How do online calling cards work?
All that is required for a calling card to work is:
- PIN
- Local Access Number
About 5 years ago you would need to scratch surface of your calling card to unveil your PIN number: Today, this same PIN number and local access number can be e-mailed to you instantaneously. See Appendix A for a picture of what you will receive via e-mail.
How to Buy One?
You will need a credit card or a PayPal account to do this. Visit an online retailer and select the card you would like, then add it to your shopping cart and check-out. Once this is done you will receive the calling card instantly via e-mail.
Try a Safe Card First.
So, which is the safest calling card to buy. I think it’s CiCi Calling Card. Once you are familiar with buying cards online, you can become more adventurous, but for now get this one. Here’s the official site (www.cicicallingcard.com).
The top place to purchase calling cards online in Canada.
I use Phone Card Depot (www.phonecarddepot.com) because they actually include an image of your calling card with the PIN printed directly onto it. This enables me to print the card and keep it in my wallet like a regular calling card. This company also sends me a PDF of the actual card that I purchased, so I feel I’m getting more than just recycled electrons on a computer screen.
You can also check out: Onlinecallingcards.ca. He has written a good article about the cards.
APPENDIX A.
An online calling card that was purchased on the web.
A picture of an e-mailed calling card.
Categories: Uncategorized
Although this blog is typically more about phone card news and less about deals and discounts on calling cards. This is the best launch deal we’ve ever seen online.
You can get any of the following: Until December 15th.
- $5.00 Yak Card for $3.50
- $10.00 Yak Card for $7.50
- $20.00 Yak Card for $15.00
Here’s a link to the Yak Calling Card Purchase Page.
Here’s the web banner:
Here's the banner from Phone Card Depot
Categories: Uncategorized
When you see home services plans offered by companies like Yak, Onlinetel and Student Phone Plan: they are just advanced calling cards. Below is a description of how they work.
Sample home service plan function:
- User Dials Local Access Number
- “You have $5 remaining in your account”
- “Please dial your destination number”
- 1-555-688-8567
- “You have 90 minutes for this call”
- Ring…ring..
How Home Service Plans Work:
Since calling cards were created, the systems that they run on have been able to recognize the originating telephone number (ANI) and link this number to an account residing on the server. By linking the ANI to an account, the system does not need to rely on the entered PIN number to determine what the calling card’s available balance is. Pre-registering a user’s ANI and associated calling card balance with the calling card system creates “pinless dialing”. When a user calls in, the phone they are using sends the ANI to the calling card system and the system recognizes the user and their associated balance.
If no ANI is passed to the system, or if an unrecognized phone is used, the phone card system will prompt the user for their PIN number.
Advanced functions of Home Service Plans
- Multiple phone numbers can be registered with the plan
- Users can add money to their account through the phone system or online
- Speed-dial numbers can be registered within the plan. Once the local access number is dialed, the user can press a key to speed dial a commonly called number.
- Balances and call history can be viewed online.
Phonecarddepot.com
Phone Cards by Email
>>THIS ARTICLE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF PHONECARDDEPOT.COM. More articles on prepaid phone cards and discount long distance can be found in the Phone Card Depot Newsletter Archives.
Categories: Uncategorized
Tagged: home service plans, pinless dialing, yak, student phone plan, onlinetel
Most mobile/cellular companies now have plans called “Fab 5″ or “Fave 5″, etc… which allow plan subscribers to get free unlimited calling to the numbers on this list. Mom, Dad, Sister, Boyfriend… Phonecard?
What happens when you try and add a prepaid calling card’s local access number to your “Fab 5″ list?
In theory…
1. You will receive free unlimited airtime when using the registered calling card.
2. Calling cards can be used to any phone number in the world at current calling card rate (which are usually lower than per-minute cellular rate).
Combine 1. and 2. and you receive unlimited cellular airtime to any number in the world at lower than market cellular rates.
As an example, AVEO calling card charges 1.9 cents/minute long distance within Canada. Add AVEO’s local access number to your Fab 5 and receive unlimited cellular calling for 1.9 cents/minute.
Does it work? Currently, it works in Canada and several creative individuals are using this strategy. However, in London, England, where calling cards are very widely used, several cellular companies have began banning these numbers from “Fab 5″ plans. We expect this technique to continue to work until cellular companies get wise to this application of their plan and prepaid phone cards.
Please check your cellular contract before registering a phone card’s access number with your Fab 5 plan.
Phonecarddepot.com
Phone Cards by Email
>>THIS ARTICLE MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF PHONECARDDEPOT.COM. More articles on prepaid phone cards and discount long distance can be found in the Phone Card Depot Newsletter Archives.
Categories: calling card access number · calling card scams
Tagged: calling card, cellular, mobile, phone card, scams
Commentary by James Tiegs, Customer Support. Phonecarddepot.com
In 1999, Siesta Telecom heard the call from God when they placed a picture of Pope John Paul II, along with his signature, seal and a prayer on a prepaid phone card by the prepaid telephone card company “Siesta Telecom”.
I’m not sure if there are any holy hidden fee’s on this card but would feel more comfortable throwing an extra dollar in the collection plate than scratching the back of His Holiness looking for a PIN number. I can see the headline now: “Seas part to allow for 3cents per minute to Rome.” Below are pictures of the card, and a copy of the press-release.
Vatican Calling Card (Large View)
Press Release
Miami, FL, Nov. 18, 1999 (DLD Digest) - Siesta Telecom Inc., the premier prepaid telephone-card company located in Sarasota, Fla., has announced the first- ever, prepaid phone card series of His Holiness Pope John Paul II.
The Vatican Card Series will feature never-before-seen images of Pope John Paul II, along with his personal signature, seal and accompanying prayer — the first time ever these items have been presented together by the Vatican.
Four images in the Series will be released this year and the remaining four will be released in 2001.
“The Vatican selected Siesta Telecom to exclusively offer these cards for the next two years,” said Signore Claudio Grisanti, Department of Secretary of State, Vatican City. “These cards provide a unique way to fund the Holy Father’s personal priority of family programs because Siesta Telecom is donating one dollar from each card to the Vatican for that purpose. In addition, parishes who wish to sell the cards in their communities will also keep part of the profits. This is a creative and very effective way for His Holiness to reach out and touch millions of people in the United States and Latin America.”
Categories: Uncategorized
Last month, Phonecarddepot.com received a call from a lawyer in central USA. He proceeded to tell one of our representatives that his law office has been receiving 20 calls a day (for the last two months) from people seeking information on their prepaid CiCi phone cards (lost PINs, rates, etc). It turns out that one of CiCi’s retailers posted the 1-800 number of his law firm as CiCi’s customer service number!
The director of the firm called the calling card manufacturer and immediately thereafter all merchants were told to update their customer service numbers. The law firm has apparently owned this 1-800 number for the last 10 years.
In a previous post Phone Card Depot rated CiCi Calling Card as “The Perfect Toronto Calling Card“. Below is an accurate and complete list of CiCi’s local access and customer service numbers.
Categories: CiCi Calling Card
Dialing long distance from North America? You’ll need both the country and city code of the calling destination.
i.e. 011 + 27 + 21 + Tel #
- Long Distance Prefix
- Country Code
- City Code
- The local destination number
Below are the top 3 resources:
- Countrycode.ca: AJAX Powered Search
- Countrycallingcodes.com: 2 Step Search
- Wikipedia: Country Dialing Codes
Countrycode.ca:
Advantages: Fast, clean and simple design. Disadvantages: No American City Codes
Countrycallingcodes.com:
Advantages: Contains American City Codes Disadvantages: Cluttered, 2-step process
Wikipedia:
Advantages: Wealth of information Disadvantages: Confusing and no search function.
Categories: Country Code · International Dialing · Uncategorized
All that is required to connect to the prepaid phone card company’s call routing machine is an access number and a PIN. The physical card (as seen at variety stores) is not needed as it is not swiped or scanned.
Calling card e-mails that you receive from any online calling card merchant will contain just the access number and the PIN, no card needed.
Phone Card Depot: Prepaid Phone Card Blog
Written by: Tavis McKenzie
Categories: email · prepaid phone card by email
February 5, 2007 · 1 Comment
Phonecarddepot.com ran a simple test to see if your anonymity is protected when using a prepaid phone card. The test: does the number you are calling from show up on the call display of the phone you are calling?
The way calling cards work is that your local access number connects you to a server that routes your call through the carrier’s lines or through the Internet to a gateway in the call desination city. Phone Card Depot’s hypothesis was that the call display on the receiving phone would display either the local access number that we dialed or a number associated with the destination gateway, not the real number that we made the call from. Our staff was surprised at the results.
Our GM, Tavis McKenzie dialed his Motorola i830 cellular phone from the Phone Card Depot office landline and took pictures of the call display.
Phone Card Depot’s landline number is 905-737-6478, let’s see what shows up in the call display of his Motorola i830 cellular phone.
Using CiCi Calling Card
Number Calling From: 905.737.6478
Number on Call Display: 905.737.6478 (correct)
Result: Not Anonymous
Using Telus Calling Card
Number Caling From: 905.737.6478
Number on Call Display: 780.402.0002 (incorrect)
Result: Anonymous
From these results it was concluded that the type of calling card used is what was important to anonymity. Today’s calling cards are routed through two different systems: VOIP and traditional land lines. Upon further research we believe that cards running off of VOIP systems are usually not anonymous because they pass the number you are calling from through to the destination telephone’s call display. Calling cards that are run off of the traditional call-routing schema are considered anonymous.
Phone Card Depot: Prepaid Phone Card Blog
Written by: Tavis McKenzie
Tags: are calling cards anonymous, anonymous calling cards, private calling cards
Categories: are calling cards anonymous · private calling cards
Our previous post entitled “Is your vision 20/20” mentioned the vast differences between two calling cards: 20/20 and 20/20 Plus. That post can be summarized as follows:
*Ian Dowie, Manager of Charlton was given a 10/10 on the “ugly-o-meter” at uglyfootballers.com
Callingcardreviews.org rated 20/20 as follows:
“This card (20/20) is an absolute MESS. It reminds me of a certain cousin who always gets drunk at family reunions. In both cases, I want to scream “TAKE IT EASY”!”
Phone Card Depot agrees with Calling Card Reviews and have removed 20/20 from our inventory and replaced it with 20/20 Plus, yes “Plus”. This card is a completely different product with great rates, no hidden fees and very good call quality.
20/20 Plus is not positioned as a good calling card from the United States (there is a large 8 cents/minute premium for doing so. From Canada there is no premium, no hidden fees and the card works very well.
Regards,
Phone Card Depot: Prepaid Phone Card Blog
Written by: Tavis McKenzie
Categories: 20/20 plus · 2020 calling card · good calling card from the united states · ugly soccer player
