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Here we provide detailed information on calling cards.
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About calling cards
Placing calls from conventional phones or from mobile phones is a basic need of our time. With the help of calling cards you can reduce your phone costs for calls from conventional phones, mobiles, from hotel rooms, public pay phones, or from abroad considerably. In the US and Great Britain calling cards are used like a duck takes to water.
What are calling cards and how do they work?
Calling cards are like phone cards: You purchase a credit on your card in advance, which you can use for your calls until it is consumed.
On your calling card you find apart from the value of the card, the card’s PIN consisting of an (at least) 9 digit number. With this number you can place calls: Just call the toll-free access number of your calling card company and enter the number on your card. If you still have credit left on your card, you receive a prompt. Then you dial the desired number and make the call at the more favorable conditions of the calling card company.
Please note that access numbers in Germany vary from those abroad.
Nice to know: Card numbers and codes are transferred via touch tone dialing. This is the standard for mobiles. However, if you use the calling card in hotels or from a pay phone you might have to switch to touch tone dialing (arrow, star arrow key).
Make cheap international calls
For placing calls to other counties the so-called “call-by-call” procedure is a good opportunity to reduce phone costs.
Calling cards, however, are also an attractive alternative to the German T-Com. The tariffs for international phone calls of calling card providers are often even cheaper than those of most dumping providers on the call-by-call market. And their network availability is far more attractive, as especially the cheapest call-by-call providers are frequently not available, as their network is frequently congested.
By the way: Especially phone calls from mobile phone to foreign countries justify the purchase of a calling card, as call-by-call service is not available for mobiles.
Calling cards for prepaid mobile phone owners
Calling cards are especially attractive for prepaid mobile phone owners.
An example:
Calls to the German conventional phones or to mobiles cost up to 86 cent for the D2 customers of prepaid mobiles and 79 cent for prepaid mobiles using D1.
With GoBananas you only pay 28.9 cent (plus a connection fee of 4 ct per call) to German landline network and 48.0 ct (plus 18 ct connection fee per call) to mobiles.
On vacation and abroad
Telephone calls abroad often burst the vacation budget and are the cause for bad surprises. Local calling cards purchased in the country, where you dwell provide the opportunity of making calls from abroad to Germany at up to 80 per cent lower rates.
Two crystal-clear advantages come with the use of calling cards abroad: the tariffs are considerably lower. On the other hand you have full control of your phone cost and do not wake up to bad surprises (for example at the end of your stay in the hotel, when you receive the bill). You can either use your own mobile or make calls from the hotel or use public pay phones. The most favorable combination is a calling card together with a conventional phone (hotel or public pay phone), as mobile phones are charged with higher tariffs. There are several specialty cards, which are especially attractive in popular holiday regions.
In some countries, depending of the net provider and their international contract partners, a so-called roaming fee is added to the fees of the calling card. Calling cards pay off in these cases, too.
Avoid expensive hotel phone surcharges.
Whoever made a call in a hotel know that this can be an expensive convenience. Particularly international calls may quickly cause expensive phone bills. Calling cards, aside from your own mobile, are the only possibility to avoid these exorbitant hotel fees. It is very simple: Calling cards use a toll-free access number, and thus there is no cost to be charge by the hotel. You pay the calling card in advance, take advantage of the favorable tariffs and have full control of the arising phone cost. This method is especially interesting for business people and those companies and their employees, who frequently spend their nights in hotels.
Making calls from public payphones
It is quite common to place frequent and even long calls from public pay phones, even to foreign countries. Here calling cards offer great opportunities. The German T-Com started to collect surcharges for the actually toll-free access 0800-numbers, if they are dialed from public pay phones; calling card providers, however, found a clever way to circumnavigate these charges. Most calling card companies offer now a 01802 access number to be used for calls originating from a public pay phone. This service is charged with an additional 20 cent per minute.
That’s how business people save
In business cost effectiveness, availability, precise accounting and control are vital. It is not always possible to wait until the next landline telephone is available. Making a call immediately is important – often enough to foreign countries. With calling cards you reduce your mobile phone cost – and keep an eye on your phone bill. Give your foreign guest a calling card for making cheap call to his home country. He or she will be surprised and will certainly appreciate it.
From the office
Sometimes you want or must make a call from the office, which is not supposed to be on your company’s bill.
Here another good property of calling cards comes in: personal credit. You account for your personal cost automatically. Place calls to be separately accounted for with the help of your calling card and use your personal credit.
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