These prepaid calling cards are very convenient for people who find themselves far from their phones at home, especially since these cards allow them to make the calls that they need using any mobile phone or pay phone. Aside from this, the card is also very easy-to-use, and is also one of the best cost-saving alternatives for making long distance calls, as compared to your basic long distance provider who charges you monthly wherein you are being billed not only for the calls that you have made, but even for the calls that you didn’t. With prepaid calling cards, you are only paying for the amount of talk time that you will be using, which will save you a great deal of money in the long run.

PREPAID CALLING CARD MARKET

These prepaid calling cards will most likely appeal to almost everyone, especially to those people who are constantly traveling to far places, as well as students and credit-challenged consumers due to its convenience, and cash-based commitment-free features. Since there is already a huge market for these prepaid calling cards, it is only normal to assume that marketing these phone cards may become a lucrative business for anyone to take part in. However, there are certain things that phone card retailers need to know before they can succeed in marketing prepaid calling cards to their consumers.

PREPARATION NEEDED BEFORE SELLING

Before anything else, in order to avoid any legal complications later on, you must be aware of the requirements of California Business and Professions Code Section 17538, wherein a retailer must make sure that certain information, such as surcharges or fees, which includes monthly fees and per-call access fees, the different prices and rates for international usage and other prepaid calling card services, per-call minimum charge, charge for calls that did not connect, recharge policy, name of the company and billing decrement, just to name a few, should be in a prominent area on the packaging of the card, and must be printed legibly so that the consumers are informed of such facts.

You may need to register with the CPUC are going to run the prepaid phone card platform, wherein you will control the rates, connection fees, charges and other fees.

EARNING THROUGH PREPAID CALLING CARDS

Once you have done this, then you can start selling the prepaid calling cards for profit to end users. In order to ensure that you are able to gain enough profit from your business, you must buy a large quantity of the prepaid calling cards from a source, one that will discount a considerable amount from your total purchase for buying the cards in bulk, and selling the cards for a much higher amount than what you have originally paid for them. You can just even provide a marketing venue for retailers and sellers of prepaid calling cards, whereby you are still able to earn some profit without having to sell the cards yourself.

It would be best if you are able to find an area where there are a lot of travelers, or students, or credit-challenged consumers, to ensure that you will always have a market present to whom you can sell your prepaid calling cards to.

Source: http://www.polandcallingcards.info/articles_5.php

Calling card suppliers know this and try to hide the cost of the phone call in charges other than the call rate. These charges all add up to make the cost of the phone call breakeven after an average length phone call.

Some of the more common ways of hiding calling costs are:

• surcharges
• peak rate call charges
• monthly charges and weekly or daily maintenance or service fees
• quick expiry
• automatic recharge
• frequent or timed disconnections
• large billing increments
• credit card transaction fees

The surcharges are not the same as a connection or flag-fall fee. A surcharge is generally related to the length of a call and charged at a set time interval after you start speaking, so for example after 5 or 10 minutes a fee of 40c may be charged. This is because not everybody’s call is an average length and so the surcharge fee recovers the money for the cheaper call rate. This surcharge can vary depending on the destination you are calling.

If you buy a phone card based on off-peak rates it means it is only really the best card for you during the off-peak period. Most often these off-peak periods are the most inconvenient time of day like 3 am. They are cheaper because the phone card supplier can buy minutes cheaper when no one wants them. You should always buy your caling card based on comparing the peak call rates. That way you are buying the cheapest phone card for when you will actually be using it.

Some calling cards apply a daily, weekly or monthly service fee that eats away at your credit even when you are not using the phone card. With these phone cards it is better to buy the smaller denominations like $5 or $10 and use the whole phone card in one or two calls.

Phone cards have a life lasting from 1 to 12 months. After this they expire and any credit remaining unused on the phone card is lost. The average life of a phone card is 3 months. Any phone cards with a very short life of less than one month should be avoided.

You should be sure to check that your phone card is for a single purchase and that it doesn’t automatically charge your credit card again when it is empty to top up or replenish the minutes on the phone card.

If your phone calls drop out after a certain time and this is at the same point each time it probably has a call duration limit. These are often set to 1 or 2 hours. If they frequently drop out at random times this is due to poor line quality. Limited call durations are not only inconvenient but can be very costly if a fixed call duration is combined with high connection fees. You keep getting disconnected and when you redial you are charged another connection fee.

Usually phone cards are billed in one minute increments. This means that if you talk for two and a half minutes you will be charged for 3 minutes. Your standard telecom landline service is generally billed in 1 or 6 sec increments. Some cards bill in 10 minutes increments which means you need to talk for 10, 20 or 30 minutes to get the best value from the card. If, for example, you talked for 13 minutes your call would be rounded up and you would still be charged for 20 minutes!

Make sure you are not charged a transaction fee when you buy your card using a credit card. Sometimes you only see this on your credit card statement a month later. It will generally be about an additional 2% fee to recover the merchant processing fees the bank charges the phone card supplier for using their processing facilities.

To choose the right phone card and be informed of these hazards you need all your phone cards compared and reviewed on the same basis. Ephonecards provides this service free for the most reliable phone cards in Australia.

Another danger you must be aware of is that if you loose your phone card the company will not replace it. This is because someone else can find it and use the remaining balance. You should keep a record of the PIN number in a safe place in addition to details printed on the actual card. With online suppliers like www.ephonecards.com.au your PIN numbers are kept online in your account as well as being sent to you by email so you always have access to the PIN even if you loose it.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles/8-dangers-of-using-phone-cards-to-call-overseas-159458.html

As far as I’ve seen on the web, there are a lot of people complaining about having bought a calling card, only using it once, and then when they wanted to use it again (after a year or so), they noticed that it had expired. Yeah, I’d get pretty mad too, if that happened to me!

But luckly, some companies have noticed this, and they solved the problem, offering phone cards that never expire. You can check out the offer of www.nobelcom.com, or find one of your own. You’ll save money on international calls without having to worry about your credit (for which you have already paid) expiring.

Compared to the meager choices that the cellular telephone companies have to offer, a well-chosen permanent long distance carrier such as NobelCom long distance service provides the ultimate savings for families who are achieving success in their professional lives in the U.S. while supporting their extended families abroad.

The versatility of an advanced long distance plan makes it ideal for most subscribers, enhancing their quality of life through 24-hour access to low per-minute rates to such destinations as Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, just to name a few. Whether you’re calling within one of the larger metropolitan areas or a smaller city or town in Ukraine, for example, there are long-distance plans available to suit your needs. Plans with any-time-of-day discount periods represent the best and most flexible of subscription-based long distance calls.

By combining low rates and 24-hour availability the better plans can help you achieve great savings in your monthly telecommunications spending. One of the principal ways that a plan like NobelCom.com can reduce your long distance bill is reducing working with the most advanced carriers with fewest system failures, which enhances service availability. Thus, the savings are passed on to the end-users of the long distance services, making for one of the best package plans available today. Some of the greatest contributors to overall success of an advanced long distance plan are the management and engineering teams who work hard on reducing development and connection costs. This behind-the-scenes work is what makes it possible for numerous long distance plan subscribers to benefit from low rates and excellent connection quality, which have historically been the two key factors in selecting a long distance plan worth calling home about.