Calling Cards with Maintenance Fee: Merits and Demerits

When you need to purchase a phone card on-line, you make a suitable request through calling card search box on tried web site. In reply a seller offers you as a rule a few phone cards for given destination. Among of these, cards with maintenance fee stand out especially. Some calling card users fear to use ones, but to no purpose, as it will be shown in this article.
Maintenance fee is charged to maintain services. It will be taken from your calling card balance every one or two days/weeks/months (depends from the card) since you made a first call and as long as there are still minutes available on your card or until the end of validity period, which ever comes first.
Merits of such cards:
1. The rates are lower at least on 10 percents than those without maintenance fee.
2. You can request call history records from card's customer service: calling dates, from-to, duration, and charges. In other words the services allow you to trace the phone calls.
Main demerit of these phone cards: the more time passes since you made a first phone call, the more money you lose. For saving money, use these cards no longer than 3 - 12 weeks. Let's name this period by benefit period. Because the lowest rates benefit that so characteristic of the cards discussed is saved in this interval. For exact estimating this period for any given calling card, you can use an estimating tool.
Note: the higher a nominal price of a card, the longer a benefit period and the more money will be taken from your calling card balance at maintenance fee. For this reason, you must make the benefit period shorter. You can do it at least in two ways:
1. Buy a phone card at low nominal price and recharge it as needed.
2. Make your phone calls as frequently as possible.
Then your money so difficulty earned will be used with the largest advantage. However, you can use the cards longer, enjoying the services benefits.
For a long-term and if you make phone calls just once in a while, use the cards without maintenance fee. These cards usually have higher rates, but you don't have to worry about your calling card balance going down if you do not call.

Albert Popov is a webmaster of International Phone Card Review.
To learn more about prepaid calling cards visit www.evocallus.com/