Fees

There are many ways available to calling card companies to fool the customers. Different kind of fees and taxes are used to give customers a false sense of low rates. Of course low rates always sound attractive, but beware. These are some tricks used:

1. Minute announcement.
The number of mins announced, in almost all cases, do not take into account fees -- connection, maintenance or any other. Also 1 minute in the calling card system can be programmed to less than 60 seconds. If it is programmed to let's say 40 secs, a card which says 30 mins will be used up in 20 mins!

2. Connection Fee.
Usually between 50 cents  and $2. This fee is deducted per call, during the start of the call. This fee has now fallen out of favor. Most have and advertise "NO Connection fee" but have other hidden fees to compensate.

3. Maintenance fee.
Usually applied in interval of 7 or 14 days. Mostly between 50 cents and $1.50. However, the first one is applied the midnight of the day you placed the first call.

4. Billing Increment/Rounding.
Usually 3 minute rounding cards are available these days. If it is a 3 min rounding card, and if you talk for 45 seconds 3 mins will be deducted. If you talk for 10 mins 12 mins will be deducted.
Also when the minutes are announced the billing increment is not taken into account, but actual length of the call does take that into account. So for example if it is a $10 card, and the rate is 20 cents, the system will say "you have 50 mins", but it will only give you 48 mins.
Also, if it is a 3 minute rounding card and there is balance on your card which allows less than 3 mins, you won't be able to place that call. So if the rate is 30 cents on a 3 min rounding card and you have a balance of 80 cents you won't be able to call that destination.

5. Tax.
Upto 50%. The tax is not taken into account while announcing the number of minutes. So if the advertised rate is 20 cents and if it is a $10 card, the announced number of minutes will be $10/$0.20 = 50 minutes. But the actual charged rate is $0.20 * 1.25 = $0.25. So the card will give you 40 mins.

6. Hang up fee.
Once you hangup if the balance on the card is less than the per minute rate for the destination you just called, the balance will be reduced to zero. So, for example if the rate for your destination is 35 cents and there is 30 cents left on the card the balance will be reduced to zero after you hangup.

7. Post-call Fee.
This fee is applied after a call is placed and if there is money left on the card.  Ranges from 12 cents to $2 per call.

8. Long Call Fee.
Some cards charge a fee if a call exceeds certain number of minutes.  The call could cost 10-25% more than the stated rate if the call exceeds that limit.

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