Avoid Monthly Payments with Prepaid Phone Cards PC

If you make any amount of long-distance or international calls, you’ve probably noticed that you tend to pay quite a bit every month for that kind of service. For a lot of people this might be fine, but for those who want to do a little more penny pinching in order to save every last dollar that they can, prepaid phone cards can be a good way to go. Since they’re prepaid, the service that you get out of a card will work for as long as stated on it. And since it’s already paid for, you don’t need to worry about maintaining a monthly payment.

Where to Find Them

The nice thing about prepaid phone cards is that as long as you live near a major retail store, you should be able to find these cards. You might even be able to find them in some convenience stores.

Places like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Walgreens, and many more will typically carry prepaid phone cards near the checkout stands. If not, there’s a good chance that you’ll find them in the electronics and/or mobile section. When in doubt, simply ask one of the employees.

How to Use

Once you’ve purchased a prepaid phone card, the instructions on how to activate it and tie it to your phone will typically be printed on the packaging and/or card itself. The card will also state the calling rate, the length of time for its service, and the country or countries to which you can make calls. Some of them may offer worldwide calling, with any exceptions listed in the fine print.

Typically a prepaid phone card will offer rates that are lower than monthly plans that include long-distance calling. You can save quite a bit of money this way.

Avoiding Scams

This doesn’t typically happen anymore due to recent FCC regulations, but reading the fine print can be extremely important in making sure that you don’t get scammed. It’s possible for a prepaid phone card to offer very low, enticing prices for long distance calls, but end up charging you hidden fees that aren’t immediately obvious unless you read the fine print.

Fortunately, the mentioned FCC regulations have lessened this practice quite a bit, labelling it as misleading advertising. Reading fine print is still good advice to follow in general, especially if you decide to travel to a region where the FCC has no jurisdiction.

Final Thoughts

With no monthly payments to worry about, prepaid phone cards can be a good way to pay as you go. You only need to be sure that your carrier will accept the minutes contained on the card; usually if you only buy cards that are specifically branded with carrier logos (such as Skype, T-Mobile, etc), you’ll be pretty safe compared to cards provided by third parties. In any case, you’ll be saving a lot of money by going this route, making it very much worth it if you don’t need to use cell phone service every single month. And it’s easy to get started; just purchase a prepaid card at your closest retailer and follow the instructions!