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[P294]Phone Cards Calling Cards

by Seoamitpatel, Seo

One of the next best things besides a cell phone are calling cards. You can get them for prepaid cell phones and for pay phones. They also sell international cards so you can call anywhere in the world and you have a limited time so you won't run up your phone bills. The basic reason why people have these cards is they have pre paid phones or they do not have home phone. It is really amazing how many homes today do not have phone service.

Then there are those people who carry a phone card around in case of an emergency. How much change can you walk around with before you shake like a maracas when you walk. They carry cards to avoid carrying change, which is great too because it saves you space. You aren't weighed down by change. Let's say you have to call someone out of state, instead of putting a couple of dollars in change in your pocket you can carry the small, thin card to the phone.

There are no bills to pay and you don't have to worry about overage charges on a cell phone, when your minutes run out then so does your phone call. It is really that simple. These cards are also great for when you go on vacation. Using the hotel phone will cost you a lot of money and you don't want to pay a huge phone bill at the end of a great vacation. You can use most calling cards via the hotel phone. It should work the same as a regular land line phone.

The international cards are awesome, if you need to make an overseas call that won't last too long. International calls are expensive so you have to make sure you aren't on a long time unless you purchase something like 200 or 300 minutes. But even those go fast.

The downside to these cards is that you have to buy a lot of minutes in order for the card to be worth it. You spend a certain amount of money on a certain minutes and unless you are making a minute or less phone call the cards don't last very long. Then you have to pay another dollar amount and most cards are not less than $ 20.00. If you use it only in an emergency then great but if you use it more on a daily basis, it may be time to get a prepaid calling plan or a small plan for a cell phone.

Due to a shortage in coins and the growing payphone vandalism in Italy, in 1976 they decided to introduce a magnetic calling card, with a credit assigned to it, which people could buy at stores and then use to make phone calls from payphones.

By 1977, these magnetic strip calling cards were already becoming quite popular in the rest of the Europe.

Japan followed, introducing their first phone card some 5 years late, in 1982. Japanese people had to use a large coin to be able to place calls from payphones.

In 1989, America's giant so well known under the name of AT&T joins the ?trend?, featuring their very first remote telecards in Hawaii.

In 1990 a breakthrough takes place: NYNEX (New York's Regional Bell Operating Company) launches the first non-magnetic strip phone card ever. Instead, their cards used a PIN (the short name stands for Personal Identification Number). The company would thus allow it's card holders to dial an 800-number, then enter their PIN and make international calls. The advantage of the PIN numbers has proven to be a major one: card holders could now use their calling card account to make phone calls using any phone they wanted, not just payphones: a landline telephone, their mobile, even a friend's cell!

Starting in the early 1990's, the industry had a developing boom, going from $25 million in sales (in 1992) to a whooping $3+ billion, in 2000.

As the competition gets more and more aggressive, prices seem to be continuously shrinking, making it the best option for almost anyone who makes often international calls. Phone card companies are now striving to lower their rates and improve their call quality. At the same time, there's a constant development of phone card features, to make one company's calling cards better or more convenient than others?.

Imagine that you can now buy phone cards that have: automatic recharge option (you set a balance and an amount to be charged when you reach that balance); PINless dialing (you register the numbers from which you call most often, and there will be no need for you to dial a PIN when using your calling card from those phones); speed dial (allows you to allocate a phone number that you call most often to a digit on your phone; when you want to call that destination, instead of dialing the person's number, you will just press the digit assigned to him or her, through speed dial); get free trial minutes (some phone card companies allow you to create an account and sign up for some free international minutes to the destination of your choice, BEFORE you decide to buy their product).

Added to all these, some companies will even provide you with local access numbers, which allow you to save even more on your international calls, than using the classic 0800 numbers.

Competition gets stiffer and stiffer in the calling card industry, and to the end consumers like you and me, this can only mean more benefits, better deals, and better quality services.

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Both Seoamitpatel & Gen Wright are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Seoamitpatel has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet, Phone Cards and Family Travel. The Author Gives more information on and . Seoamitpatel's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.

Gen Wright has sinced written about articles on various topics from Terrier Dogs, Acne Treatment and Lose Weight. Alex Russell is interested in the VoIP technology and the advance of and