So, you live in PA and are calling someone else in PA and they charge you 5 min for every 1 min? Is that it?
I don't get why they would do that.

Anyways, I live in NY and call my parents long distance, also in NY. I have used datanet for 6-7 years and are very happy with them. They are not a card but you use a number and pin (like a card) and then they send you a bill. You can call from any phone like when using a card, because they know who you are by the number you type in the phone. Not sure if this is something you want or not. I have called maybe 2x with a mistake on my bill and they have been very helpful and nice.

their website is www.usadatanet.com

Yep that's exactly right scryn. Apparently Verizon & I guess other phone companies were not getting paid the taxes of using their lines by AT&T Calling Card so they sued and now AT&T has to pay something like 50 mil or something to that effect. Where you live defines how much you now pay. It doesn't affect interstate just instate. Verizon wants to charge me 28 cents a minute to call instate but don't get me started on that or Verizon.
Thanks for the info but really looking for a prepaid card versus a monthly bill.

oh, I forgot to add that you do not get charged a monthly fee for datanet. You just get charged what you use. So, if you do not use long distance that month, you do not get a bill.
Sorry, I didn't know if I made that clear in the first post.

Goldensmom, We use one called one suite. No paper bills in the mail, you buy your minutes over the internet with a credit card then use them. I recharged my account last June and at that time it was 2.5 cents a minute anywhere in the U.S. The only extra charge that I could see that they have is if you use a pay phone. They charge an extra 50 cents I think. You have to dial their 800 number, then your pin, then the number you're calling. We used it a lot when our first one was away at college. I'm planning on dropping my long distance package on my home phone and use using one suite. Everyone has cell phones, so I don't need a bundled package anymore. I think one other thing you should be aware of is you have to recharge it every 6 months if not used, or something like that. Sorry the info is a little sketchy, but it's another online option you could check out. www.onesuite.com
Katlan

Here is the long distance card we use. It's called Voyage and it is sold online by cheapphonecards.com. The USA rate is 2.5 cents per minute with rounding to the nearest minute. You buy the minutes online and they email you the pin.

The cool thing about this card is that you assign the pin to your home number once and then you don't have to enter the pin every time you dial. Just top off with more minutes when the $ runs out. Minutes are purchased online and they email you the pin number. I program the 800 access number into speed dial.

This card will also show your home number on someone else's caller ID. The AT&T pre-paid cards did not and we have funny stories about people not believing it was me or my wife because the caller ID didn't say so!

Here is a link that might be useful: Voyage Pre-paid Long Distance Card

Can you tell us a little about the calling habits and why a pre-paid calling card is needed?

Our long distance usage is limited, probably about 135 minutes per month. $.025 x 135 = $3.38. The cheapest long distance calling plan with AT&T is $10 for 120 minutes. The unlimited plan is $30/month.

Local phone service is about $19/month.

Our cell phones are pre-paid with limited use and cost $5-$7/month. Cell phone reception/clarity in our home is poor with all the carriers. I don't want to set up external antennas and amplifiers to correct this.

We like the voice clarity and reliability of traditional phone lines instead of broadband telephone services like Vonage that are a step down in quality.

The Voyage pre-paid long distance card generally works great, but this afternoon I had a problem where the Voyage system was busy or full and I could not put a call through from 11:30-12:30 pm. I only had this situation happen once before and it was on Thanksgiving day. So, this calling card is not perfect.

I always wonder if AT&T is putting the brakes on these calling card systems.

One thing to remember about using calling cards is that when you call somebody who screens their phone, a lot of times they're going to ignore your call because the number will be some weird, random number they've never heard from before.

I contacted cheapphonecards.com about the problem with the Voyage phone card and they handled it promptly. Voyage reset the pin and now the long distance card works great again!

marvelousmarvin, at least according to my brother, when I call him using a Voyage long distance pre-paid card he does get my home phone number on his caller ID.

we buy our calling cards (AT &T) at SamsClub. IF we recharge minutes, they charge us for three minutes for each minute of talk time, instate. If we buy a new card each time, the old rate of 3 1/2 cents per minutes for each minute, is charged no matter where we call. Of course the smallest card we can now buy is 800 minutes! SamsClub said that AT & T made the change, not them, Again some law got invoked.

Thanks for the replies. Went to Sam's yesterday and bought a calling card with 1000 minutes for 35.00. When I called my sister this morning who is 200 miles away in the same state the card said 200 minutes of call time. I about crapped!!!!!! So it looks like the AT&T prepaids are useless for me. So puzzlefan ... BEWARE. The old cards from Sam's are no longer there. In fact when it use to say "Thank you for shopping at Sam's" it now says "Thank you for buying this card". I'm going to look into the onesuite as that seems to be the best deal for me.

Goldsmom is right. I just tried to call my mom tonight and the same thing happened to me. I purchased a new ATT card from Walmart (900-minutes) this past March 2007 and when I made the call to my mom who lives in the same state as I live, all of sudden the number of minutes instantly dropped from 900 to 112 minutes. As the ATT representative explained to me all calling card users are now required to pay the same intrastate calling fees as customers with domestic phone service who have been paying these fees as part of their monthly phone service. So in other words, for each minute I use on my card, ATT would charge 8 times this amount for intrastate access. This equates to 23-cents a minute to make an instate call here in South Dakota, or almost a buck for every 4 minutes that I talk to my mom using the ATT calling card. This is probably true with other calling cards out there. Does anyone know if there are calling cards available for low "intrastate" calling? I searched the internet and can find phone cards as low as 1-cent a minute for long-distance state to state, but can't find any card that has low rates for making state to state calls. Please help, else I will have to cave in and buy some monthly calling plan which always costs me more in the long run, because I make so few calls a month to begin with.

tonyk,

This may not apply to South Dakota due to differing telephone regulations, but I just tested our Voyage long distance card for intrastate (in-state) calls in Indiana and the rate is the same as interstate (between states) at $.025/minute rounded up to the nearest minute. So, what the AT&T rep said to you is NOT TOTALLY TRUE concerning other pre-paid long distance phone cards.

So I assume from what I'm reading here is that the AT&T card I bought from Malwart, er, Walmart 5 or 6 years ago cannot be recharged and continue at the 1 unit intrastate rate? I had 500 minutes but still have 230 minutes left. Don't make a ton of LD calls and a lot of them I use the TracFone.

Not that I really care that much, but a friend uses calling cards from work quite a bit and got stung on the 5x rate thing and doesn't appreciate the 25¢/min charge for in-state calls. I think he should just use his cell, but he wants to use a landline.

I am from PA and ran into the same frustrating problem with being charged 5 times more for intrastate calls using my AT&T calling card purchased at Sam's Club. I found an old phone card in my wallet that's been there for about 5 years. It's an MCI card purchased at Rite Aid. I just recently started using it and the rate is the same for state to state calls AND for intrastate calls. I read the back of the card and it says minutes expire 15 months after inital use, but I started using that card about 5 years ago and forgot about it until now. The minutes haven't expired and I am still able to use them. I went to the Rite Aid store and they still have the same cards so I called the customer service number and they told me that state to state calls AND intrastate calls have the same rate. Also the only fee on the card is when the card is used at a payphone. The rates were reasonable ranging from about .057 to .08 per min. (The more min. puchased, the cheaper the rate) A much better option than the AT&T card charging 5 times more. I don't know if this only applies to PA or other states as well. This would be a good card to check out. I plan to keep my AT&T card for state to state calls and use the Rite Aid MCI card for intrastate calls. Hope this helps!

I understand what you are saying regarding ATT. I quit them and went to minutepass. 3 cents a minute. Website

www.minutepass.com

Seems to be okay

I advised to buy a new postpaid connection becoz in this the rates are very less so there is no cash card u will get the bill after each month and u ca easliy call anywhere :)

Hi! I had the same problem with long distance calling within PA. Read here about Tel3Advantage and now use them. They do not charge extra minutes for intrastate calls in PA. I find them very easy to use. They even have local connection numbers that save you even more money.

I'm a Telthree user before switching for Onesuite.com. Tel3 wasn't bad but Onesuite just suits me better and now with VoIP service that comes handy from time to time.