Calling cards are often much cheaper than long distance providers.
International calling cards are a great prepaid service that allow you to make long distance calls.
Since there are no monthly bills and statements, you are able to save money on your phone bill by budgeting long distance calling costs.
There are many calling cards available that offering best deals to keep you in contact with your family and friends abroad.
DESIblitz looks at the best international calling cards to India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Canada and USA:
Lebara Mobile offers 1p/min to mobiles and landlines to India, 8p/min to Pakistan, 7p/min to landlines and 5p/min to mobiles in Bangladesh, 7p/min to Sri Lanka, 6p/min to Canada and the United States.
Using Lebara also means there are no connection fees. You can directly dial your destination to mobile or landline numbers. It is a low cost way to make mobile to mobile calls, and is a flexible pay as you go plan. You can also make national calls with full access to mobile Internet.
Vectone gives amazingly low rates for all kinds of international and national calls and texts. They are also a great value when it comes to the mobile Internet.
Mobiles offers 1p/min to India, 8p/min to Pakistan, 3p/min to landline and 5p/min to mobiles in Bangladesh, 7p/min to landlines and 9p/min to mobiles in Sri Lanka, 6p/min to Canada, and 5p/min to the United States.
ChilliTalk calling cards work slightly differently but still offer great value for money. First you must ask for a ChilliTalk e-voucher, then choose to pay either £5, £10 or £20 depending on how much credit you require.
Then choose an access number, depending on whether you’re using a mobile or landline?. Enter the 10-digit PIN code on the e-voucher and dial your destination.
GT Mobile offers 1p/min to India, 8p/min to Pakistan, 2p/min to landline and 5p/min to mobiles in Bangladesh, 7p/min to landlines and 9p/min to mobiles in Sri Lanka, 6p/min to Canada, and 5p/min to the United States.
GT Mobile allows you to stay in touch for longer with the most important people in your world through high quality calls. They have no hidden charges and a free call and billing history.
Lycamobile offers 1p/min to India, 8p/min to Pakistan, 2p/min to Bangladesh, 7p/min to Sri Lanka, 6p/min to Canada, and 5p/min to the United States.
Lycamobile provides a high quality network with low cost calls. It has a multilingual customer service and free voicemail. It has no access codes, online account management, and you have the ability to keep your existing number.
Talk Home works by giving you a set number of minutes for a standard price, which varies by destination. The amount of minutes for India are 7,599 minutes, 650 minutes for Pakistan, 8,000 minutes for Bangladesh, 1,200 minutes for Sri Lanka, 10,000 minutes for Canada and 50,000 minutes to the US.
By purchasing the Talk Home rechargeable card, you are able to save money on your calls, top-up online and earn Talk Home points.
Cobra calling card come with £5 worth free calls and that too at £4.95. Therefore by paying only £4.95 you actually receive £10 worth of international calling minutes. So, pay less and get twice the credit.
This makes Cobra International Cards to be one of the most popular calling cards in UK. With this international calling card you can make calls to anywhere in the world.
Rebtel offers a high quality service for mobile users. It includes several additional features to enhance your calling experience.
The rates differ depending on the location of the caller’s origination and destination. For India, it is 1p/min and 0p/min on toll free access numbers, or 96.8p/week plus sales tax with no maintenance fee.
To Canada, Rebtel offers 0.9p/min and 0p/min on toll free access numbers, or 85.9p/week plus sales tax.
Instead of constantly keeping track of phone numbers or contact information, Rebtel also allows you to save all your numbers in your phone book for convenience.
Globetrotter is run by a company called Speedy Pin. It is the only company that offers a 100% guarantee on all of their products. Reviews state that Globetrotter has a great balance of no fees and low call per minute rates for the most popular countries.
However, one con about Globetrotter is that they don’t offer toll free access numbers, only local access. Calling Pakistan? 4.7p/min on toll free access numbers, or £5.01/week with 10% taxes.
World Calls offers Sri Lanka rates of 5.6p/min and 6.7p/min on toll free access numbers, or £6.80/week with a maintenance fee 61.3p/week and 15% taxes.
However this plan expires after 365 days but there is no connection fee. World Calls also has extra features such as pin less dialling, speed dial and auto recharge.
The pros of calling cards are that they are often much cheaper than long distance providers, your local phone company and collect calls, and operated assisted calls.
For tips on finding the perfect calling, it’s important to find out:
- The rate per minute
- The rounding denomination
- Any extra charges such as connection or monthly fees
- The expiration date
- Whether the card is rechargeable
By using timedial.net, you can easily compare the rates of different calling cards to different destinations.
The great thing about calling cards is they can be used to make low cost international calls to destinations all over the world from any landline phone, any mobile or even a payphone. For all mothers, grandmothers and aunty jees across the country, talking never got so easy.