Calling Cards
Calling Cards, Long Distance or International Calling Cards are a prepaid method of making a domestic or international long distance calls.
In order to use calling card you need to have the access telephone number to dial and the PIN (Personal Identification Number).
Calling Cards could be used from any phone: home phone, office phone, pay or public phones, mobile phone, even from outside Canada.
You do not need to have a phone number or address to buy or use a prepaid long-distance calling card.
By using calling cards you save money on your long-distance phone bill. In fact, there are no monthly bills, and no detailed statements.
Rather, you simply pay for the calling time in advance and your prepaid calling card balance is reduced as you make your calls.
A quality calling card can and will save you money versus using a long-distance company.
Prepaid calling card rates are typically much lower (up to 95%) than any long-distance plan rates and they stay the same throughout the day.
Prepaid calling cards do not require any alterations to your currently existing long distance plan.
You may use different calling cards for different long distance needs, different countries, different call lengths, etc.
How to use Calling Cards
Calling Cards come with local access number, toll free access number and a PIN number. All you have to do is dial the access number and follow the prompt. You will be asked to enter your calling card PIN number and you will get a recording telling you the balance on your calling card, after that you will be asked to enter your destination number, if you are calling in North America, dial 1+ area code + phone number, for overseas calls dial 011+ country code + phone number. After dialing the destination number you will get the prompt telling you how many minutes you will be able to speak to your destination.
Calling Card Access Numbers
Remember, the key point in using calling cards is to dial calling card access number long distance toll free.
In order to effectively use calling card from your landline, mobile or any other phone, calling card should have access number local for your calling area (dialed without 1 before the area code: 647-727-4590 is local, 1-647-727-4590 is long distance).
Calling card may have list of local access numbers and / or a toll free access number.
Remember, many calling cards, which come with both toll free and local access numbers, provide higher per-minute rate if used with toll-free access number.
If choosing a calling card with toll free access number, please make sure that this toll free access has no extra charges (market as "no extra charge").
Ontario Phone Card offers many calling cards with toll free access , which could be used with "no extra charge". These calling cards are CiCi Calling Card, No Fees Calling Card, Guaranteed Time, Freedom and many more. Please click here to see our selection of calling cards.
Online Calling Cards and Plastic Calling Cards
A conventional telephone or calling card is defined as a small plastic card, used to pay for telephone services.
However it is not necessary to have the physical calling card; knowledge of the access number and the PIN is sufficient to use a calling card.
Since the early 2000s calling card service providers have introduced online calling cards not associated with physical calling cards.
Online Calling Cards or Virtual Calling Cards can be purchased over the Internet using credit or debit cards and are instantly delivered to the customer via e-mail.
This e-mail contains the PIN and instructions for using the calling card.
Many modern calling cards could be purchased in conventional stores as regular plastic calling card as well as online as virtual or online calling card.
Ontario Phone Cards offers instant email delivery for many calling cards which are available in regular stores.
Calling Card Selection
There are number of calling cards available on the market.
There are different calling cards for different type of phone calls, calling cards focused on different countries and regions, calling cards with no hidden fees and cards with different service fees and other charges.
Please check our Calling Card Selection Tips.
Calling Card Deceptive Marketing Practices
Although many calling cards provide great service and offers very good value for money caution needs to be taken while choosing calling cards. Please read more about Calling Card Deceptive Marketing Practices.
Calling Card Glossary
The following fees may come with some calling cards.
Please see phone card description (if choosing online) or calling card poster disclaimer (if choosing in regular store) to check if and which fees are applicable to specific calling card.
Not all calling cards come with such fees.
If you are new to phone cards or do not plan to use calling cards a lot, we suggest choosing the calling card with "no hidden fees".
On Ontario Phone Cards web site such cards are marked as 
or 
.
Call Increment
Call increment defines the time interval calling card will be billed.
For example, one minute increment means that if you talked for just thirty seconds, one full minute would still be deducted from your phone card's total.
Three minute increment would imply three minutes would be deducted from your calling card's total amount even if you talked for one minute.
Some calling cards may have variable call increment depending on country you are calling and / or length of the call.
Per-Call Service Fees
Service Fees couldbe billed every time, or after a new call is placed.
The amount of fee may vary depending on the country called.
In most cases service fee is not included in the posted minutes, so it can reduce the number of minutes available for every sub sequential call.
Some cards, like Indigo, Oasis, etc., charge service fees only when the card is not totally used.
Maintenance Charge
Maintenance Charge reduces the time left on a phone card and can be charged weekly, monthly, or for some cards even daily.
Maintenance Fee only starts to apply after the first use of your calling card.
Therefore, if calling card has a maintenance fee, in order to get the most, we recommend using your calling card in a short period of time.
In most times you can avoid maintenance fee by using your calling card prior to a maintenance fee being applied.
Connection Fee
Connction Fee occurs when a phone call is connected and it significantly reduces the number of minutes available for the call.
Please note that "No Connection Fee" does not guaranty that no service fees are charged. Many of "No Connection Fee" cards have many service and maintenance charges hidden in terms of service of the calling card.
Other charges
Other charges imply that different service and maintenance charges may be applied depending on country called.
Calling Cards Customer Satisfaction Rate
To help our customers evaluate calling cards we automatically calculate Customer Satisfaction Rate for all calling cards on our site.
Our calculations are based on:
Number of users who buy this card regularly (considered as satisfied).
Number of users who bought this card once (considered as not satisfied).
Number of positive references and reviews
Number of complaints and negative reviews.
Please note that no calling card can satisfy everyone.
Despite our recommendations and calling card selection tips some customers misuse cards, i.e. calling cards designed for a single call are used for multiple calls, calling cards with maintenance fees are used over long periods of time, etc.
Ontario Phone Cards Rebate Information
With every online calling card purchase you accumulate a rebate which you can use for your future purchases on Ontario Phone Cards.
For orders of $20 and more you accumulate a 5% rebate. Which is
for $20 order - $1.00
for $30 order - $1.50
for $40 order - $2.00
For orders less then $20 you accumulate only a 2% rebate of the total. For example
for $10 order - $0.20
With your first purchase you accumulate a $2.00 introductory rebate.
All rebates are accumulated on your Rebate Account automatically created after your first calling card order. Your rebate account is identified by your email OR your method of payment, so you do not have to create or remember a password. Your Account balance and pass code will be e-mailed to you with your first order (end of the calling card email).
In order to use your rebate as a discount you have to accumulate at least $10 on your rebate account (you will receive instruction by email once you have accumulated $10).
Generally in order to get $10 discount you have to spend about $170 placing orders of at least $20 each. This gives you an even better average discount of 6%.
In order to use your rebate you have to follow the link from instruction email or click "Use Rebate" button on Ontario Phone Cards Shopping Cart page. For your account security you will be asked to enter your pass code.
Please note that rebate balance may expire 12 months after the last order. You have to place at least one order per year to keep collecting your rebate.
