CALLING ADVICE |
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Jonathan's Top 5
cheapest
Ways to keep in
touch when placing long distance phone calls within America |
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After having a lot of
success helping people find the cheapest rates on calling internationally,
I decided to put up a page with information about the cheapest long
distance rates when calling within America.
As with the
international calling page, the advice for the cheapest calling within
America can be found on this page. If you want the best rates on
cheap international and national calling cards, as well as airfares, be sure to check out the links on this page marked
with a
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1. Do call Use a calling
card! Contrary to popular belief, the phone company will not give
you very good rates on calling nationally or internationally.
Chances are, if you're using one of the big phone companies, (AT & T,
MCI WorldCom, Qwest, etc) you are not getting the cheapest rates for
calling within America.
To get the cheapest rates, you can check out
the links to the right, or use the calling card search box below.
The search will get you the best priced calling card from Noblecom, which
has calling cards for virtually every country in the world. The
links to the right highlight the best national rates
on phone cards. If you know of any others (or have
had any problems with any of these) please use the email link at the
bottom of this page and email me.
The other option is to change your
long distance carrier to one which offers you better rates on local,
national, and international calls. One of the best ways to find out
if your long distance can be cheaper is to use Cognigen's
best rate calculator. The strive4impact Cognigen site
will find the cheapest long distance provider for your specific phone number,
location, and calling situation when you click the link below.
Note: Not calling is not recommended and
not a good idea if you want people to think you're still alive. If
you are faking your own death to escape a crazy ex, AT&T bill
collectors, over-involved parents, or defaulted student loans, then not
calling is okay. Otherwise, call your people. They'll love to
hear from you! |
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2.
Have your loved ones set up a 1-800
#.
I don't know really anything about
this. Talk to AT&T or Qwest if you want to try it. I would
however recommend the using calling card over this.
Calling with a calling card
within America may seem a bit ridiculous when you're calling from your own
home, but if it saves you 5 cents or more per minute, isn't it worth
it? Especially for calls that you're making from someone else's
home?
Qwest |
What can you do with 2.9 cents?
Call the US from anywhere in the
world.
Stay On the Phone Longer! 300 FREE Minutes & 5¢ a
Minute Long Distance!
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3. Get a cell phone
Sprint PCS, even though some people complain about
the company, has a great plan for nationwide long distance. You have
probably heard about the all digital, nationwide network from that wierdo
guy in the TV ads. It works like this... you pay your monthly fee
for a certain number of minutes during the day and a certain number of
minutes during nights and weekends, and then your calls are not charged
additionally for any long distance calls you make. It's a good plan
if you make a lot of long distance calls, especially nights and
weekends.
Note: Be careful not to exceed
your minutes. Sprint does not offer you much graciousness when you
exceed your time limit. My charges when I go over my minutes are
something like 40 cents/minute.
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4.5 cents /minute
Unlimited Long Distance at LowerMyBills.com!
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4. 1016868
(Updated 9/20/02:
I couldn't fit all of the
1016868 information on this page.
Click here for better and more
complete information about 1016868 and dial around plans)Just like with international calls, 1016868 works for
calls within America. To use this in the states, you have
to call from a phone which is registered to someone (can't be a pay
phone), and it can't have long distance blocking on the
service.
Calling Nationally Dial
1016868 first. Then dial 1, and the number. Simple as
that. An example would be 1016868 + 1+(303) 555-5555
(Calling internationally) Dial 1016868 first. Then the international calling
number (011 from the US), then the country code, then the phone
number. So calling Germany would go something like this.
1016868, then 011, then 49, then the number. Without this number, dialing long distance to Germany
directly, my parents were charged over (overcharged) $1.00/minute.
When they used this number, it became 9 cents/minute.
(Updated 9/20/02:
I couldn't fit all of the
1016868 information on this page.
Click here for better and more
complete information about 1016868 and better dial around plans) |
If you have
friends who would be interested in reading the discounted long distance
advice offered on this page, you can
tell them about this
page.
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5. 10-10-220
If you haven't seen the ads, you either don't have a
TV, don't turn your TV on, or are somewhere in hiding. (Living with
Elvis no doubt--not that there's anything wrong with that...Elvis was a
great performer; it's just that he's dead now.) 1010220 is supposed
to save people a buck or two--that's what the advertisements say.
I've used it, and it's convenient, but the calling cards are still
generally cheaper. If you don't have a good (and I emphasize good because there are lots of bad ones out there)
calling card like the ones offered on this page and can't get access to
one, either 10-10-220 or 1016868 are your best bets.
10-10-220 |
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