Rekindling Ties With Old Friends Through Prepaid Call Cards

Word Count:
585

Summary:
In today’s fast-paced world of technology and communications, prepaid telephone calls are a trendy method of contacting friends and family from almost everywhere, and it also allows the caller to control spending and not get tied up into paying standard fees or regular rates with standard telephone service providers.


Keywords:
prepaid calling card, calling card, international, communication, telephone, tips, advice, buying, buy, sell, call


Article Body:
In today’s fast-paced world of technology and communications, prepaid telephone calls are a trendy method of contacting friends and family from almost everywhere, and it also allows the caller to control spending and not get tied up into paying standard fees or regular rates with standard telephone service providers.

Most telecom companies now provide prepaid call card service, which they usually sell advance. When a customer purchases a prepaid phone call card, one is paying for long distance connection time in advance. When a customer makes calls using the phone card, the card's value is deducted based on connection fees, duration of connection or calls made, surcharges, and any or whatever maintenance surcharges are associated with the call card.

Prepaid phone calls are generally implemented in a telephone operator’s network using a method called “intelligent network functionality”. The competitive rates these providers offer are usually made possible by spending lesser cost routing and lower overheads than the established telephone operators.

Friends or family worldwide now find it convenient to establish connections and maintain friendships through the advent of prepaid phone call cards. These cards, commonly known as phone cards in the US and the United Kingdom, are readily available almost from every newsstand, convenience store or drugstore. They are now admittedly the cheapest means of making long-distance and international calls, and what is more important is that they offer complete anonymity to the one using it.

Prepaid phone call cards sold by retailers are considered active once they are purchased. A call card generally has a web site that offers prepaid PIN’s for calling, which denotes that there is no physical phone card. There are also call cards that have toll-free operators, that offer added services to customers or patrons who hold accounts with them and have already paid money in advance for the service.

This service is typically accessed by the user when he/she dials a toll free number from any telephone, much like a 1-800 number. The customer then authenticates himself with the operator by entering a PIN number. Most of the time, these operators have toll free numbers all over the world, ensuring that a customer can access the service even when he is in another country.

Prepaid call cards are also offered by majority of mobile phone providers around the world. Typically all the standard mobile call card services are readily available to prepaid users, however a user would need to top up, or load their balance in advance before they can be used. Loading up on an overseas call card could be done via a variety of mechanisms- either thru vouchers, swipe cards, debit and credit cards.

Whenever one needs to avail of a prepaid call card service, the customer should keep these in mind, to enable him or her to find the best prepaid call service which would truly suit his requirements for overseas or local calls. A person should know if he/she would be making calls mostly overseas?; Whether he/she would be calling to the US from overseas frequently?; Would the customer need internet access to come along with the prepaid call card service?, or Whether he/she is calling mostly just within the US and Canada. For travelers to the US and Canada, it is advisable to get the services of a call card, since most prepaid call cards in the US offer better and cheaper rates, and there are a wide array of services available in all US cities or towns.