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Prepaid Phone Cards:
Frequently Asked Questions
Unidentified Charges
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My prepaid phone cards
are charging me more than it advertises. Why?
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There are four possible reasons:
First, prepaid phone card companies typically charge more fees than just
the rate per minute, such as a connect fee, service fee, and communication fee.
In practice, these fees increase the rate that you pay per minute. You can read
about each kind of fee and how to lessen its impact on your calls on our Buying
Tips page.
Most prepaid phone cards charge these extra fees. If you shop at other
sites, be careful! Most of our competitors do not publish these extra rates. We
always publish these rates.
Second, we and our phone cards are not perfect. However, when we make
mistakes, we fix them as soon as we are aware of them. If you feel like you've
been taken advantage of, you should first consider the possibility that a
mistake has been made, and that we will correct it.
Third, prices change on occasion without us knowing. We cannot give
refunds when that happens, but we will revise the our posted rates as soon as we
know.
Four, cell-phone rates, which are higher than rates to regular phone,
sometimes apply to non-cell phone numbers. See below.
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A call I made from a payphone didn't go through, but I was
charged 50¢ anyway. Why?
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Completed calls from payphones cost 50¢, although as
recently as last year all call attempts were charged because, technically
speaking, the first number you called was the 800-access number to which one
always connects.
The phone card industry as a whole has objected and complained to the FCC about this unfair
practice, and as a result some of our cards do not make the payphone charge when you get a busy signal. Contact us if this charge applies to your phone calls.
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I've been making calls to international countries. The calls
that don't connect are still being charged the connection fee and/or talk time. Why?
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Making an international call incurs costs, regardless of whether
it connects (consider, for instance, the cost of driving a phone signal
thousands of miles around the world). Phone card companies generally don't
charge that cost to their customers if the call doesn't connect, but if a
phone card user lets the foreign phone rings much more than necessary, then the
phone card company will charge the card as if the call connected to recover
those costs.
On cards with a connection fee, this means you'll lose the connection fee, plus
one or more minutes of talk time. And if your card rounds calls to
two- or three-minute increments, then you'll lose two or three minutes of talk
time.
Fortunately, the solution is simple: If you're party doesn't answer by the tenth
ring, then hang up an try again! Few yet lengthy attempts could cost you a
lot; frequent, shorter attempts won't cost you anything.
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I called a overseas to a landline phone, but I was charged as
if I were calling a cell phone. Why?
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So-called cell phone rates cover calls to cell phone and
"Special Services Areas". These Special Services Areas are defined by the people
who own the physical lines, and so can be different from country to country. In
England, for instance, a hotel is a Special Services Area. There is no way to
avoid this other than to try and call your party at a location outside the
Special Services Area.
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