Using phone cards versus calling from your PC

April 06, 2010

Some people will argue that there's no use in paying for international calls when you can use free calling software to make calls to any corner of the world. However, the truth is there are situations when using your PC to make free international calls simply won't do. And it's those times when phone cards will help you make great savings.

1. What if there's no PC available?
Say you need to talk to your friends, family or business associates, but there's simply no PC in reach. Although at times this might seem difficult to imagine, there's actually a lot of people (maybe your parents and grandparents?) who either don't own - or have no idea how to use a computer. So in order to call them when you are abroad, you'd need to call them on an actual phone.
It might also be that you can't use a PC - for example if you are on vacation. Besides, on top of needing a computer, you'll need a headset and an internet connection, and the latter can be rather expensive to use from a hotel.
In these particular cases, using a prepaid phone card will allow you to make international calls from phone to phone, at very low rates.

2. What about when calling for business?
When you need to talk to your business partners overseas, it may sometimes seem inappropriate to call them on a PC. It's usually a lot more convenient for both parties to call from and be called on a real phone. And if you're worried about the costs, a prepaid phone card will facilitate a cheap and reliable way for you to make your calls at more than affordable rates.

3. Gaining mobility
When you choose to make international calls from your PC, this will usually imply that you're home or in your office, and so is the person you are calling. On the other hand, when you use prepaid calling cards for your long distance calls, you can call from and to any phone in the world! You can even use a payphone to place a call in case of emergency. However, you might want to avoid using payphones on a regular basis, as they will charge you a fee of up to $1 per call, which will lead to your calling card being used up faster.

This is how using a prepaid phone card also guarantees you greater mobility. Although calling cards don't offer free international calls, you can see for yourself that BananaCall features some really low per minute rates, to all your international destinations. Moreover, you can use your calling card to phone anywhere in the world, at any time, without needing to have a PC with internet access AND a headset at hand.