Most Common Scams in Prepaid Phone Cards

A prepaid calling card is one of the many types of phone cards. You pay for the credit in advance and consume it over a specified period of time. This card is available anywhere with different denominations for your local or international calls.

For a prepaid calling card to work, you need a personal identification number (PIN) that you enter to activate the card and for further transactions. You can choose between a local access number or toll free number to dial before you can dial the number of the person that you wish to talk to.

With the competitive market for this card, it is inevitable that there are people who take advantage in unworthy ways. They are doing what we call prepaid phone card scam. And here are the most common that a phone card company, service provider or retailer do that are considered scams.

Hidden charges - Usually, cards with very low rates have high hidden charges on them. The following are hidden charges found in a prepaid phone card. Connection fee, maintenance fee and service. There are cards that intentionally impose this fee even if they do not inform their customers. For every call you make that is connected to the other party, you are charged with a connection fee. You will not be greatly affected if you make longer calls especially for international purposes. A customer that frequently makes short calls will suffer. Once a week or month, you are charged with the maintenance fee as the cost of maintaining the network and the telephone lines involved to transfer your calls. Your calling time is also deducted by the service fee for activation of your card and the set up of your calls. Avoid this card. You won't get the minutes that are actually advertised.

Minute rounding - A one minute billing increment will not surely affect your credit. But three or five minute rounding is no longer reasonable. Your less than a minute call will be charged with the regular three or five minutes of the other calls. Don't purchase a prepaid phone card with more than one minute rounding because there will not be enough time for your next calls.

Surcharges - When you call from a mobile phone or public pay phone using your prepaid calling card, you get extra charge per minute than the usual charge using a fixed phone. Make sure to check if your card does have this fee so you can avoid it.

Minimum call length - Sometimes, cards only limit you for a specific length of call. After that time, you will be charged with higher fee for every minute that you used up. This is a sign of a card that is not good. Your prepaid phone card is supposed to give you lower rates and longer calling time.

Undelivered or invalid PIN - Cards purchased online usually suffer from this problem. When you buy prepaid phone cards online, you may or may not get the actual card. You will receive the personal identification number (PIN) through a snail mail or an electronic mail. If you don't get the PIN on the promised time or it wasn't emailed to you, then better contact the customer service of the company or provider. When you still experience the same problem with the same card, then it is a scam. Choose another card to buy and use.

Expiration date - If a card has a shorter period before it expires, then beware. It may not give you the kind of prepaid phone card quality and your money will be wasted. Cards have expiration of three or six months after the first use.

Company background - Take some time to investigate on the reputation and reliability of the phone card company. This will ensure that you purchased a card that is also reliable and with better quality.

Customer service - In case of problems, you can immediately call the number and report your case. You will be answered as soon as the problem is reported and given proper actions. A prepaid phone card company or provider that does not have a customer service is unusual. Or at times, the customer service number is invalid. Avoid buying the card from them.

Spending some time to check these points will result to having a prepaid phone card that is of high quality and cheaper rates. You are also sure that the amount spent for the card will not be wasted. Therefore, you will have a worth remembering calling experience.