just a phone call away
You live in a country far from home. They take you there either for your work or your studies. You miss home! Fortunately, keeping in touch with family and friends around the world is not impossible. That was a few decades ago. With the Internet opening channels of communication, the world is now a smaller and more easily accessible place.
Having a computer is convenient as it is possible to make VOIP calls. If computer access is limited, there are other options: landlines, cell phones, and public pay phones.
So how can we use this to our advantage? A few tips are in order and will shed some light on how to get in touch with friends and family abroad.
• The first thing is to find a cheap way to call abroad. But beware of hidden charges that could take away from your talk time.
• Maintenance fees: These are generally charged if you plan to make calls for a long period of time. But if time elapses between calls, you could be losing.
• Variable Rates – Rates sometimes vary depending on the time of day.
• Billing by the minute: Some companies offer billing by the minute or rounded billing for every 3 minutes. So if your call lasts 4 minutes, the rounding option will bill you for 6 minutes. It is better to stick with billing per minute.
• Call attempts: Find out if you are likely to be billed for call attempts that don’t connect.
• Expiration Date: Sometimes you may not be aware that your Call Access may have an expiration date. Check expiration, so you don’t lose any valuable minutes you may have left.
• Guarantees: most companies do not offer guarantees. It is better to find a company you can trust. Look for signs like visible phone numbers, their privacy policy, secure transactions, guarantees, and membership. This should ensure that the minutes you pay for are the minutes you get.
• Delivery – Typically when you purchase phone time offline, it will be presented to you via email or on your screen, pending a successful banking transaction. In some cases, the company can send it to you by physical mail.
Depending on how often you make calls abroad, check out the various options available before you buy phone time abroad.
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