Virtual / Online Calling Cards: Virtual cards are sold on websites where you sign up for an account online with a credit card and can be recharged with more funds when you use up your balance. Many of them can be used all over the world, and they typically offer a great value for the money. All of the cards we recommend for Smart Caller are virtual cards. With virtual cards you don't receive a physical card - they email you your account information, or you just see it on the website. You can usually register your phone number with your virtual calling card account to use pinless dialing, though you might still need a pin when calling from a different country.
iPhone Compatibility: The majority of calling cards are compatible with the iPhone and Smart Caller. We keep a list of cards tested for compatibility. Apple restricted the iPhone so that the '#' and '*' can't be dialed from an app. If your card requires '#' or '*,' it won't work with any calling card app. iPhone dials the tones too slowly for a few impatient calling cards, and there are a few cards that need a pin number after the destination number; both these types are unsupported.
Rates & Pricing: Calling card pricing can be confusing and sometimes has 'small print'. We prefer cards that have no account or connection fees, low rounding, and long expiry times. Sometimes cards with a few extra fees have very low rates, so they are the best value if you talk on the phone for a long time. Our pricing engine takes your calling habits, card rates, fees, and small print charges into account to find the cards that are the best deals for you.
- Rate per minute: this is how much you pay per minute of call time. It's different for every combination of
- calling from country
- calling to country
- calling to a land line or cell phone
- Tax or surchage: a % tax on top of the advertised rate.
- Rounding: the call time usually gets rounded up to the nearest minute, so a 30 second call gets charged as a 1 minute call. But different cards have different rounding, ranging from 1 second (really good) to 3 minutes (not so good).
- Connection fee: fixed fee added to each call.
- Account fee or membership fee: amount deducted from your card every week or month, even if you don't call.
- Account expiry: most cards will expire if you don't use them. Ranges from 3 months to 1 year.