Hidden Phone Card Fees

Phonecarddepot.com does not support phone card manufacturers that do not clearly outline all fees in their card disclaimers and Phone Card Depot displays all fees associated with each card. Calling card fees are not necessarily disadvantageous because cards with these fees typically have a lower per-minute rate.

Surcharge: usually a percentage that is added onto the per-minute rate. i.e. The Good Card contains a 10% surcharge. ie. if calling from USA to Poland at 4.5 cents per minute using The Good Card the charge would effectively be 4.95 cents per minute.

Connection Fee: a flat rate deducted from your calling card's prepaid balance once you connect with the party you are calling.

Maintenance Fee: a fee charged when the calling card is not in use. i.e. a calling card maintenance fee of 25 cents per week will deduct 25 cents per week from your total pre-paid balance regardless of whether you use the card or not. At this time, none of Phone Card Depot's calling cards have maintenance fees.

Toll-free Access Fee: a fee charged added to your per-minute rate if you use the toll free number to call your destination. Most cards have a local access number, using the local access number avoids
this fee.

Service Charge: although this term is general, it usually refers to a flat fee deducted from your pre-paid balance after a certain call duration. Almost like a delayed connection fee. For example if calling from Toronto to China at 2.9 cents per minute using Jia, a "service charge of 25%

No Fee "Clean" Calling Cards

Clean cards: these cards contain no extra fees except for a toll-free access fee. This toll-free access fee can be avoided if you use a local access number to make your call. Phone Card Depot carries 2 clean cards: Bita calling card (for Americans) and CiCi calling card (For Canadians). Both Bita and Cici are great for you if your calling patterns vary between long and short call durations.

So if you call from the continental USA to Austria at 3.9 cents per minute from a local access number using Bita, you will pay just 3.9 cents per minute.

I hope that this post helps demystify some of these fees, please send comments
or questions.

Regards,

Tavis McKenzie
GM, Phonecarddepot.com
http://www.phonecarddepot.com/blog

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