Calling Cards in the USA
What is a calling card?
Whether from the gas station or the grocery store nearby, everybody knows calling cards. Calling cards where introduced in the mid 70’s with the simple goal to reduce costs for national and international calls. Calling cards are usually credit-card shaped plastic cards with a certain call credit value. Calling cards are prepaid products, as you pay for your calls up front when you buy the card. Calls are usually charged per minute and credit is deducted from you calling card.
Where do I get a calling card?
Depending on what country you are in, you can buy calling cards at almost every supermarket, gas station or at a dedicated call shop. They are usually available shortly before the cashier or the point of sale. For the US for example Walmart offers a wide range on different calling cards provider. They even offer their own.
What different calling cards are there?
While calling cards originally used to be physical plastic cards, they are now also sold online and you will simply get the necessary access codes per e-mail. Those are called “online calling cards”.
How do calling cards work?
Calling cards are prepaid products. If you buy a calling card for example 10$, you get 10$ worth of credit for your national or international calls. Usually you will get charged per minute. The rates per minute depend on the country that you want to call.
Calling card providers do not offen any customer support and call quality can be very poor. Call costs are not transparent and hidden charges are a common problem with calling cards often resulting in very unpleasant surprises.
Is there an online alternative for calling cards?
Calling cards have been around for decades and there are now better and easier to use online alternatives with customer service and transparent call rates.
An international calling service like toolani works similar to a calling card but without any annoying codes or long telephone numbers. toolani connects your international calls through local numbers. Simply sign up with your phone number and e-mail address. After that you can make your first international call for free using the free test credit. Buying prepaid credit allows you to continue making cheap international calls.
toolani offers great customer support, great call quality and the best rates to 200+ countries around the world. It works from every phone and you can call any landline or mobile number in the world. You can use your online member area to set up your international phone book. toolani also has a calling card app to make cheap international calls. Find more information about how toolani works.
Bye bye calling cards, hello toolani!
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