The purpose of this report is to help every American know the best and easiest ways to call anywhere in America for 6 cents per minute or less from their home phones, anytime.  Domestic phone calls include state-to-state, in-state long distance, local toll, and local area calls.

Out of all of the calling options in this report, the only ones that we could definitely recommend to anyone in America are the rechargeable prepaid phone cards sold by SAM's Club and Costco.  To make this simple, if you simply want to stop paying more than 6 cents per minute for a phone call, and you want a nice simple solution that you can depend upon, get yourself a rechargeable prepaid phone card sold by SAM's Club or Costco.  It's that simple.

If you want to save even more money "and" you don't mind potential tradeoffs for bigger savings, look at the other calling options in this consumer report.

We are not aware of any monthly minimums or calling plan monthly fees for any of the options listed in this report. The only calling option that should have any additional monthly billing period charges is 10-10-811 that charges you a USF charge and taxes.  All of the other calling options are for prepaid minutes that already have all costs included in their per minute rates.

You can save money using the information in this report if any of the following apply.

1. You find any domestic phone calls on your phone bill where you paid more than 6 cents per minute.

2. Your standard (non-prepaid) calling card has per call surcharges, or a per minute rate that is more than 6 cents per minute. Note: Many of the standard phone cards issued by the phone companies have high per-call surcharges and high per-minute rates.

3. You make collect phone calls.

4. You know of anyone who makes collect calls.

In August 2000, too many Americans can call the capitals of several countries in Europe and Asia for less money than it costs them to call their own U.S. state capital. For example, using 10-10-811's FiveLine service, today almost anyone in America can call England for 10 cents per minute, France for 12 cents per minute, Germany for 12 cents per minute, or Japan for 15 cents per minute.

For example, if you live in San Francisco, calling your state capital is an in-state long distance phone call. Sacramento is about 100 miles from San Francisco. Calling your state capital can cost you from 5 cents a minute to 25 cents a minute depending upon which calling plan you are on and when you call. Despite the fact that California is one of the longest and largest states in America, California has some of the lowest in-state long distance rates in the country. For this 100 mile phone call, most of MCI WorldCom's calling plans will charge you 10 cents per minute; and MCI WorldCom's basic rates will charge you either 15 cents per minute or 10 cents per minute depending upon when you call. AT&T's rates for this call range from 25 cents per minute to 7 cents per minute. Sprint's rates for this call range from 15 cents per minute to 5 cents per minute.

There is a slight chance that your home phone may still not be able to dial 1.888 or 1.877 toll free numbers.  If you have one of these phones, you will not be able to use any of the prepaid phone cards that use one of these toll free prefixes from your home phone.

Most of the options listed in this report are for prepaid minutes or 10-10 numbers.  If you have a phone that enables you to assign phone numbers to extra buttons on your phone, you can use these same buttons to automatically dial the 10-10 numbers, toll free numbers, or prepaid phone card codes.

To make a call using 10-10-811’s FiveLine service, you could

1. Push the button that you programmed to automatically dial 1010811.

2. Next, immediately dial the phone number you want to call.

To make a call with a prepaid phone card, you could

1. Push the button that you programmed to automatically dial the 1.800 number for the prepaid phone card.

2. Next, when it asks for your prepaid phone card code, push the button that you programmed to automatically dial the code.

3. Next, when it asks for you to dial the phone number you want to call, dial that phone number.

Cost Per Domestic Minute: 4.16 cents per minute

SAM's Club sells two different types of AT&T prepaid phone cards: rechargeable and non-rechargeable.  The 350 minute and 1000 minute prepaid phone cards are rechargeable, and the other prepaid phone cards sold by SAM's Club are are non-rechargeable.

For these phone cards, 1 domestic minute = 1 unit.

This AT&T prepaid phone card has a payphone per-call surcharge of 6 units per call (24.96 cents)

This AT&T prepaid phone card charges 15 units (62.4 cents) for directory assistance.

Cautions

Today, AT&T has indicated that their current policy is that this prepaid phone card does not have an expiration date.  However, at some point in the future they may decide to change this policy.

More Consumer Information on Prepaid Phone Cards

• CallSense.com: Consumer Information on Prepaid Phone Cards

Today, there is a Sprint Rechargeable Prepaid Phone Card sold by Costco that offers consumers a rate of 4.2 or 4.326 cents per minute for any domestic call: state-to-state, in-state long distance, local toll, or local area. It doesn't matter where you call in America, the rate is always 4.2 or 4.326 cents per minute.

For this phone card, 1 domestic minute = 1 unit.

This phone card has a payphone per-call surcharge of 6 units per call (25 cents per call).

Recharge Note: 3% Surcharge

Expiration

For this phone card, 1 domestic minute = 1 unit.

Cautions

Expiration

This is only for California households. Please ignore this section if you do not live in California. We do not recommend FiveTalk for callers that reside in other U.S. states.

10-10-811's FiveTalk California service enables California residents to call anywhere in the U.S. or Canada for 5 cents per minute with a 15 cent minimum per-call charge (3 minutes).

• If you decide to use FiveTalk California, please call Vartec and explicitly ask for "FiveTalk California".  There is another Vartec service called just "FiveTalk", and so you must ask for "FiveTalk California".

• The Vartec customer service representative can tell you if 10-10-811 has ever been used from your phone.

  • If 10-10-811 has never been used from your phone, the FiveTalk California rates will apply immediately.

  • If 10-10-811 has been used from your phone, it will take 3 to 5 days for Vartec to switch your phone from the old 10-10-811 rates to the new FiveTalk California rates.

• If you make international calls, check the rates to call each country.  International rates vary based by which 10-10-811 rates plan you are on.

• 10-10-811’s FiveTalk California has a 3 Minute Minimum Charge: If you are not sure if the person will be home or ready to speak, you may want to first call the person using your long distance calling plan or a prepaid phone card to avoid having it cost you 15 cents for a less than 1 minute phone call.

• 10-10-811 charges an 8.6% USF charge and other federal and state taxes that are already included in the per-minute rates for prepaid phone cards.

You cannot use this service from payphones.

Please see the "Cautions" section.

Bidding: Do not bid more than 4.5 cents per minute for domestic calling through Priceline.  If you are able to get a better price, or if after days of bidding you could not get 4.5 cents per minute, please let us know and we will update this section.

Priceline offers an auction-like prepaid phone card service where you can bid for prepaid phone card minutes.  In the literal sense, you are not naming your own price for long distance, but rather you have to bid for minutes where Priceline has a minimum bid that they will accept but will not tell you.  It appears as though you should not bid more than 4.5 cents per minute for domestic long distance minutes.  If you don't get this price the first time, try again tomorrow, and the day after...

At this point in time, we only recommend trying Priceline's prepaid phone service for those of you who are moderate to heavy long distance users, and know that you will able to use the minutes you buy within 3 months.

For technical reasons, you may not be able to call the person you want to speak with, or have a good-enough phone connection over the Internet to carry on a conversation; and so before investing in headsets and other new items, please first quickly test to see if you can call and speak to the people you want to over the Internet.

There are Internet-call voice quality issues and other potential problems with making phone calls over the Internet. If the tradeoffs work for you, this is a fantastic way to save money.

Internet-call voice quality is a function of things that you and your caller can control like the use of headsets, sound card capabilities, Internet access connection types, and computer performance.

Unfortunately, Internet call voice quality is also a function of the things you cannot directly control such as the speed of the Internet between you and the person you are calling, Internet security firewalls, and others.

CallSense^(TM) software helps you compare long distance calling plans. CallSense includes domestic and international long distance rates and calling plans from AT&T, MCI, Sprint, Costco, Vartec, Qwest, Excel, and GTC Telecom.

If you want to find a long distance calling plan with a per-minute that is at most 5 cents per minute, you can use CallSense to easily and accurately see which long distance plans may best meet your needs. Here we picked "5 cents" per minute for a calling plan or 10-10 number, because the "per minute" rates for the prepaid phone minutes options listed in this report already include items such as taxes, USF, and monthly fees; whereas with long-distance calling plans and 10-10 numbers these items are additional charges above and beyond your per-minute rates.

Caution: If you make in-state long distance calls, these are the calls beyond your local toll region but still within your state, please always check to see what the actual rates are for your calling plan.

Many people use CallSense to find the best long distance calling plan for their phone, and then use a 10-10 number or prepaid phone card for those calls where they can still save money versus using their phone's long distance calling plan. CallSense also enables you to know when to use, or not to use, your long distance calling plan.