Evocallegorical  

Why Is the Real Amount of Call Minutes You Get with a Calling Card Online Less than Advertised One?

The answer is plain as a pike-staff. All calling card companies calculate the advertised call minutes just on the basis of per-minute rates. They leave all the fees out of account. However, when giving you the real call minutes, they count up those fees.

For example, you are going to buy a phone card at $20. Rate is 3.3 cent per minute for your destination. Then a calling card company will show your available phone call minutes are 20/3.3 = 606.

But your card has also a maintenance fee 79 cents a week. And you tend to use it for three weeks. Then the maintenance fee 79 * 3 = 2.37$ will be taken from your card's balance. And your real available minutes will be (20 - 2.37)/3.3 = 534, not 606. If your card has additional fees the difference will be larger.

It's possible to understand the companies. They simply need to sell more.

Some conclusions flow from that unpleasant fact:

• Any discrimination of calling card companies made on this base is incorrect because all the companies are guilty.
• Any complaint having the goal to put in the pillory one company or another shoots beside the mark. Since we can always ask: "And what about others?"

Yes, you are right! The following rule is absolutely obvious, natural, and self-sufficient:

Do not look at the advertised minutes at all!

I could add from myself: calculate real phone call time on your own, if you want or may, or somehow else. Or don't calculate it at all. Just don't take in view the advertised minutes... as I don't.

Or you may use those minutes to compare calling cards. But be careful! Remember about fees? They differ from card to card. You may mistake.
That's is why I recommend you to know how to compare calling cards properly.

Thus, with any calling card prepaid online, you have three quantities:

1. the minutes advertised by a company
2. the minutes calculated (or not) by yourself
3. the minutes you really get.

The advertised minutes are always overrated. They are not wanted.

The calculated minutes are close to the real ones. You'll always calculate them to make phone calls with open eyes. Use the special calculator for this.

Also, get to know what you need to do before buying a calling card.