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.