharge. This lets you "set and forget" your calling cards - you can choose a minimum dollar or minute value for each of your calling cards, and your cards will recharge automatically when they reach that balance. You'll never run out of minutes again!

To set up auto-recharge,
log in to your account and click the auto-recharge link next to the card that you want to automatically recharge. You'll be prompted to set your dollar/minute minimum for the card and payment information. You can cancel or modify your auto-recharge settings at any time.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Three Calling Card Advantages: Personal Use

Calling cards are great for travelers, businesses, students, and personal use. We'll be looking at that last one today, but don't worry - those other uses are on their way.

Advantage #1: Your Bottom Line
Quality calling cards save you money over standard long-distance. Period. Many people have cell phones or domestic phone plans that provide "free" nationwide long distance calling, which is of course "free" with purchase. My family is spread all over the country, and I'm a cell-phone only kind of gal, so I'll admit that I rely on my expensive phone plan to provide me with all of the domestic minutes I need. I pay $60 each month for 1000 minutes, when I could be getting about 1500 minutes for $50 on a calling card (or a plan like Mobile Caller, which also rounds by the second, rather than by the minute like my cell plan does. I score some extra minutes by having free nights and weekends, but most of my family is busy during those times (and time zone differences cause trouble, too).
It goes without saying that the savings for international calling are huge; I'd pay $1.80 a minute with my current cell plan to call my old roommate in Paris, but a calling card like Eurotel is just 1.8 cents per minute. If I wanted an international calling plan on my cell, my monthly charges would be almost double.

Advantage #2: Flexibility
Calling cards go anywhere you go. Need to make a call from a payphone? You'll have to pay a small surcharge, but that sounds a lot better than $3 a minute on a credit card (I've gotten stuck in rural locales and had to do it) or calling collect. Traveling? Looks like your unlimited long distance is still back at home. With a calling card, you never have to worry about roaming charges, either. Trust me, there are still parts of the country (New Mexico, anyone?) where cell phone coverage is extremely limited. I've learned always to have a calling card with me on any trip, especially road travel, so that I'm never stuck (or stuck paying inflated convenience store rates). You also don't want to end up paying high hotel long-distance fees...most calling cards eliminate all but the toll-free access charges (which vary by hotel; many offer free toll-free or local calls, and many calling cards have nationwide local access numbers).

Advantage #3: You Can't Overspend
Many people have learned the hard way (and kept phone companies comfortably in business) that it's very easy to talk the night away. With a prepaid card, your minutes are limited to what you've already purchase; while you can recharge most cards if you need to continue your call right away, the time limit can be a great motivator to stay within your budget. I got a $1200 cell phone bill once. That's right, once. Now I keep such close tabs on my talk time that I wonder if I shouldn't be an accountant. A friend of mine gets a $1200 cell phone bill about five months out of the year. He just can't master staying under his plan minutes. If this sounds like you, a prepaid calling card could be just what you need.

We've got a special Mother's Day offer coming up, so stay tuned! You know your mom's already waiting for you to call....


Monday, April 16, 2007

Pinless Dialing: Eighth World Wonder?

Well, probably not. But it's a pretty nice feature, and it makes calling cards even more convenient to use.

What is Pinless Dialing?
Pinless dialing is a service provided by some calling card providers that enables you to place calls without entering a pin number. If you're tired of memorizing long strings of numbers (in addition to the phone numbers you already have to know to place calls), or misdialing in the middle of some 10-digit string, you may want to give pinless dialing a try.

How does it work?
Pinless dialing requires one step of setup: you must specify (or "register") the phone numbers from which you'll be using your account. (With CallingCards.com, you can register up to 6 numbers, enough for home, work, cell, and three additional locations.) Then, when you call from these numbers, the system automatically recognizes your account. Rather than a full PIN, you only have to enter a short (usually 3-digit) security code to prevent unauthorized account access.

Bonus: Speed Dial
To save you from dialing still more numbers, many cards with pinless dialing also enable speed dial. Speed dial requires the same first step as pinless dialing - you must register the phone numbers for your speed dial with your account. When placing calls to the numbers in your speed dial, you only have to dial a single digit and the pound (#) sign.

If you were to save your access number in your phone's speed dial, you could place a call on your calling card in just 5 keystrokes. Amazing, no?

Thursday, April 12, 2007

3 Easy Steps: Choose the Best Calling Card

Choosing a calling card can seem complicated, but I promise it's not that bad.

1. Know who you're calling
Once you know who you're calling and where you'll be calling from (this one should be easy), you have some key information that will help you select the best card, like:
  • Destination Country (the country you'll be calling)
  • Destination City (in some cases, specific cities have lower rates than general country-based cards)
  • Cell phone or Landline (calls to cell phones are usually billed at a higher rate because of carrier charges, but some cities have cell phone-specific cards that can lower your rates)
2. Check for taxes, connection fees, and maintenance charges
This is where many people get confused - or overcharged. Make sure your calling card provider lists all of the charges associated with your card (CallingCards.com has detailed information and full disclosure for each of its cards - see example). Taxes and payphone charges are mandatory fees that calling card providers can't control, so don't think your provider is ripping you off. Maintenance charges are usually imposed on high-quality cards - customer service and clear call quality aren't free.

While you're doing this, you might also want to look at the billing increment of the card. For example, if a card has a 3 minute billing increment, you use three minutes for each .01-3 minute interval that you talk (so a 5 minute conversation is billed at 6 minutes). If you're mostly making long calls, this isn't all that important.

3. Buy your card
By now you should have found a card that was designed for your needs - it has a low rate to/from where you're calling, and you've checked for any unsavory fees. All that's left is to pay for those minutes and start calling.

Bonus: Local Access Numbers
An access number is the number you call to start your call. Some cards come with local access numbers, meaning that the call will be billed at a local rate (i.e. free) if the number is within your local calling area (example: a (212) number in New York City). Cards with local access numbers usually offer even better deals than toll-free access numbers.

Monday, April 9, 2007

What are calling cards, anyhow?

A calling card is, plain and simple, a way to lower your long distance costs. Technically, calling cards are a form of dial-around; this just means that when you use a calling card to place a call, you are routing the call specially to get a different (usually lower) rate. Calling cards usually come with two important numbers: an access number, which is the phone number you dial to begin your call, and a PIN, which you must enter to prevent others from accessing your account without your authorization. More sophisticated cards allow you to register phone numbers with your calling card so that you don't have to enter a PIN when calling from these numbers.

Some calling cards are postpaid, which means that you have an account and are billed for your usage, usually monthly. Others are prepaid, so you can only spend a set amount. Prepaid cards frequently have lower rates, since by paying upfront you enable the calling card provider to negotiate the rates in advance.

There are prepaid cards designed specifically for use between two countries, between a group of countries, or just within a single country. There are cards for students, cards for businesses, and cards for just making phone calls. We'll go into this in more detail in a future post - it's not hard to choose a calling card, but there are a few important things to consider.

What aren't calling cards? Don't confuse the calling cards we talk about in this blog with the cards used in many countries to activiate payphones; these cards usually contain smart chips and have many names, including phone cards, telecartes, and calling cards. We don't mean these, either.