Talk:Prepayment for service

Vote for Deletion
This article survived a Vote for Deletion. The nomination was withdrawn and there were no further votes. The discussion can be found here. -Splash 16:54, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

The PrePaid Calling Card
A Prepaid Call (or even Calling Card) is actually established through two calls, and the first is either through and 800 Toll Free Number, and even some from the big telephone companies have them available with internationally toll free numbers, or you wil find many that offer calling through a local phone number usually printed on the back that offer cheaper rates but the first call costs are passed on to you the consumer.

You place this first call to get to the providers platform, and once connected you are authenticated via a pin number or as seen in Europe or around other parts of the world the card may have an electronic chip on it, like you may have seen on Amercian Express Blue card. If you use the local number provided from your home or cell phone you pay for the cost of the first call, you can see this on your bills even if you dont get connected. The reason that 800 toll free is more expensive because the Prepaid Calling Card Company pays for the attempts and even when you just call to check you balance, and you only pay when you are actually connected. Many Local Telephone Companies don't show local usage so you may not see that you are paying for a local call every time you make an attempt. This is not true when you call a toll free number from a land line but with Cell phones you do use air time. With most local phone companies you can get call detail to support this.

Once you are authenticaded you are usually presented with your balance then prompted for your destination number (the second call), and usually given the time left on your card based on the number you just dialed. Then you are connected.

With smaller companies beware the hidden charges when the rates are too low to be true. They mave have hidden fees or poorly advertised fees, like 3 minute rounding, connection fees, monthly, weekly, daily, or even maintenance fees. Look around when you buy these smaller name brands to make sure you know what you are buying

Merge with prepaid mobile?
I think this is a more accurate subset of the stuff on the prepaid mobile page. Dublinblue (Simon in Dublin) (talk) 16:34, 16 September 2009 (UTC)