Keep in Touch With Prepaid Calling Cards

Communication has never been more important than it is today, and that has led more and more people to consider buying calling cards to stay in touch. Calling cards have a vital role to play in today’s information based society, and they are a great idea for travelers, business people and others who need to stay in touch wherever they are.

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International Calling Cards

Getting the appropriate all-embracing calling cards for best of us is consistently abstruse mind, aloof because of there are abounding choices out there and to aces the appropriate one is affectionate of adamantine to do. Now, getmecallingcards
could be your appropriate best to pick. They are alms their astonishing all-embracing calling agenda and accord you what you consistently attractive for. They are accord some choices depends on what you needed.

If you are traveler, you can use rechargeable and pinless phone cards that can be acclimated in any adopted countries to accord a alarm aback to your home country. You don’t allegation use auberge buzz anymore which consistently booty out allegation of it. Or an all-embracing callback cards will be absolute if you are adulation to biking about the world, there so abundant allowances you can get from it. There is addition for the students, you can use a prepaid or non-rechargeable buzz cards with low amount 3% banknote back.

And in prepaid calling cards that are not rechargeable. It is a appropriate aces for you if you don’t accept a buzz cardinal to annals and you alone appetite a amount that cheaper than added cards you may have. Or maybe the appropriate one for you is abiding PIN cards that action PINLESS dialing option. You do not allegation entering your pin cardinal afresh or registering your buzz cardinal anytime, because this agenda can be fabricated from any country to added one with and amazing ante you’ll like. With those products, you can advice to ascendancy your buzz bills yourself.

Bowered by Cheap Phone Cards

Texting Phone Cards

Prepaid calling cards are advice accoutrement that go above the agenda that barter purchase. The processes of accepting the account to the chump absolutely alpha with the customer. Back an alone is enrolled in a account plan, there is about account that get unused.

However, back the buzz aggregation has already awash the minutes, it does not backpack over the minutes. Therefore, back buzz companies accept their added minutes, instead of accident money and auctioning the balance minutes, they accept to about-face about and advertise the minutes, so that they do not lose the money. Basically, this is area the account appear for prepaid calling cards.

Most Prepaid Adaptable Alarm Cards Offer Argument Messaging Services

Text Messaging is a account that lets you accept important letters back you're on the go. With argument messaging already a allotment of a prepaid adaptable alarm card's service, users can accelerate and accept quick, abridged argument letters on their agenda phones.

There are additionally some accepted landline phones that acquiesce for sending SMS messages, which allows a adaptable buzz user to acquaint with thru text. Argument Messaging transmits numeric or alphanumeric letters to your agenda wireless phone. Now you can accept important advice anon after accepting to arrest affairs to booty calls or use admired airtime.

Prepaid Alarm Cards Offer Altered Ante For Calls And SMS Services

Most prepaid alarm agenda providers accumulate a lower calling and texting phone cards rate, about some of them add-on some fees and account accuse that accomplish up for the costs of the lower calling rates. Sometimes these fees will awning their services, and at times it is acclimated to pay added charges, like FCC or accompaniment telecommunication taxes. There are some calling agenda companies that will abbreviate their account fees, but they generally accept the college per minute calling or SMS rates.

Mechanism Of Sending Argument Messages

Generally, prepaid alarm agenda users can accelerate an SMS to both calm or all-embracing locations. Sending an SMS to bounded destinations is an affordable approach of sending messages, and the ante alter with anniversary provider. However, sending and SMS across is absolutely costlier than texting bounded areas, back alarm agenda providers will add all-embracing affiliation charges, that are partly to awning the add-on affiliation ante fabricated by an across carrier.

As with texting bounded destinations, you could additionally accelerate SMS letters overseas,provided the added affair on the accepting end has a agenda landline, or has the aforementioned apparatus for accepting argument messages. In sending argument messages, you charge not anguish about application your airtime minutes, back they won't get deducted. However, if you admission articulation mail from your wireless buzz to accelerate a message, you will be application airtime minutes.

Calling cards can calmly begin in abounding places They are awash in groceries, accessibility stores, airports, and added places that accept aerial traffic. Calling cards are awash with altered minute allotments and at altered rates. A being can acquirement calling cards with a assertive bulk of time on the agenda Prepaid calling cards accept the account already paid for, so as they are accepting used, a being can see how abundant time they accept larboard on the calling card.

Calling card rules among last-minute legislation.

-- Of the more than 100 different bills on the agenda for a long final day of the legislative session were surcharges on tickets and parking to the new Prudential Center, in downtown Newark.

The City officials lobbied for the bills, saying they need additional revenue to pay for police and traffic control in the arena district. The special event-parking tax will be 7 percent, and the ticket tax will be 5 percent.


The additional parking tax can also be applied to Elizabeth and all the cities of Hudson County. The ticket tax be imposed for sites with seating for at least 10000 spectators.

Various other bills would be approved Monday:

-- Require employers to pay interest on delinquent Newark payroll taxes. Newark is the only municipality in the state allowed to collect a tax on local salaries.

-- Delete the USS Battleship New Jersey Commission and its foundation, with some of their funds being transferred to the Home Port Alliance, and others to a new foundation.

-- Place the burden of proof on school districts, not the parents, to due process as special education hearings to resolve disputes.

-- Direct the police of the State of New Jersey to develop a model of missing persons-practices. There were 18620 cases of missing persons reported in the national database in 2005, in New Jersey, 90 percent handled by the local police.

-- Provide $ 250000 from the current budget of the State for Literacy Volunteers of New Jersey, which is facing financial difficulties since the loss of a state grant that it has received in recent years .

-- Require prepaid calling cards for the author's name, 24-hour customer service number, the tax and price per minute information on the card itself, but in advertising .

How to call to USA

by: Mike Yeager

In the old days (7-10 years ago) there were no long distance calling cards and cheap phone cards so it could cost you a ton of money to make long distance calls. Calling your grandparents in another state or calling home from college on the weekends was very expensive and prohibitive. Those days have gone forever and now it's more convenient and inexpensive than ever to stay in touch with friends and relatives from not only the next state, but also the next country with long distance calling cards. You can find prepaid long distance calling cards that are literally only pennies a minute to call from anywhere in the Continental U.S. to anywhere in the Continental U.S. And for calling international? Wow! Have the prices ever dropped for calling overseas. It used to be 1 or 2 dollars a minute just to call Asia or Europe; now those same phone calls can be made for a tenth of that or better.

Which type of Long Distance Calling Cards works best for you?

When looking to save money on your long distance calling cards narrow down what your calling habits usually entail. Do you generally call only within the U.S. or do you also call your old friends in Australia? Deciding on the type of calling you engage in will save you quite a bit of money as you shop for the best long distance calling cards with the most minutes and the cheapest rates.

Cheap International Calling Cards

You can make your calls as cheap as possible with international calling cards. But if you want them still cheaper, then you should keep in mind that the cheapest is not always the best. There are very cheap calling cards available, but before you buy them, it is mandatory to check if they have any conditions that are not blatantly expressed. No plan will be offered to you without some benefit, if not profit to the company. You can find some companies with comparatively cheaper rates, but keep in mind that calling rates differ from country to country, and so you should find the best deal for yourself.

Tel3 is a pioneer in long-distance phone service that offers cheaper call rates than many major telecom companies. This company claims to have the lowest international rates available and provides free minutes on sign-up. The international plan for this company comes with free minutes on domestic calls, as well as a monthly fee of only $1.95. All this can be done online, by filling out a form and getting your PIN by email. An automatic recharge of $25 will be done every month if your balance goes below $3.

iDPhonecard can be accessed in 50 countries for very cheap rates, compared to normal international calling rates. The company specifically mentions the lack of any hidden fees in their cards. Fully refundable and non-rechargeable, the rates depend on the country you are calling, but you get roughly 208 minutes for 10 dollars.

Calling cards international.com Company’s website also claims to give you the cheapest international calling rates. The website www.calling-cards-international.com sells cards like Oceans, True North, Wireless World, Flying Colors, etc., apart from ZapTel’s own Call the World and International Students’ Choice international calling cards. The denominations start from $10 and go up to $50 on some cards.

Calling-cards-international.com - International Calling card on sale !!

Calling-cards-international.com is having sale for most of the international calling cards. 3% cash back, Automatic entry to 2 $10.00 calling card drawing everymonth, when you sign up ( no need of purchase). We are cutting the price....

International calling cards sales

IDT Phone Cards are scam, says former employee

We've written about how IDT Energy tries to con ConEd customers into switching their electrical contracts, but they also sell calling cards...

According to a former employee, this side of their company is also a total scam.

First IDT lures in customers with extremely low rates, 2 cents per minute for most worldwide locations. Then they charge hidden connect and disconnect charges. These charges are disclosed in their extremely fine print, which most consumers won't bother reading.

When people complain about all their minutes disappearing, or IDT's frequent service crashes, IDT's customer service staff is trained to tell any lie they need to in order to keep from giving away any minutes.

Our insider writes:

I remember one girl calling crying because she needed just one minute to call her sick mom. I tried to give it to her, but you have to ask the supervisor and he was checking me out because I always wanted to help too much. He told me: "look, these are the lies you've gotta tell...", and started blabbing lie after lie after lie...

Anonymous writes:

"I was hired by a temporary job agency, along with many others, to work at IDT at it's call center in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were supposed to be on a test period of 3 months, as any job here in the Island. After that, if we performed well, we woul be hired as IDT internal staff.

First came the training. We would sit in front of the computer, with a headset, and learn the bowser-based, password-protected program to manage the calling cards minutes, balance (in dollars), and be able to write comments about the card holder. Apart from learning that program, the training consisted, mainly, on how to say "No" to the customer without he being mad... After being there a few days, saying this was a "mission impossible" was an enormous understatement.

I started doing my job, as I was trained, the best that I could. Of course, people would only call when something wrong happened, like, say, all the money went MIA, the minutes went MIA or simply the service went MIA, among other things. The point is, customers were mad as hell, and, on top of that, I had to tell them a big, fat "No, ma'am, you can't get your money back, nor your minutes... Anything else I can do for you?"

You see, the customer is always right, but IDT did not believe that. The supervisors were ALWAYS MIA (mostly at lunch), even tho' they were behind the desk. Every time a customer asked for one, I'd have to go to his desk, and he'd look me with such a disgusting face, one would feel like an ass. I know this can be a personal thing, he might be a bad person and not the company's fault, but one of IDT's business is also Customer Service (CS), so they know how to do their thing, and that thing was NOT about helping their customers, it was about Customer Service Representative performance.

In order to have an efficient CS business they need to have an efficient CS representative performance, and that meant each call must last less than 3 minutes.

If one had an average of more than 3 minutes or so, IDT's top brass would question you and your test period was in jeopardy. Of course, one would often put you on hold and, mysteriously, the call would hang up before the three minutes where up. Not that I was a bad person, but no one can mess with my food, you know, I had to keep my performance tight, and I always did and tried to help people as much as I could, but sometimes it was just necessary for me to keep my job.

This being a communication service, people would often rely on it too much. And even though the service worked, it was ridiculously cheap, way too cheap. The service crashed all the time. People would often spend their last two dollars on a calling card, only for the service to crash and, with the connection and disconnection fees, loose the two dollars before reaching no one. Of course they're gonna be mad!

I remember one girl calling crying because she needed just one minute to call her sick mom. I tried to give it to her, but you have to ask the supervisor and he was checking me out because I always wanted to help too much. He told me: "look, these are the lies you've gotta tell...", and started blabbing lie after lie after lie...

I looked at him in utter shock. How's it possible that you mess with someone's necessity to reach someone? All she asked for was just one minute. I don't know why, but that girl crying will haunt me for quite a while, along with my actions towards her, or lack thereof.

I was so frustrated that I got sick of the job, along with many others. I started snooping around to see if I could find something good to bring them down, but no luck in finding someone to help me out, even tho' I had some interesting info at the time. I did find out out that the minutes were going away in a very suspicious way...

I was fired soon after that, but before the test period was over, mainly because I was no good for the company, trying to give away too much minutes and all.

That's why I updated Wikipedia's article on IDT, but had to do so in an unbiased way, and their discussion page let me to you, The Consumerist.

Bottom line is, IDT does NOT care about it's customers, nor it's employees. The Terms of Use are written in extremely fine print on the calling card and in extremely hard-to-understand, communication-business jargon (for the layman, but not even me could understand it, working there and all). Since IDT reserves the right to change these terms, they would change often, and often these changes would not help the consumer and would add more fees. Since they pay well in Puerto Rico ($2 above minimum, $7 total), there's always people ready to work for them. If an employee snoops around too much, the internal mafia will replace you in a jiffy, no prob for them.

All of this is a very small slice of a very big cake. I wish to remain anonymous, as I have no proof about these things, and IDT is an immense company. Take all of this with a big, ol' grain of salt. And pardon my English."

author: http://consumerist.com/consumer/leaks/idt-calling-cards-are-a-scam-226933.php
Quality shop: calling cards, phone cards

Prepaid Calling Cards That Allow You To Send Text Messages (SMS)

Prepaid calling cards are communication tools that go beyond the card that customers purchase. The processes of getting the minutes to the customer actually start with the customer.

When an individual is enrolled in a monthly plan, there is typically minutes that get unused. However, since the phone company has already sold the minutes, it does not carry over the minutes. Therefore, when phone companies have their extra minutes, instead of losing money and discarding the excess minutes, they choose to turn around and sell the minutes, so that they do not lose the money. Basically, this is where the minutes come for prepaid calling cards.

Most Prepaid Mobile Call Cards Offer Text Messaging Services Text Messaging is a service that lets you receive important messages when you're on the go. With text messaging already a part of a prepaid mobile call card's service, users can send and receive quick, concise text messages on their digital phones. There are also some conventional landline phones that allow for sending SMS messages, which allows a mobile phone user to communicate with thru text. Text Messaging transmits numeric or alphanumeric messages to your digital wireless phone. Now you can receive important information immediately without having to interrupt meetings to take calls or use valuable airtime.

Prepaid Call Cards Offer Different Rates For Calls And SMS Services Most prepaid call card providers keep a lower calling and texting rate, however some of them add-on some fees and service charges that make up for the costs of the lower calling rates. Sometimes these fees will cover their services, and at times it is used to pay other charges, like FCC or state telecommunication taxes. There are some calling card companies that will minimize their service fees, but they often have the higher per minute calling or SMS rates. Mechanism Of Sending Text Messages Generally, prepaid call card users can send an SMS to both domestic or international locations. Sending an SMS to local destinations is an affordable mode of sending messages, and the rates vary with each provider. However, sending and SMS overseas is quite costlier than texting local areas, since call card providers will add international connection charges, that are partly to cover the add-on connection rates made by an overseas carrier. As with texting local destinations, you could also send SMS messages overseas,provided the other party on the receiving end has a digital landline, or has the same mechanism for receiving text messages. In sending text messages, you need not worry about using your airtime minutes, since they won't get deducted. However, if you access voice mail from your wireless phone to send a message, you will be using airtime minutes.

Calling cards can conveniently found in many places They are sold in groceries, convenience stores, airports, and other places that have high traffic. Calling cards are sold with different minute allotments and at different rates. A person can purchase calling cards with a certain amount of time on the card Prepaid calling cards have the minutes already paid for, so as they are getting used, a person can see how much time they have left on the calling card.

Some prepaid calling cards are no bargains

You might not get exactly what you're paying for when it comes to using prepaid calling cards to reach out to family and friends, according to a new study by the Washington-based Hispanic Institute.

It tested 45 international prepaid calling cards for efficacy and value, and found that the average card delivered only 60 percent of the minutes promised. A third of the 45 cards delivered the full call-time promised; seven, or 15.6 percent, didn't work at all; and eight had call completion rates of 50 percent or less. Three cards provided less than 20 percent of the minutes promised
Dropped calls, poor sound quality and post-dial delays of up to 50 seconds were common among most of the cards. Just 15 cards allowed the caller to use the entire time balance. The institute said consumers were misled by excessive fine print, confusing terms and conditions, or simple omission of important information about card usage.

Those who are hit hardest by prepaid calling card fraud are mostly immigrants who use them as a cost-effective option to keep in touch with family and friends abroad, the institute said. Prepaid phone cards have grown into a $4 billion industry, responsible for 11 billion calls in 2004.

Cheapest Way To Call Your Beloved by Sam Padding

Now, calling your beloved ones that stays in different countries is made easier and cheaper. Thanks, to international calling cards for making international long distance call an easier affair. This is so; calling cards are based on VOip technology of packet switching over internet. Before availing card, user must focus on important points like phone rates, renewability, rollover minutes, hidden fees and quality of call.

Usually, international calling cards offered by established providers like calling-cards-international.com are cost effective. Calling cards are considered as a blessing for handling international calls with proper and effective verbal and aural communication over IP network i.e. broadband connection. International calling cards are prepaid cards that come with pre-charged amount. These cards are easily available in every nook and corner of UK streets like grocery shops or user can even avail from online shops. Depending upon the calling requirements, international calling cards comes in affordable varied range from as small as $5 to as big as $100. The calling cards can be easily carried by any user as it is small rectangular shaped plastic cards. Well, compared to traditional mode of communication Public Switch Telephony Network or PSTN call charges are reduced. Well, this is made possible by lowering down per minute charges and amount for surcharge is also extenuated. In order to save money on International calling cards user must compare rates and tariff plans offered by different providers. Moreover, user must look for other attractive features like voice mails, 3-way conferencing and ID caller.

Well, operating an international calling card is an easier task as user just has to generate and manage the PINS numbers. Besides that, established provider also deals on online billing portals to manage different customers account. Lastly, while getting international calling card you can talk for longer time without much worrying about bills.

The Money Report . Sorry You Tossed Out That Phone Card?

MOST delegates attending the Democratic Party's 1992 presidential convention in New York City were more focused on Bill Clinton than on the local utility company, New York Telephone. As a result, few noticed the tiny telephone cards tucked into their official delegate packs. Printed as a promotional giveaway, the cards provided the delegates with $1 in free telephone service. Since $1 didn't go very far then - and travels even less now - most of the 20,000 cards found their way into New York City trash cans. Today, those $1 freebies sell for up to $1,400 among collectors.

Telephone cards - small pieces of paper or plastic decorated with everything from historic monuments to soft porn images - have long been collected outside the United States. Of nearly 2.5 million collectors around the world, an estimated 1 million are in Japan. About 750,000 collectors are in Germany, where cards have been issued since 1983. Australia, Singapore and Britain are also collector hotspots.

However, in the United States, where the first telephone cards sold to the public did not appear until the late 1980s, only a few thousand people have started phone card collections.

One of the first U.S. collectors to discover the craze was Lin Overholt, a former math teacher living in Florida. Nearly two years ago, he placed an ad in a European magazine to trade old credit cards. In response to his ad, Overholt received over two dozen letters from around the world, including Italy, Hong Kong and the Seychelles Islands. "I even got a call from a guy in the Caucasus," said Overholt. His monthly publication, Lin Overholt's Card Trader, now has subscribers in 25 countries.

For most Americans, telephone cards are the numbered pieces of plastic issued by Baby Bells and long-distance companies. These cards allow traveling customers to bill calls to their home address. Outside the U.S., however, most telephone cards are so-called "debit" cards issued for specific amounts. Once the amount on a card has been used up, a new card must be bought.

In most cases, the local telephone monopoly issues the cards and sometimes sells the face of the cards as advertising space. Alternatively, a telephone company may treat the cards like stamps, creating thematic designs such as aerospace or tropical plants.

There are two types of telephone cards: stored memory cards and remote memory cards. The former, cards containing silicon chips, magnetic stripes or optical bands, must be inserted into a telephone in order to be used. Most cards produced in Europe and Asia are stored memory cards.

In the United States, nearly 170 companies now issue telephone debit cards, according to Steve Hiscocks, publisher of International Telephone Cards, a bimonthly publication with subscribers in 65 countries. More than 90 percent of those cards are "remote memory" cards which do not need to be inserted into a telephone but do require the holder to dial an access number followed by an identification code.

"There is some snobbery among collectors that stored memory cards are the real thing as compared to these bits of paper issued in the U.S.," said Mr. Hiscocks. "But that'll change once remote memory cards start catching on outside the U.S." Five companies have already started issuing such cards in the United Kingdom, he added.

Though American phone cards have only recently entered into the collecting spotlight, most collectors say U.S. cards present some of the best deals available. A 10-year old German phone card can cost over $6,000. On the other hand, an AT&T card decorated with a hamburger, french fries and a soft drink that was initially given away by McDonald's can be had for $125 to $250.

Among collectors, the value of the cards is not determined by the beauty of the design but rather by the rarity of the cards and their condition. "A lot of times the cards issued on a trial run or limited basis are the ones that appreciate the most," says Chris Garibaldi, one of the leading U.S. telephone card dealers. "Those are the cards that end up in the trash can fastest and so they become quite hard to find."

Cards from two of the first American companies to issue telephone cards, Phoneline U.S.A. and Amerivox, are now quite valuable. Early cards issued by Amerivox and decorated with an American eagle trade for $2,000 to $3,000.

Cards issued on campuses, military bases and in prisons prior to 1990 are also of high value although they may be quite boring to look at. A set of 3 cards issued to inmates of Manning prison in Columbia, South Carolina, now trades for $200 although the cards have no graphic or design.

In Germany, where over 70 million cards have been issued, few collectors can afford to buy samples of each card. As a result, most have moved into thematic or topical collecting. "Any transport theme such as cars or airplanes is quite popular," said Hiscocks. "The Japanese, on the other hand, have a strong tendency toward the cute. They tend to like bunny rabbits for some reason."

The Postal Service will begin selling prepaid telephone cards

The Postal Service will begin selling prepaid telephone cards issued by American Express in seven markets, a test venture that will lead the agency into the potentially lucrative field of debit cards.

Postal officials confirmed plans for the test yesterday, saying the agency's lawyers had approved the project and had predicted the 18-month test would turn a profit. The plastic telephone cards are sold for a specific dollar value of long distance calls, with access codes that allow the calls to be made from any telephone.

In the past, the Postal Service has had mixed success selling items other than stamps and mail services. Some of the agency's 40,000 post offices sell packing equipment and ...

ATT PLANS TO COMBINE CREDIT AND PHONE CARDS

NEW YORK -ATT is negotiating to issue credit cards that would combine its current telephone charge cards with MasterCard and Visa bank cards, industry sources and a company involved in the negotiations said yesterday.

Under the plan, American Telephone & Telegraph Co. would issue so-called "affinity" credit cards through a Georgia bank to a group of its existing phone-card holders. The cards could be used to charge ATT

The 411 on Prepaid, Traditional Phone Cards

Prepaid phone cards are hot and getting hotter. Their prices are falling, according to Frost & Sullivan, a consulting firm in Mountain View, Calif. For many consumers, they're the lowest-cost way of making long-distance telephone calls.

There are two kinds of phone cards: traditional and prepaid. Traditional cards (often called "calling cards") are issued by your long-distance company. You're billed every month for the calls you've made.

Prepaid cards are sold by about 500 national and local firms, reports the Chicago trade paper Debit Card News. They buy time from the major long-distance carriers at wholesale rates, mark up the price and sell to you. The local and long-distance ...

Immigrants Ripped Off by Phone Cards

They can be seen hanging behind the counter at the mini-mart, those brightly colored phone cards for calling Latin America, Africa and Asia. Often, they are the only reliable way for immigrants to stay in touch with their families.

But many buyers of these cards are being ripped off to the tune of millions of dollars a year.
Some cards fail to deliver the promised minutes. Others tack on confusing fees that may not be listed in the microscopic print on the back of the card. Still others round up each call to the nearest three-minute mark.

"Sometimes they give you all the minutes. Sometimes they don't. Then you have to switch to a new card," said Augusto Revolorio, a Miami Beach grocery stocker. He buys the $2 or $5 cards regularly to call his mother and four brothers in Guatemala. "It costs me more to complain on the phone and be late for work, so I just rip up the card and buy a new one."

A 2004 study led by University of Georgia economics professor emeritus Julia Marlowe found that the cost-per-minute rates for prepaid calling cards were on average 87 percent higher than those advertised.

But because many immigrants like Revolorio don't have time or are afraid to go to authorities to complain and the money they lose per card is small little has been done to crack down.

"Every time I check, the telecommunications industry is a highly regulated industry. This one they don't want to regulate," said Gus West, head of the nonprofit Washington-based Hispanic Institute.

That's beginning to change. In the past year, attorneys general in Florida, California and several other states have begun to take a closer look at the phone card industry, as has the Federal Trade Commission. In October, Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., introduced legislation to regulate the business.

The push comes in part from an unlikely source communications giant IDT Corp. The Newark, N.J., company settled its own decade-long class-action lawsuit in January over allegations it failed to adequately disclose its charges. Now, it is leading the call for regulation at the state and federal level.

"What we'd like to see is an honest industry, where everyone is held to the same standard that we hold for ourselves," IDT head Jim Courter said.

The most popular cards among immigrants and the ones least likely to deliver promised minutes are those offering super cheap rates to countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti and India.

Norbert Dominguez of Miami said he buys about six $10 cards a month to stay in touch with his mother and 4-year-old daughter in Cuba. Each card promises 18 minutes but usually delivers closer to 12, he said. That's an actual cost of about 83 cents a minute, versus the promised 55 cents. Still, it is cheaper than the typical long-distance telephone rate of $1.15 a minute.

"It's the cheapest way to call because other ways are very expensive, but in the end, they're still swindling us," Dominguez said.

Dominguez said he has complained with little success. "They give you a customer service rep, but it's never someone with authority," he said.

An AP reporter had a similar experience when asking about a hot-pink card $5 card emblazoned "Pa' Llamar" (For Calling) that delivered only 60 of 148 promised minutes to Central America. Miami-based Blackstone Calling Cards, the company that advertises and distributes the cards, referred the reporter to ADMA Telecom, which provides the actual connection.

An ADMA customer service agent who identified himself only as Ernesto said the company's overtaxed computer system sometimes misreads the call destination.

"If you are calling for Nicaragua it could charge you the rate for Haiti. The caller has to call us and tell us that there was an inconvenience with the call, and we fix the problem," he said.

When pressed for more details, Ernesto referred the reporter to a supervisor, who in turn gave another phone number Blackstone's.

Oscar Munera, an independent distributor of calling cards, said that despite the problems, the cards are a bargain.

"Fifteen years ago, you couldn't even call Colombia because it was so expensive. Customers are never satisfied," he said. He said people could avoid problems if they read the fine print.

But the fine print isn't always available, readable or in the consumer's native language.

"There is so much variation in cards and fees that you can't just go to a store, look through the selection and make an informed choice," the University of Georgia's Marlowe said.

Engel's bill would require clear and standardized disclosures of all charges on the back of the card or in ads, ensure companies provide promised minutes and prohibit charges for unconnected calls.

"We're not attempting to have huge regulation, but I just want the average person to know what they're getting," the congressman said.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Smart Money Betting Big on 'Dumb' Phone Cards

They are phone cards, yes, but they carry none of the familiar magnetic stripes of ordinary telephone calling cards, or the computer chips of smart cards. No bill for long-distance calls arrives in the mail each month. In the shorthand of high-tech wizards, they are "dumb cards," merely giving people a prepaid way to make calls for a set amount of time.

But their simplicity is their appeal. They are so low-tech, telephone industry experts say, that they will undoubtedly become part of the future of just about every shopper or traveler in America.

"They're easy to use, and there's no surprise when you get the phone bill," said Wendy Brand, a preschool teacher in Houston who paid $5 for eight minutes of calling time on the first card she purchased, at a supermarket a month ago.

Mrs. Brand simply called an "800" telephone number on the back of her card and, after a signal, punched in a personal identification number, also imprinted on the card. Then she punched in the telephone number she wanted to call. Whether she called Dallas or Denver, her $5 card entitled her to the same amount of time on the phone.

"It's easier than hunting for change at a pay phone at the airport, especially with the kids," said Mrs. Brand, who has two young children. "A lot of people are putting them in their handbags for an emergency. It gives you a sense of security."

Use of prepaid 800-number telephone cards has grown exponentially in the last year from novel promotional gimmicks (including one offered by McDonald's to induce sales of burgers and fries) to an entire industry of entrepreneurs who are scrambling to get in one of the latest, and most lucrative, phone services.

Next week, Hallmark Cards Inc., in association with the Sprint Corporation, will offer what trade magazines say are more than a million phone cards attached to traditional greeting cards. The phone cards are even showing up in pregnancy testing kits so customers can "share the news."

"In the last year there has been an explosion of interest in these cards," said Harris Shapiro, an investment banker for Whale Securities in New York and one of the first analysts to study the fledgling industry. Uses Are Growing

Every day companies come up with new uses for the cards, and more and more are selling them as convenience cards for those whose credit rating does not allow them to qualify for telephone credit cards.

The use of high-tech smart phone cards is also likely to increase, analysts say, but the advantage of the 800-number cards is that nothing more than a touch-tone phone is needed. The prohibitive cost of new, expensive telephone gear for reading magnetic stripes is likely to delay the spread of more high-tech cards in the United States, phone industry executives say.

There are other advantages, too. Phone cards do not leave a paper trail of phone calls. Corporate offices can give them to traveling employees as a way to limit expenses on the road. And parents can give them to children when they are away at camp as a less costly alternative to phoning home collect. Last year, an estimated $75 million worth of time was sold on phone cards in the United States, said Marc Ostrofsky, publisher of Telecard World, a Houston-based trade publication. He said more than 350 companies were vying to offer phone-card services, compared with fewer than 100 a year ago.

Mr. Shapiro projects that the 1994 revenues for phone time sold in this way will be $100 million to $300 million, "and I can easily see a billion-dollar market in 1995," he said. Larry Brilliant, the chief executive of Brilliant Color Cards in San Rafael, Calif., the largest American printer of telephone cards, has prepared them for more than 100 companies. He is currently negotiating with some of the regional Baby Bell companies, as well as with nearly every Hollywood entertainment conglomerate and many Fortune 500 companies to design promotional tie-ins and other uses for 800-number cards.

"This business came out of nowhere, and is now one of the hottest things in the selling and marketing environment," said Bruce Bolger, director of the Selling and Marketing Megashow, a trade show in New York earlier this month. A Billboard in a Pocket "Most of these are small businesses and young entrepreneurs," Mr. Bolger said, "not just AT&T and MCI," although AT&T, Sprint and the MCI Communications Corporation all offer 800-number cards. Many phone companies are also making money from selling minutes of telephone time to 800-card providers. As an advertising medium, the cards offer at least three opportunities to pitch to consumers. The face of the card is a "billboard" for ads for services, causes or charities. The reverse side provides space for another promotional message. Callers may also hear a brief advertisement when they activate the 800 number.

"From a business standpoint, that's worth a lot," Mr. Ostrofsky said.

The 800-number cards have been called the "poor people's calling card," because they are an easily available substitute for people who do not qualify for credit. With that in mind, Greyhound Lines Inc. has offered the cards in vending machines in bus stations.

Mr. Shapiro, the analyst, said that 25 million Americans do not have telephones and 37 million do not have credit cards or long-distance capability on their phones. The phone card sellers typically buy bulk time from long-distance companies for 15 to 25 cents a minute. The companies sell the cards for 35 to 60 cents a minute.

For calls of as little as three to five minutes, the cards may be cheaper than conventional phone company credit cards because of the initial surcharge, averaging 75 cents, for using a credit card, Mr. Shapiro said.

But he said that for a call lasting longer than a few minutes, it might be less expensive to use a conventional calling card because the per-minute costs declined over time. Concern About Forgeries

Those in the phone-card industry worry about cards with forged 800 numbers or personal identification codes. Other fraud possibilities include "short-timing" -- selling a five-minute card that provides only three minutes of time, or no time at all.

And just as telephone credit card numbers are stolen, both the 800 number and the identification number can be noted by "shoulder surfers" lurking around pay phones. And the 800-number card can be used by anyone if it is stolen, because the identification number is printed on it.

While the immediate outlook for the cards is rosy, some phone card executives worry that America is a creditor nation and fear that some consumers may resent paying up front for phone calls. Also, there is no refund if the cards are lost.

Others in the industry see a shakeout soon in the number of phone card companies. As a result, many are specializing, aiming at college students, say, or the Hispanic or Asian-American market.

Either way, the cards "will change the entire way we think about telephone service," said Mr. Brilliant, the card maker. "Phone service is thought of as a utility like electric power or water, one that we take for granted. Phone cards make it a quantifiable commodity with a price -- one that you can barter, buy or sell."

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The New York-based long-distance company said that customers who get the card this year and continue to use it at least once annually will not be charged annual fees-ever.

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In Lieu Of Gifts, Newlyweds Want Phone Cards For Troops

Instead of the usual wedding gifts, they wanted long distance calling cards. Not for themselves -- but for the GI's in Iraq. The couple married last month in Port Angeles, Wash., and got their wish.

They have nearly 60 calling cards and more are still arriving. It's a personal issue with them. The new bride's son is a Marine who will soon be deployed to war zone.

The Claytons said they'll be sending all the cards overseas -- so the troops will be able to phone home for the holidays.

FCC rules against AT&T on calling cards

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal regulators ruled yesterday that AT&T skirted the law by failing to pay fees on its popular prepaid calling cards, a decision that could cost the long distance company about $500 million (euro378.7 million).

AT&T Corp contended that the cards should not be subjected to the fees, which go to local phone companies to cover their cost for connecting calls on their lines and to a federal fund that subsidises phone and Internet service in rural areas and for schools and libraries.

The company used to pay the fees, but in 1999 it added advertisements heard when someone placed a call using the prepaid cards. The ads, AT&T argued, made the cards an "information service", which are exempt from fees.

But the Federal Communications Commission disagreed, ruling the ads are incidental to the underlying telecommunications service offered to the cardholder.

"Companies cannot engage in misdirection or word games to avoid their universal service obligations," FCC chairman Michael Powell said.

ATT CALLING CARDS