Prepaid cards have been mentioned a few times. Dh got a birthday gift of an AT&T prepaid card from Sams (We don't shop there--owned by Walmart--but it was a gift--can ya'll talk someone into gifting you one of these?)

Anyway our card is a flat 3.4 cents aminute--no connection fees. When I looked at waht it was costing us to carry long distance on our phone I about died! We paid 7 cents out of state and 10 cents in state-whic is not awful--but we were paying $.95 a month just for the *priviledge* of this price! ouch!

The card we had can be recharged by credit card over the phone. It costs 34.00 for 1000 minutes--which lasts us quite some time!(like 4 months on average!) Heck for that 4 months it would have cost us $20- for the flat fee and $70 for the 1000 mintues if all of our calling was out of state! So for a bit over a third of the cost we do our long distance. Yup--its a bit of a pain to dial all of those numbers. but MIL does this too and has a fancier phone with programmed phone numers--she makes the 800 a memery like #1 and the Pin is #2-- it is a bit easier. We just have the numbers wriiten large on a card taped next to the phone!

Hope my thrifty tip of the day helps!

LOL!

Also, try Bigzoo.com. I think we get 2.9 a min.

We don't use much long distance so we recharge on the internet every few months for $10.00 or so. It's a pain to dial all the extra numbers when calling long distance, but I think it's worth it. My bill for phone service is only $20 a month now, it used to be $30-$50.

And when the long distance companies call me I shut them up fast by telling them I get 2.9 a min. with no monthly fee!

Can you get cards for international calling as well? We have lots of relatives over seas, so I am a little worried about being without long distance calling service.

Thanks!!

Originally posted by Liba
Can you get cards for international calling as well? We have lots of relatives over seas, so I am a little worried about being without long distance calling service.

Thanks!!

I have one of these cards too, and yes, it works for international calls. The rate is different per min. but I'm not sure what it is. Still worth it though.
We were paying 4.9 cents a min. for long distance, both in and out of state, but this is still cheaper so I use it instead. Helps me limit my phone calls too, because I have to "budget" them.

We have a card from Sam's also. We've saved soo much money. I also rarely call long distance just because it's more of a pain to dial all of those numbers-LOL.

we use onesuite.com

it's 2.9 cents a min in the US anytime, no fees, no monthly charges, they don't charge you for a busy signal!! (I hate co. that do that!!!) you can view your call log online, recharge online. It does have an 800 access and pin but you can program certain numbers so you don't have to dial the pin then if you put the 800 on speed dial it's only one extra number really!
to Canada I think it's 4.5 cents

here is a listing of thier rates
http://www.onesuite.com/rates.htm

If you sign up for is, anyone you call (who's not a business number) that has AT&T is included in the $19.95 a month price. I know this won't save everyone money, but ask bfmomma and camtea (two of my best freinds) who are long distance and who I can talk to for EVER on the phone...now it's like we talk for "free" since none of us are billed per minute anymore.

I think I"ll invest in some phone cards too though for everyone else I call :)

Wow! I checked out the Bigzoo.com site. Wow!, again! I'm off to change my internet service and get the calling card. Thanks for the tip, emma!

good idea, mama.
we wil l be cutting off long distance and using phone cards only from now on. that will basically cut our phone bill by a third!

We turned off our long distance on our landline and we use my cell phone for long distance. We have free coast-to-coast and unlimited weekend minutes so I can talk all weekend long and don't have to pay a cent.

I *do* pay $40 a month for my cell phone, but that's an expense I would shoulder regardless. I didn't have one when my ds was about 2 months old and I broke down in a storm on the interstate with 2 small kids and no way to get help. So Amy has a cell phone now and doesn't leave home without it....

I just looked at our phone bill...yikes! We pay $6 in taxes just to *carry* long distance. And, we'd save at least $40 a month by switching to either a better cell phone plan and using that for long distance, or one of these cards.

Question on the prepaid cards, bigzoo, onesuite, etc: is the call quality good?

Originally posted by mamabear
Question on the prepaid cards, bigzoo, onesuite, etc: is the call quality good?
With onesuite the quality has always been good for me

.

We pay 4.9 instate (99% of my calls) and 6.9 state to state and we have a free 800#, no monthly fees for the same rates. We use the 800# a lot so it's worth it to us. Our regular phone line costs $25.00 just to have a phone (16.85 for residence line and 5.00 for interstate subscriber line charge that everybody pays) and we average about $30 on our in-state long distance bill (local and local long distance is separate bills, different companies).

We thought about switching to cell phones and seeing if we can use that $50 that way instead but I got too confused with all the restrictions, roaming stuff, etc... plus I don't know how dependable the service is.....

Anybody have advice??