Prepaid Phone Cards

Buying Tips

Prepaid phone cards can be difficult to choose, but we've developed these buying tips to equip you with the information necessary to make fully informed buying decisions. We invite you to compare our prices and service with those of the largest sellers of competing products.

Weekly service fees

Prepaid phone cards charge a weekly service fee, although most competitors do not advertise this fact. The GBS prepaid phone cards that charge this fee do so in one of two ways:

• At the beginning of the the first successful call, and once a week thereafter.
• Later the same day, or a few days afterwards.

On cards that charge the weekly service only after a certain amount of time (usually one or more days), the best strategy is to use them up before the charge time. For instance, if the weekly fee is charged at midnight on the first day of use, try to use the entire card that day. That way the more money will go to talk time, and less to fees. 

Communication fee

Most calling products (ours and our competitors!) charge a "communication fee" which is levied on percentage basis, like a tax. Some companies actually refer to it as a "back-end tax", hoping that customers will think the money is paid to the government.

Here's an example of how the fee works.

Normally a call costs

Call length x Rate per minute + Connect fee

With the communication fee, it's really

(Call length x Rate per minute + Connect fee) x communication fee

Some cards do not charge communication fees.

Connect fees

Some cards charge a connect fee while others don't. What does that mean to you?

Connect fees  These products usually charge a low per-minute rate because they can count on the connect fee as an additional income stream. Spread over a long call, the connect fee becomes insignificant, which on top of an already low per-minute rate makes this type of card best suited for long calls. 

No connect fees These products have to make up for the lost income stream by charging higher per-minute rates. Despite this, the lack of any connect fee makes these cards great for short calls.

So don't dismiss the possibility that a product with a connect fee is not for you. It may be the best choice for your particular calling habits.

Payphone charges

You are normally charged 50¢ to call from payphones.

All calls from payphones used to cost you, even when the line you were calling was busy. This is because, in actuality, the first number you called was the 800-access number to which you obviously got through. We complained to the FCC about this unfair practice. Some of our cards do not make the payphone charges when you get a busy signal. Contact us if this charge has been applied to your calls.

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