Phone Cards,
Prepaid, India Phone Cards, India, International
India Phone Cards Pitfalls
Q) What pitfalls are there when I choose a calling card?
A) There are a whole series of things to watch out for:-
Phone cards Expire.
Many phone cards have an expiry date. Normally this begins the first
time the card is used. You can call up to the value available on the phone
card until you reach the cutoff date. Typically ranges are 14 days, 30 day,
six months, or one year. Generally all unused minutes are lost when the card
expires. (This is not always the case and on some cards lost minutes can
be recouped by upgrading)
Billing Increments.
This is the minimum call duration and the increment used to calculate
the call cost. Typically calling cards have a one minute minimum. Beware
the India Phone Cards that have minimum times of two to three minutes. You should consider
cards that have a 60 second minimum and have a low billing increment. Low
billing increments start at 6 seconds.
Rounding up.
Incomplete time increments are always rounded up to the next highest
time unit. So if your time increment is 3 minutes and you make a 4 minute
call - you will be charged for 6 minutes.
Don't get caught by the Surcharge.
This is discussed above. For the sake of completeness cards that have
a very cheap per minute rate often have a very high connection fee or surcharge.
Making short duration calls with this type of card can be very expensive.
You should use this type of card to make long duration calls particularly
to International destinations.
Check if there is a delivery charge.
Calling cards come in three forms:
1)Actual plasticIndia Phone Cards
2)Actual plastic phone card and an e-mail PIN
3)PIN only (no plastic)
There CAN be a delivery charge if you are going to get the plastic variety.
Normally this is the USPS cost but it could be courrier charge. Do not buy
low value cards if there is a delivery charge.
Check if there are finance charges in the financial transaction.
You can pay for calling cards by all the traditional methods. Sometimes
there is a financial charge - for example if you are buying a $20 card
there is no point in paying a $15 charge for the privilege of paying for
it by
wire transfer. Do not buy low value India Phone Cards if there
is a finance charge. You will not be getting bang for your buck.
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