Pre Paid Phone Card

[stephensmum]

Can anyone tell me where I can get one of these?

 

[Sweet Pea UK]

You can more or less get them anywhere. We found the one in Walmart to be excellent value. Always make sure you read how many minutes you get for your money - some are a rip off! When we have travelled with Virgin we have bought them from our Virgin Rep and these are also good value.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

We have found the one's from the Kennedy Space Center store at MCO airport very good value for money.
Also 'Florida Star' one's from one of the many discount stores either on I drive or 192 in Kissimmee are good too.

 

[tashasmum]

They can be bought almost anywhere except in the parks themselves.

 

[seashoreCM]

Watch out for the "per-call" aka "connection" charge in addition to the per minute charge. Seventy five cents to a dollar (US) for the per call charge is not unusual.

Also verify applicability and rates for UK to US versus within-US calls and even within-UK calls for using up the card after you get back home.

All have a per-call charge or a very high per minute charge when used from a pay phone including a credit card swipe phone. Some have no per-call charge and a low per minute rate when used from your home phone or from a courtesy phone that offeres free local cals.

The per-call charge imposed by the hotel (about 75 cents for Disney resorts) is still in effect and on top of all this, but prepaid cards charge their non-pay-phone per-call charge when you make the call from your room phone.

So far I have found the best cards for my use (in the 5 cent per minute range) in drug variety stores (CVS, Walgreens) while the convenience stores seem to have more with high per-call charges.

Example: A 75 cent per-call charge and 2 cents a minute requires calls averaging 25 minutes to be more economical than no per-call charge and 5 cents a minute.

More: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/phoncard.htm

 

[MorningGlory]

Great info, thanks seashoreCM

I'll be using the phonecards regularly as I like junior to call his mum as often as possible when we're on holiday, preferably daily, so i'll make sure to get the cards with no per-call charge

 

[wilma-bride]

We bought a phone card from the Airtours rep when we were picking up our ticket vouchers at Sanford - might be a good opportunity for you too

 

[crabbie1]

I noticed when we bought cards from the disney hotel they were not lasting very long at all?If I buy one from over here and use it in a disney hotel will they still charge the high rates or is it built into the pre paid cards?When I stayed on I-Drive and bought one from the hotel reception it lasted us ages.I never phone from the room.I may just put some money on my husbands pay as you go mobile and use that for texting instead.

Watch out for the "per-call" aka "connection" charge in addition to the per minute charge. Seventy five cents to a dollar (US) for the per call charge is not unusual.

Also verify applicability and rates for UK to US versus within-US calls and even within-UK calls for using up the card after you get back home.

All have a per-call charge or a very high per minute charge when used from a pay phone including a credit card swipe phone. Some have no per-call charge and a low per minute rate when used from your home phone or from a courtesy phone that offeres free local cals.

The per-call charge imposed by the hotel (about 75 cents for Disney resorts) is still in effect and on top of all this, but prepaid cards charge their non-pay-phone per-call charge when you make the call from your room phone.

So far I have found the best cards for my use (in the 5 cent per minute range) in drug variety stores (CVS, Walgreens) while the convenience stores seem to have more with high per-call charges.

Example: A 75 cent per-call charge and 2 cents a minute requires calls averaging 25 minutes to be more economical than no per-call charge and 5 cents a minute.

More: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/phoncard.htm

 

[stephensmum]

Thanks everyone. We don't drive so I was hoping to get one here before we left. I may get one from airtours rep at sandford or from publix as we have a 30 min stop. Do you get instructions on how to use them. Staying at POFQ, will I be able to use it there?

 

[arieliwish]

Hi,

We were in orlando in 2004 and bought a phone card at belz mall and it only lasted a couple of calls. Before we went in 2005 I bought a Bizon one online from masterbell.com (now comfi.com) for $20 and every time we used it to call home it only seemed to go down by a dollar, even if the call lasted 15 mins!! I printed off the 'card' and you had to dial an access number and pin and then dial the uk number you wanted. Didn't try it from our room phone (CBR) but did use it at payphones in the parks. We kept in touch with home quite a lot and came home with about $12 still on it! I think you could top it up online within 12 months, and it had no weekly fee as some do. You can check them out on the website, I'd definitely get another next time.

Lynn

 

[crabbie1]

Hi,

We were in orlando in 2004 and bought a phone card at belz mall and it only lasted a couple of calls. Before we went in 2005 I bought a Bizon one online from masterbell.com (now comfi.com) for $20 and every time we used it to call home it only seemed to go down by a dollar, even if the call lasted 15 mins!! I printed off the 'card' and you had to dial an access number and pin and then dial the uk number you wanted. Didn't try it from our room phone (CBR) but did use it at payphones in the parks. We kept in touch with home quite a lot and came home with about $12 still on it! I think you could top it up online within 12 months, and it had no weekly fee as some do. You can check them out on the website, I'd definitely get another next time.

Lynn

I have just gone on this website and bought the card you had but it was asking me to wait for verification of payment then they would e-mail me a pin and a phone number.I thought I would recieve a card through the post.Hope this works

 

[arieliwish]

Hi, I printed my own details off, can't remember if it was from an email or logging in to the site. There was a helpline number too which we used once from MGM when the payphone didn't take the pin, they were very helpful and connected me. We made several calls from all the disney parks, downtown disney and one of the malls, all from normal payphones and not quick calls. I really did think it was worth the money after our experience from buying one in a mall on our first trip.

The coolest thing is calling your friends who've been to disney and saying 'Hi I'm calling you from the pirates of the carribean shop....'!!

Lynn

 

[stephensmum]

Thanks Lynn, I'm going to try this, when I get the printer working.

 

[Goofyish]

We got phone cards from a high street travel agents in the UK before we went last trip - I think they were from Lunn Poly, who I think are now called something else.

We got 2x £10 cards and we used them for several calls home over the two weeks we were in WDW and they still had plenty of time left on them.

 

[Hilary]

If you'll be making a stop at Publix, buy a Sprint International pre-paid card there. We've had a couple of these on various trips.

You can get one for $5 that gives you 100 minutes of calls to the UK (5 cents per minute)! No charges for connection (even from hotel room phones). They are NOT good value for making US calls, or for using a pay phone, but otherwise they are fantastic value, and much cheaper thn any pre-paid cards we've ever bought in the UK

 

[paulh]

Hi,

. Before we went in 2005 I bought a Bizon one online from masterbell.com (now comfi.com) for $20 and every time we used it to call home it only seemed to go down by a dollar, even if the call lasted 15 mins!!

All phone cards when used on pay phones will have 75c or $1.25 taken of the ballance.If used from a landline no charge.if you use in room at disney think there will be a 25c or 50c charge to conect to a freehone number.This is not taken of card but put on your room bill.If in DVC and staying at DVC there is no charge to conect.If calling from a pay phone best advice is to stay on for a ling time as this works out cheaper than lots of short calls due to the conection charge
Paulh

 

[stephensmum]

Thanks for the help. Hilary, we have an 30 min stop at Publix so this sounds good. How do you use it? Does it get charged to your room bill?

 

[Hilary]

The Sprint card is activated when you pay for it. There is a toll free access number printed on the card - you dial this from your hotel phone as you would any other outside toll free number (most of the hotels we've stayed in have had these as one of the options listed in their phone instructions). We've never been charged by the hotel for this.

I think this is how the rest of it goes, but I may have got some in the wrong order! Anyway, it's all very clearly spelled out for you at each step.

You'll be asked to input your card number - this is also printed on the card. Next you choose whether your call is for the US or non-US. You'll then be told how many minutes you have remaining for the call. Then you're asked to dial the number you want, complete with country code, etc. (For example, to reach a UK number you'd have to dial 01144 followed by the area code omitting the first 0 and then the number - so a UK number of 01234 556677 would be 01144 1234 556677)

Hope that sounds simple enough! The hardest thing for me is always working out which number to dial to get the right outside line from the hotel!

 

[paulh]

). We've never been charged by the hotel for this.

the disney hotels apart fom the DVc ones (covered by dues ) charge for conecting to a freephone number.Madaning as it is still works out cheaper than using payphone
Paulh

 

[dc1964]

Walmart A T and T $10 phone card. used it for the last fortnight, called home every day on hotel phone using the 1-800 number, think it gave us 171 minutes. However if used in a payphone there is a automatic debit of $0.85 per call, so avoid payphones.