Use phone cards to save money on U.S. domestic calling
February 5th, 2008
"I want to lower my long distance costs for calling within the USA with a phone card. What things should I be looking for in a phone card?"
While all the phone cards ZapTel offers can be used to make calls within the U.S., there are some cards that are made specifically for this reason. Depending on your calling needs, one card may be better for you than another.
Here are just a sample of the phone cards ZapTel offers with their domestic rates:
| Card |
Domestic Rate per Minute |
Surcharge per Call | Service Fee | Billing Increments | Features | When it’s Best to Choose This Card |
| Extreme Talk Time International |
0.94¢ w/ local access 1.94¢ w/ toll free access |
10% + $0.15 connection fee per call | $0.59 charged once after first use and once per month thereafter | 1 minute, connect fee is not charged until 2nd minute of connected call |
Recharge Call Detail Records PINzap™ Pinless Dialing
|
This is a great card to use if you talk 2 or more times per week for 30+ minutes at a time state to state or within your own state. Plus, if you have unlimited local calling and you use a local access number that is considered free to your local phone provider, you will save 1¢ per minute. |
| Extreme Talk Time USA | 1.9¢ | None if calling state to state; Additional $0.03 per minute if calling within the same state due to FCC action | 50 cents taken after first call then 50 cents every 15 days afterwards | 1 minute; minimum call length of 2 minutes |
Recharge Call Detail Records PINzap™ Pinless Dialing Speed Dial Internet Dialing |
If you make long, frequent phone calls every week outside your state, this card may be the best one for you. Many features available to track your usage and make dialing easy. |
| Everyday USA | 2.9¢ | 7% | None | 1 minute |
Recharge PINzap™ Pinless Dialing |
Great card if you make shorter or longer phone calls, intrastate or interstate. The rate is low with a toll free access number. If you call infrequently, no weekly or monthly service fees apply so you will not lose money when you’re not using the card. |
| Minute by Minute | 2.9¢ | None | None | 1 minute | Recharge
PINzap™ Pinless Dialing |
Great card for just about any calling need. Best if you make shorter phone calls, frequent or infrequent, both intrastate and interstate. |
| Flying Colors! | 4¢ | None if calling state to state; Additional $0.03 per minute if calling within the same state | None | 1 minute |
Recharge Call Detail Records PINzap™ Pinless Dialing Speed Dial Internet Dialing |
If you make infrequent calls of any length and/or if you want a clean billing card, the Flying Colors may be the card for you. Online call detail records help you keep track of your calling while other features make dialing easier. Not the best card if you need to call within your own state. |
To see a list of all U.S. to U.S. rates on ZapTel’s phone cards, Click Here.
Some of the above cards have additional fees while others are just a flat-rate per minute. If you’re like me and want to know exactly what you’re getting down to the penny, there is a way to figure out how much value you’ll get for each option depending on your calling need, but it invovles a little math. Here’s what to do:
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Decide how many minutes per week you’re planning on using your card.
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Multiply the number of minutes by the rate per minute. This is the total minute cost for your calls.
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Multiply the total minute cost by the percent surcharge per call. This is the total surcharge your card will be deducted for the minutes you use.
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Add the total minute cost with the total surcharge. Add any additional fees (including connection fees or payphone surcharges) to this amount.
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This should give you a price for your calling need.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say that you’re looking at the Extreme Talk Time International phone card and you plan to use the toll free access number. You’re planning on use your card 5 times per week for 45 minutes each time, which would be a total of 225 minutes per week. Here’s how I would calculate your total cost:
Cost for Minutes: 225 minutes X 1.94¢ per minute = $4.37
Surcharge for Calls: $4.37 X 10% surcharge = $0.44
Other Fees: $0.15 connection fee X 5 phone calls = $0.75
Add All Costs: $4.37 + $0.44 + $0.75 = $5.56 (This is the total cost for your call.)
So for one week of calling, your calls would cost you $5.56.
If you wanted to calculate your monthly usage, multiply your weekly cost ($5.56) by 4 weeks (there’s usually about 4 weeks in a month) to get your total of $22.24 for one month of phone calls. This particular card has a monthly service fee of $0.59, so the total amount that would be deducted from your card is $22.83.
If this is more than you want to calculate, then a flat-rate card is the way to go. No fees, no surcharges, no connection fees. All you have to do is multiply your minutes by the rate and you have your cost.
For example, if your calling need is the same as above and you decide to purchase the Minute by Minute card, multiply 225 minutes by 2.9¢ to get a total of $6.53 per week.
As with any phone card purchase, always make sure you read through the card detail pages so you know any fees associated with the cards as well as the terms and expirations for the card.
Phone Card Coupon for Week of February 12th
Through February 12th, receive a 5% discount on any purchase or recharge of an Everyday USA phone card from ZapTel. Use the following code to receive the discount:
EVERYDAY
Enter the coupon code on the Review Your Order page, and be sure to click the "Add Coupon Code" button on the page to apply the discount. Offer expires at Midnight Central Time on Febraury 12, 2008.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 3:03 pm and is filed under Phone Card Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
