Why do calling card consumers often buy $20.00 calling cards instead of $5.00 calling cards? Obviously it is because the large cards advertise cheaper calling rates, the more you buy the less each minute costs. This makes sense, we have been taught throughout our lives that buying in bulk is cheaper. But in reality buying a $20.00 phone card instead of a $5.00 phone card, is the worst decision a consumer can make.
Calling card companies actually make a majority of their money off fees and hidden charges. They can’t sneak these fees in on your first call with your calling card because you will obviously notice. Instead they wait till your 2nd, 3rd and 4th phone call, at which point they bombard the calling card with many different hidden fees. Fees that are not advertised.
Len Bittner, a veteran calling card industry insider states “calling card companies wait to apply fees, in hopes that the customer will lose track of their actual balance. If they hit a customer with fees on the 1st call the customer will often notice, but if they wait till the 3rd and 4th call the customer will simply lose track of how many minutes they have actually talked.”
It is also extremely difficult to notice the hidden fees because calling card companies have created so many different types of fees and fee strategies. “The entire basis of the fee strategies is to charge the fees without the customers noticing,” said John Gill, CEO of Phoenix Telecom.
Here are just a few of the fees commonly used:
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With larger cards customers are paying anywhere from 22%- 58% more per minute. Clearly customers are losing money by purchasing in bulk. Purchasing large calling cards just enables the calling card companies to hide their dirty deeds.
In order to receive the cheapest rates possible consumers should purchase $3.00 or $5.00 cards and use them up on one or two international phone calls. An approach like this will help protect customers but not entirely, because some calling cards set fees in place to protect them from customers who use this approach.
Other than that there is no defense from the fees because sadly the FCC does not persecute companies who mislead the public. Allowing calling card companies to blindly steal from the public on a daily basis.
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