Phone/calling card recommendations

[Susiesnowflake]

I've never purchased a phone/calling card before. Thought I'd pick one up to take with us to WDW. My husb and I are going alone, and I know we'll want to check in with the kids often. Any recommendations? Thanks!

 

[BethR]

You will find your very best per minute prices on Calling Cards at Sam's Club or Costco - and perhaps other member warehouses - but Sam's and Costco are the ones that I am familiar with. They are less than 4 cents a minute with no surcharges - unless you use them at a pay phone, and then they "charge" you - but no more than the change that you would have put in to make a local call.

One thing to note. Be sure to use your calling card AT a pay phone when on vacation. At Disney Resorts and at many other hotels, there is a charge for EVERY time that you dial your phone in your room (unless it it within the hotel itself) !

Good Luck and have a WONDERFUL trip!

 

[Susiesnowflake]

Thanks, Beth! I'll check those out.

 

[BonnieA]

Also beware of some calling cards that have expirations. I don't think the AT&T cards expire. But a Sprint calling card my brother got expired after 15 months and he hadn't even used it! And unless you read the very very small print on the back of the card, you don't realize it expires until you try to make a call with it.

 

[whozit]

I agree with BethR, Sam's club and Costco are the lowest priced calling cards I've seen. There is a charge whenever you use the card at a payphone (I think this is standard with all of the calling cards...and I think it is usually $0.45 or $0.50 per call). If you use the card to call from your room at a Disney resort, you won't incur a surcharge on your calling card, but a $0.75 charge will appear on your bill for every one of those calls (this is their charge for any local or toll free number dialed). Everybody wants some of your $$! I think that in both cases, you incur a charge even if your call isn't answered (because you did make a call to the toll-free number to access your account....even though you got no answer, or got a busy signal at the number you were trying to reach). Even with these charges, you'd have to make a lot of unsuccessful calls to come out worse than paying the per minute call for long distance from the resort. (In fact, at check-in this past August (at POR), I was given in info sheet that required my signature acknowledging that I had been informed of the phone charges at the resort, and the CM told me (and I think it was written in the info sheet) that if you dial direct long distance from your room, you will pay the highest per minute long distance charges allowed by law (and I think it was something like $9.00 per minute)). If you are not staying at a Disney resort, your hotel may offer "free local calls", and in that case, the toll-free call from your room to access your calling card account would likely be free.

 

[BethR]

Good information to know about hotel phone charges, whozit!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[jgates]

Look at the back of the card - if you are placing a call and you complete it, you can hit (I believe) *** when your other party hangs up and you don't have to re-enter all of your card info! Also on a payphone it keeps the same connection open and I don't believe you get a surcharge on the subsequent calls.

 

[prncess674]

Do you have a cell phone? Many plans now include nationwide roaming / long distance and if yours does it would be "free."