Use calling cards smartly [Tips]

Most of you would have used a calling card or a similar service at some point. You can find out about some great calling card deals here, here and here. Lot of VoIP providers such as Tpad, SMSDiscount, and Freecall also provide (virtual) calling card service. So what exactly is a calling card?

Calling card is a service that allows you to make inexpensive long distance or international calls from any phone (even if it does not have long distance calling service). Usually the provider requires you to dial a local number (called the access number). Depending on the provider, you may have to dial an authentication code to establish your identity. Then you dial the number that you want to be connected to and start speaking

Most VoIP providers have PIN-less dialing, wherein you do not have to enter any authentication code if you are dialing from a registered phone number. But the biggest complaint about using a calling card service is that you cannot dial the number directly like you dial any number stored on your phone. You have to dial the access number and then (after the prompt) the destination number. This simple trick will make your calling cards more user friendly. This is similar to Deep Dialing where you do not avoid the phone menus completely. Here’s what you need to do:

• This will only work if you have registered your mobile number (you will see why in a moment) as a registered number.
• Let us say you are using Freecall and their access number is 646-289-4297.
• Also, let the number you want to dial is 009122XXXYYYY. 91 is the country code for India, replace this with the country code that you need to dial.
• All you have to do is store the number in your address book in the format 6462894297pp009122XXXYYYY#
• Let me explain a little. The “p” stands for pause. Most mobile phones allow you to enter a “p” in a number. You can find out how to enter “p” here.
• What this does is first dials the access number, then pauses for a couple of seconds (for the connection) and then dials the destination number.
• If your provider does not require you to enter a # after you finish dialing the number, remove the # sign while storing the number.

Now you can just dial the stored number to be connected to the destination!!!

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