About Calling Cards
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The Complete Guide to Calling CardsCalling cards are a way of buying voice calling minutes on a prepaid basis. They can be used for making domestic or international calls from landline, mobile, or payphones. Calling cards can save you lots of money on long distance phone calls, but buying the best calling card is harder than it should be. Why? Mostly because calling card pricing is very confusing and full of marketing spin. To get the best calling card deals, it pays to be a smart shopper -- and AboutCallingCards.com is here to help! We provide the most complete calling card guide on the web. Spend 10 minutes here looking over our calling reviews and ratings and you'll know where to buy the best phone cards from the best calling card companies. Click the tabs below for an intro to some of our most popular topics. Editor's Choice2010 Editor's Choice: Pingo.com
Pingo.com has won our 2010 Editor's Choice award for best international calling card. Pingo is almost in a class by themselves in the calling card industry. We strongly recommend them. Pingo has earned the top spot 2 years in a row for many reasons: low rates, clean pricing, flexible dialing options, excellent promotions, strong customer support,... There's really nothing bad you can say about them. One key factor for us is pricing: Pingo simply has better pricing than other companies. Their rates are among the lowest in the industry. They have excellent rates not just from the USA, but also from most countries worldwide. And their pricing is the 'cleanest' in the industry - and we really like clean. Another decisive factor is that Pingo is part of a Tier 1 global voice carrier (iBasis / KPN). This means Pingo not only carries it's own voice minutes, but it carries them on a superior telecom network. Having a better network means Pingo can do things that other calling card companies can't. For instance, it allows Pingo to have lower prices and better call quality at the same time. It also allows them to offer more worldwide access numbers, innovative dialing apps, and other great features like their family plan. If you haven't tried Pingo yet, do it now! more on Editor's Choice >>> Top PicksOur Picks of the Best International Calling Cards
Looking for the best international calling card? Check out our recommended calling cards. We recommend only calling cards that get our 'Editor's Choice' or 'Best Buy' rating. Our recommendations are based on in-depth analysis of each card company and detailed comparisons between companies. Our current 'Editor's Choice' pick is: Pingo Our current 'Best Buy' picks are: We are constantly checking and re-checking these and many other companies to see who offers the best value right now. For more in-depth information on these companies, check out our calling card ratings, calling card reviews and other analysis. ReviewsCalling Card Reviews
Looking for in-depth calling card reviews? You've found them! AboutCallingCards.com compiles the most in-depth calling card reviews on the web. Our calling card reviews cover many of the leading calling card companies, including (in alpha order): Our reviews rate each company on over a dozen factors, including per minute rates, pricing plans, card selection, fee disclosure, customer support, privacy and security, and other important factors. Just want the summary version? Check out our side-by-side calling card comparisons where we compare these companies on a few key factors. Click here to see how we do calling card reviews. RatingsCalling Card RatingsWho's the best calling card company? Check our calling card ratings to find out. Our calling card comparison rates 10 top companies side-by-side on these factors:
In two minutes, you'll know which are the best calling card companies - and which are the worst. In the future, we'll be adding more companies to the comparison. Any requests? If you want even more information, check out our in-depth calling card reviews. 
'Clean' CardsClean Calling Card Ratings - NEW!Calling Card "Clean Scores" 
"Clean" calling cards are calling cards with simple pricing and few extra fees. Every calling card has at least a few extra fees, but some cards really pile on the fees. When that happens, you end up paying a lot more per minute than you think. The actual rate using a 'dirty' calling card can be 4x the advertised per minute rate or more! With a clean card, the actual rate you'll pay in real life is going to be pretty close to the advertised rate. To see who sells the cleanest calling cards, we've done some geeky analysis. First, we figured out how to measure how clean a calling card is - and then we calculated the 'clean score' for 30 popular cards from 9 top calling card companies. In our analysis, we found clean scores that ranged from a low of 1.3 to a high of 4.1. What does this mean? Well, 'clean score' is a multiple of the advertised rate. So a clean score of 2.0 means your actual per minute rate will be 200% of the advertised rate. Who sells the cleanest calling card? In our tests, it was Pingo followed by Cloncom. Note that 'cleanest' isn't the same as 'cheapest'. Some companies, e.g, Pingo, Cloncom, are both 'clean' and 'cheap'. But others (PennyTalk) are 'clean', but not 'cheap'. And still others (Comfi) are 'cheap', but not 'clean'. Avoid ScamsCalling Card Scams
Calling card fraud is a rampant problem costing consumers tens of millions of dollars a year. The main problems come from firms that use complex pricing and deceptive marketing to make consumers to think they will get a lot more minutes than they actually do. The problems are severe enough that local and federal governments all over the world are suing calling card companies. In the US in recent years, there has been a big push to rein in these scams and protect consumers. As a result, many of the worst practices have now been eliminated and companies are doing a better job with disclosure. But still, caution is advised and we recommend shopping carefully and buying cards only from reputable vendors. Follow these links for more information: In addition to our top picks, reviews, and ratings, there's a ton of other useful information on AboutCallingCards.com. Here are some popular topics: 
Calling Card RatesConfused about calling card rates? You are not alone. Calling Card Rates 
Calling card pricing is extremely confusing - often purposefully so. Complex pricing helps companies obscure how much you are really paying. Very often, complex pricing is married to deceptive marketing. This results in hidden fees and overstated minutes. To help you avoid pricing scams, we've done comparisons of per minute calling card rates for some top calling card companies. The result: rate tables that show you the fully 'loaded' per minute rates for several companies. 'Loaded' rates are the per minute rates after applying all fees and surcharges. One simple way to avoid scams is to buy 'clean calling cards' - these are cards with straightforward, fully disclosed prices. How to Buy a Calling CardNeed to buy a calling card? Here are our a few of our top buying tips:
Calling Card BlogCheck out our new calling card blog for recent news on the calling card industry. 
Our blog covers consumer-oriented calling cards topics, such as:
Have a topic you want us to cover? email us Here are a couple of articles we wrote: |
Recommended Calling CardsWe recommend these calling cards for making cheap international calls. Most Popular Pages
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