Avoid being scammed when it comes to prepaid international phone cards. There always have been and probably will always be fraudsters within this marketplace. With the popularity of phone cards, consumers must be extra cautious. The problem with prepaid international phone cards is you pay for the service upfront and if there are any problems with the service you may not be able to get a refund from the phone card company. Online websites that sell phone cards like www.telephonecard.com.au offer a full refund if you are not satisfied with the phone card that you have bought from them.

People who are new to the telephone card market may fall victim to phone card scams. You don’t hear much about these scams as cards are usually only or so people do not bother complaining if there is a problem. However, due to the intense competition for the international tele-phone card market, we have decided to provide you with some essential hints and tricks to avoid losing money when it comes to buying international phone cards.

Tip 1: Research Research Research

Go online, explore what review sites are saying about particular calling and phone cards. A good phone card review site is www.phonecardreview.com.au You will find many stories about good phone cards and complaints about unreliable phone cards. Look to see if there are any patterns when it comes to a particular brand of card. Heavy calling card users in Australia are recent migrants in the Indian, Russian, African, Thai and Eastern European Community. So if you have a good friend in those communities ask them about phone cards as they will probably know about a good phone card.

Tip 2: Deals Deals Deals

You can find many phone card comparison sites such as www.telephonecard.com.au which allow you to search by location, by brand and by price. Make sure any website you buy from is secured with an SSL certificate (signified with a HTTPS in the URL bar on the page where you enter your credit card details) before you commit to making a purchase. If you are not comfortable buying a phone card over the internet then you can also call the contact number on the website to buy a phone card by phone. Your phone card’s PIN and instructions will be emailed to you, so that you can start calling with your phone card instantly.

Think about:

1. Calling Locations: if you only want to call one Thailand for instance, you can often get a good deal to that country alone. This deal will not be as a good if you meander and call outside countries such as Pakistan. Many calling card niches have developed over the years and it is worth exploring them.

2. What are online forums saying about calling particular cards. Try some specific online search queries on your favourite search engine for your particular need, such as

“calling Afghanistan from Australia” or “call Australia to France cheap” or “calling Italia from Australia”

Tip 3: Terms and Conditions

Read the terms and conditions. Sometimes you will sign up to a phone card that charges hidden admin charges and ongoing maintenance fees. Different cards also have different expiration periods. It is worth noting how long your card will last you. Unlike many shops, websites such as www.telephonecard.com.au provide ethical phone cards with no admin and maintenance fees with very competitive call rates. All cards on that site last for 6 months and any unused credit is recovered when you recharge your phone card online or by phone.

Tip 4: Value

Buy a pre-paid phone card instead of a pre-paid phone card, and you will often also get more talking time. For example, most phone cards offer an additional worth of talk time when you buy a card so it is worthwhile to get the larger denomination if you are happy with the card. For example, with the Asian Connection phone card you pay but you will receive worth of talk time.
By: Boris Gefter
Posted:

It’s a phone scam that goes on worldwide. At phones in airports and hotels you slide your credit card to make a call not knowing you will be hit with outrageous charges. You don’t know you have been scammed becuase none of the phones ever display credit card rates. The company behind the scam is BBG Communications. BBG controls 350000 phones worldwide. They go by other names such as International Satellite, Faircall, and BBG Londoon to name just a few. The names may be different but it’s all the same for consumers stuck with huge bills. The scam has been been going on for years. Now consumers need to stand up. Contact us at Investigativeguy@gmail.com Tell us what happened to you.

Question by telecompartnership: Prepaid international calling card from US to Turkey?
Hi everyone,

I am an MBA marketing intern working for Pingo providing consumers and business customers prepaid calling service. Pingo is a service of iBasis, one of the ten largest carriers of international phone calls in the world.

I have some questions and any answer would be very much appreciated:

-Have you ever heard of Pingo or iBasis?
-Have you ever used prepaid calling card or visited Pingo website?
-How do you make your international calls?
-If you use international calling cards, which card(s) do you use? Why? How did you hear of it?
-While choosing an international calling card, which criteria do you consider? Which one is the most important for you?

Thanks in advance….

Best Regards

Best answer:

Answer by Answer Q
Use http://www.telthreeadvantage.com/
Much better

Add your own answer in the comments!

Question by callingcardpartner: Prepaid calling card from US to Pakistan/India?
I am a MBA Marketing Intern for Pingo company. I would like to learn more about India/ Pakistan consumers’ attitudes toward calling cards industry; therefore, I have a few questions that would like you to answer;
- Do you have any experiences with the calling card called back to India or Pakistan?
- What calling cards do you use now? Why?
- Have you ever used Pingo prepaid calling card or even visited Pingo website, www.pingo.com, to check out the rate? why?
- In your opinion, what is the desired rate that will make you satisfy?

Best answer:

Answer by shannray1
It costs Rs. 2.85/minute to call the United States from Pakistan on a Mobilink or Telenor cell phone. That’s a little less than 5 cents a minute, no activation, connection or weekly fees whatsoever.

Further, if your contacts in Pakistan have a Magic Jack with a US phone number, you can call them for free using the anytime minutes from any US cell phone plan.

I’ve used callingcards.com, nobel.com and a host of other card providers but now I don’t use any of them. It’s very easy to send a text message from my email to the phone of my contact in Pakistan and they are able to call me at minimum expense direct from their cell phones. Or I call their Magic Jack.

What do you think? Answer below!

Warning to consumers about prepaid telephone calling card scams
Video Rating: 0 / 5

by 12th St David

They say the world has shrink. But, it is quite ambiguous to believe completely on this. I am not saying the technology which has helped a lot to shrink the world. In no time you reach or send an email to the other part of the world. I would like to stress that, folks are travelling way away from their friends, home and family to study, earn a living, to build a career and make a couple of dollars more. They move away all alone to a new place, new job, new people… Reminiscence or homesickness is the biggest problem faced by people who live far away from home. But no matter how far people are, they still find a way to get connected with the ones they care for. 

With the advancement of technology, we need not worry too much even though we are separated from our families with a great amount of distance. Cellular phone or mobile phone helps in a great way to keep in touch with others no matter where they are. Not only we can contact our families and friends and we can also make money transactions wherever we are through the use of this high-tech gadget. We can transfer money, pay our bills, listen to the songs and watch a video or through the small device. We can even browse the internet to send and receive emails. These telecommunications companies are providing so much comfort that millions and millions are now mobile phone users.

So, the market is big and so there is competition. Telecom companies want to offer good service and want to cater to the needs of their customers at an affordable and competitive price without compromising on quality. One more service which adds a feather in their cap is the advent of prepaid calling cards. Prepaid calling cards are commonly used these days and have gained a big support from consumers or mobile phone users. It is considered more convenient and useful because users do not have to worry about monthly bills to pay. In post-paid bills a subscriber will be unaware of the charges and the amount he will be billed for. He will only know about the bills at the end of the month. Sometimes this is even shocking. Prepaid calling card avoids such surprises. You pay before and you are very much aware of how much you are using. It is easy to control or limit our calls. 

More over, a tourist or traveler does not have to subscribe for a telephone to call his near and dear ones. He can very well buy the calling cards before his journey and use it using the phone in his hotel room by calling the tool-free numbers. 

These are the reason as to why the advent of calling cards is so successful. Not only successful it is a comfort for all the mobile users.