$0.019 / min prepaid phone cards

[phantasm]

I was looking for some prepaid phone cards to give as a gift and found these:
Link

If you make long single calls, then the way to go is to buy the $5 cards but you have to talk a minimum of 14.63 minutes to beat out the $0.06 / minute card with no surcharge. Bottom line for the $5 card for a single phone call is $0.0216 / minute assuming you use all the minutes up.

Be sure you understand the terms and conditions before buying one because you could cost yourself a bit of money by not doing so. Specifically, read the bit on what states these are valid for.

Edit - Fixed the links. Terms and Conditions

 

[immortalis]

Wasn't there a thread for these?
But an update/reminder is good, thanks.

 

[dchilder]

Sam's Club has $.059 per minute cards with no surcharge. You pay a minimum of 3 cents if calling from a pay phone, but you can recharge them with CC.

DC

 

[phantasm]

The sams deal is good if you make calls less than 15 minutes. But for calls longer than 20 minutes, the WxC deal is better.

 

[drac747]

What about Bigzoo.com? 3.9cents/min and I haven't had a surcharge yet for using it from different payphones. No minimum minutes per call requirement.

 

[Daniel]

Bigzoo is really good I've found, only reason I haven't used them much recently is it was only 5 dollars more a month to make my cell phone minutes all long distance and that's what I primarily use.

 

[Thyme]

The sams deal is even better if you get the Gift Cards at 20 percent off.

 

[phantasm]

Even with 20% off at Sams if you talk longer than 21.28 minutes your better off with the WxC deal. With the bigzoo deal you'll if you talk longer than 30 minutes the WxC deal is better (assuming you don't call from a pay phone and use all the minutes in one call).

It just depends on how long you talk. When I call my friends, I usually talk for quite a while so the WxC deal will be good for me.

BTW - Thyme, great tag line.

 

[Fpr]

Here's some of the fine print. I dunno about this deal. The very first call you make charges you .75 for the monthly fee, .60 for the connection fee, and then 2 cents a minute. I guess the key is to use up the money you pay up front with one call all within the first month. Do these cards come through the mail? Is there a delivery fee?

So if you buy the $5 card, after the initial connection and monthly usage fees, you have $3.65 cents left. That's 182 minutes at 2 cents a minute. In reality, if you use the card all up in one sitting the first month, it works out to 2.74 cents a minute at best. Or, from another perspective, $2.50 for 1 hour of calls. The real problem lies in if you don't use the card up though on the first call. Then the next time you use it, they grab another .60 cents from you, and then your actual overall rate is much higher.

I'd rather stick with a low rate, no connection fee and open ended billing.

I've seen the cheap Bigzoo 3.9 cents rates, but I've also read that you can never get through. I think that might be the one I sign up for next though. Does anyone know if Bigzoo is voice over the internet like the horrible net2phone?

--------------------------

Calls are billed with a 3-Minute Minimum and in 1 Minute Increments.
A service fee of .75 per month applies after first use and every 30 days thereafter.
There will be a surcharge of $0.75 on calls made from payphones
All rates are subject to change without notice
Interstate and international calls can be placed from any states. International calls to cellular (mobile) numbers will be charged at a higher rate.
Cards expire 90 days after first use.

 

[Havoc13]

No good for Cali... Bummer... I'll have to stick with Costco @ 4.1 cpm...

 

[drac747]

Bigzoo.com is *not* voice over Internet. Quality is great and I rarely have a problem getting through unless its to an international location. Other than that, its great and I've saved a bundle.

 

[phantasm]

Fpr,
The first call doesn't have the $.75 surcharge.
"A service fee of .75 per month applies after first use and every 30 days thereafter. "

...meaning you only pay the $.60 connection fee + $0.019 / min charge for the first call.

Multiple calls are a different story.

But anyways, I ordered 2 $5 cards. I'll let you know how it goes. Free S/H BTW.

 

[db]

I think the Sam's cards are now 4.1 cents/minute.

 

[jrichrds]

I like the keep it simple. No surcharges, no worrying about having to talk over a certain amount of minutes to save, no having to call first to make sure a person is there before using the phone card with a surcharge. Just one simple, low rate.

So for me, it's BigZoo (3.9) and the Costco Sprint (4.2) card.
BigZoo's quality sucks compared to the major long distance carriers. It's variable...sometimes it's good, sometimes it's crap. A while back, they promoted that they were not on Internet VoIP and were using only fiber optic lines (all they can really do is buy minutes in bulk from the major carriers anyways). They've since removed any mention of that, which makes me wonder. But it's not like the quality was better back then than now anyways. They must be doing something like cramming more people on one circuit. Busy signals are really annoying. Happens a lot always during the same general hours. They'll give you another toll-free number to call if you pay 75 cents/month, but the call quality going through that second number almost always stinks. It's bearable, but the main number is the only one I get decent call quality out of.
Other than that, I've liked the service. Real-time tracking of calls is useful. And international rates rock. That's my main use for the service.

Quality-wise, the Sprint card is a lot better. Call quality is almost always good, there's never a busy signal. The only problem I've had with them is at times the call can't be completed "due to technical difficulties". I've gotten that a few times. Oh, and don't even think about calling internationally with this card.

 

[dchilder]

Thanks db. If Sam's are 4.1 cents, that is pretty good. They are ATT. Can you recharge via CC the Costco and BigZoo cards?

DC

 

[thenraja]

The ATT Card at Sams is 4.16 cents a min. At 20% off it is 3.3 cents. I have a local access number to place calls using Bigzoo at 2.9 cents a min. I use both. No problems.
You can re-charge your Bigzoo account at www.bigzoo.com
Thenraja

 

[drac747]

There is this other place www.onesuite.com and I haven't used them. Apparently they offer 2.9c/min with a toll-free number. Guessing its just like bigzoo.com although I rarely have much problems with bigzoo and also like the real-time call tracking feature.

 

[Lark888]

Problem with the new 4.1 c/m SAM's is that you can not recharge them with your CC. The 5.9 c/m SAM's can be. Both are AT&T which is reliable, high connection rate (never had a problem).

 

[TuOni]

cool