Cheap International Calling Card

2008-06-02T09:26:00.002-07:00

So I just moved to Caracas Venezuela and of course the second thing my parents thought of, after freaking out about the political situation, was the fact that they would not be able to talk to me every day like they did in the sates when I was at college. Of course the first thing I thought was “come on mom there are really cheap international calling cards”.
So, for anyone that has lived outside of the states or has a friend that lives outside of the states, you know there are really cheap international calling cards. Now they might not actually be cheap per say, but in comparison to what an actual long distance call would cost they are cheaper.
My parents pay around 22 cents a minute when they call me form the states. An international calling card probably costs on average, around 5 cents a minute. This may not seem like a big difference, but trust me when you have a mom that stalks me like my mom does this is a marked difference.
Most calling cards allow you to call internationally because what else would people need them for? Before I came down here I investigated and you can find cheap international calling cards at most local grocery stores and drugstores. There are numerous places that sell calling cards, they are not hard to find; you just have to ask around a little.

Now in reality to call from the states internationally the prices are not that much more expensive than on the calling cards, due to the telephone service we have in the sates. You will mostly need a calling card if you are abroad and trying to call your home country. In this case you will most likely not have a phone plan with cheap long distance and will want a calling card. You can buy these in your home country or once you get to the country to which you are traveling. Either way they are not that hard to find.

Prepaid International Calling Card

2008-06-02T09:26:00.001-07:00

Prepaid international calling cards are what you will find inmost store selling calling cards. These have a certain amount of money on them and you slowly use it up as you make phone calls.
I used these to calmly parents when I went to Acapulco in college. Now the one problem is that some will warn you how much money you have left on them before you call and some will tell you after. The bad ones are the ones that don’t and you are simply cut off in the middle of a conversation without warning. Also I don’t know about you but I have a hard time keeping track of how long I have talked when I am on the phone. I find that 9 times out of ten I go over and get cut off because I am not really paying attention to how much tome I have.
Since moving to Venezuela I discovered something even better than repaid international calling cards. I have a cell phone here that lets me text message internationally for a fairly cheap price. Now I simply text message my parents or friends when I want them to call me and they do. It is much cheaper this way, at least for me and much more convenient because I can tell them when is a good time to call.

When I left I thought I was going to be sending a lot of money on prepaid international calling cards. However since I got here I have not spent one dime. I know that phone service here is pretty expensive so people do not make phone calls on a regular basis. For this reason I revel in my text messaging capabilities

Overseas Calling Card

2008-06-02T09:25:00.002-07:00

So you are moving oversees? What scares you the most? Are you worried about not being about to see your family? Maybe you are scared because you think you will not ever be able to keep in touch with your friends? Or maybe you are more worried about loosing all the luxuries you enjoyed in the United State? I am not really sure what scared me the most. I know it wasn’t the not being able to talk to my family and friends; I knew there were a ton or overseas calling cards out there so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. As superficial as it sounds, I was worried about losing the things I took for granted in the United States. There are things I have gotten used to such as my shampoo, and I would really rather not change to a different one.
So I decided after all this worrying that I was really a spoiled brat, and if my fear of not having my shampoo was what was worrying me the most I need to just suck it up and go anyway. Who really cares if my hair gets mad at me for a week or so while I switch?

So I made the move overseas; though I am not really sure if you can call it that since I live in South America, is it still over seas if you are in the same hemisphere and didn’t have to actually cross a sea to get there? Okay well that is beside the point. I moved here with the though that United States was the most advanced country in the world and the only one capable of having my toiletries and the food items that I cherished. Well I am an idiot. As I have told my parents multiple times I have managed to find pretty much everything that I liked in the states here and am currently living in the same manner. Due to the existence of overseas calling cards I am even able to keep in touch with my friends.

International Phone Calling Cards

2008-06-02T09:25:00.001-07:00

It is hard to move or even travel internationally with some assurance that you will be able to talk to your loved ones on a frequent basis. Thank god for international calling cards. If you are moving to another country these may not be a use to you as you are probably able to get a reasonable plan from your phone company. However if you are traveling abroad it can be difficult to get in touch with people in your home country. Okay so most cities have internet cafes nowadays but if you are anything like me you like to hear your mother’s actual voice once in a while, not just to read her words on a computer screen.
So before you travel it would probably be in your best interest to investigate some international phone calling cards. Now I have actually found a website on the internet-surprise surprise-that provides you with rate information on different calling cards, http://www.masterbell.com/. For example I searched for information for calling Venezuela from the United States and the web page gave me 20 different calling cards. Now I would say this is a pretty thorough search.
From this information you are able to at least estimate how much it will cost your family and friends to get in touch with you. All you have to do is reverse the search to find out how hard it will be for you to keep in touch with them.

Now the hard part might actually be finding the calling cards with the best rates in your home town. Well, aren’t you lucky, this website even allows you to order the cards online and to refill them? It is amazing what you can do with the internet nowadays. So, here you go, no more worries. Finding international phone calling cards is like every thing else these days; as simple as searching on the internet

Cheap Prepaid Calling Card

2008-06-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

So most prepaid calling cards are cheap prepaid calling cards. I mean when you think about it, the calling cards really are significantly cheaper than the cost of calling from a landline. My parents pay around 20 cents a minute to call me and I have found calling cards from the United States to Venezuela for a low at 3 cents a minute. I found most of these online. Of course this is not surprising since you are able to find most things you need these days online.
So anyway; if you go online and search under calling cards or cheap prepaid calling cards, or anything remotely resembling these terms you will find a large list of companies devoted to finding you the cheapest prepaid calling cards possible. Many of these sites will let you order the cards online and will even let you refill the card you have, on the same website; saving you the aggravation and charge of buying another card.
So maybe I am just lazy. This seems like an amazingly simple thing to do yet my parents, my best friend, and I still communicate using traditional landlines. I am sure my best friend’s husband has to have pitched a fit over her phone bills. Still no one looks for any other option. Maybe we are all just lazy, but I feel like there are definitely better options out there.

For some reason my parents have not investigated this service. It would seem as though it is a good resource. However my parents and most of my friends in the United States still all using conventional landline. Why is this? I mean they are all smart people, they have to know that there is a cheaper way to call me; but yet the all use their landlines.
For some reason I think they may see cheap prepaid calling cards as being unreliable. Where I live, anything that is cheap and gets you around conventional channels is suspect. Maybe this is the problem, though I don’t think it is a true observation