by David Snell,
10Money.com Editor
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A Washington Post article exposes how some phone companies can
sneak higher fees into your phone bill,
hidden in such a way that the rate hike
escapes your notice. Fortunately, it's easy to change your
long-distance phone plan and get good quality
service while saving a lot of money. This page describes how you can
get the best long distance rates from companies like Qwest, AT&T,
MCI and many lesser-known companies. When you apply to switch to a different long distance
company, all the work of notifying your current phone company will be
taken care of for you.
I surfed around and uncovered a great many long distance plans being
offered by various long distance companies. I had to weed out some
less stable companies that might not be around for much longer. In
the past, companies that offered 2.9¢ long distance seemed to
have trouble staying in business. But phone companies are emphasizing
the data communications part of their business more every year, and within
a few years they might start offering voice calling for free.
Until then, there are a number of good-quality, low-cost
long distance providers to choose from.
All these companies offer service
in your own home or office (there are no "10-10" numbers to call) and
they can all set up 800/877/888 numbers for anyone who wants one.
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PowerNetGlobal Communications
charges only 3.9¢/minute (with 6-second
billing increments) for state-to-state
calls, around-the-clock, 7 days a week. The
in-state calling rates are as low
as I've seen, and the international rates are also attractive. There's
no hidden charges, only a fee of $2.50 if your bill is less than $15
in any given month. The underlying service is provided
by Qwest, one of the Big Four major carriers. You can use this plan for residential or commercial
purposes, and you can even get a 800 number for yourself or your business.
I recommend that you use the Cognigen Best Rates Calculator to quickly compare PNG with other
long distance services, to find the best carrier for your particular
situation. Some carriers are a little cheaper than PNG, and they're
very likely to be reliable companies too or else Cognigen wouldn't
carry them. I personally use and can recommend PNG, and
I feel that Cognigen is run by good and honorable people.
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AT&T
has some good low-cost plans, and it's a good bet if you want to use
an established blue-chip phone company. However, they have said
that they will not offer long distance service to some states
because it is unprofitable to serve them. Their AT&T
Unlimited Plan
gives you unlimited long-distance calling for $29.95 per month (check
their site for the latest rates.)
Their AT&T One Rate 7¢ Plus Plan
gives you 7¢ state-to-state calling for a monthly fee of $3.95 (in-state
calling rates will vary.) More plans are listed on their site.
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Talk America has two plans that can save a lot of money for some people who
are located in certain regions of America. Their
long distance plan is only 5¢/minute (they offer this plan
to anyone in the contiguous 48 states.) You can also
save
up to 30% on your local phone bill with Talk America,
using their bundled local and long distance service (available in 20 states.) It's a monthly
flat-rate service that includes most of the features people want
(call waiting, caller ID, etc.) Some of their plans allow
unlimited calling, other plans include a certain number of
long-distance calling minutes (i.e. 200 or 1000): after you use up
those minutes, you pay a fairly low rate for additional minutes, depending
on where you live. For many people, the most attractive
feature is the unlimited free member-to-member calling. If
you know people who you'd like to talk to for hours, and
they live in state(s) where this bundled service is
available, maybe you can get them to join up with you.
There are no installation
fees, no contracts, and you'll receive all your phone charges on one
bill. Most of their plans come with free extra features, such as
auto redial, call waiting, caller ID, speed dialing and 3-way calling
(plus a few dozen more options.)
At last check, this local/long-distance bundle is
available in parts of the following states:
Michigan (MI), Ohio (OH), Indiana (IN), Illinois (IL),
Texas (TX), California (CA) (new lower rates), New York (NY),
New Jersey (NJ), Pennsylvania (PA), Georgia (GA), Kentucky (KY),
Louisiana (LA), Florida (FL), Alabama (AL), Alaska (AK),
Kansas (KS), Massachusetts (MA), Michigan (MI), Mississippi (MS),
North Carolina, (NC), Oklahoma (OK), South Carolina (SC),
Tennessee (TN), Virginia (VA), and Wisconsin (WI). But they are trying to
add more states, so you might want to take a half-minute to click over to
Talk America and input your telephone number, so you can see whether
your state is included.
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I'm including a cell phone site (TracFone) on this page because
it's now possible for anyone to switch their home phone number to a
cell phone. This idea could save you money, and enables you to
always receive phone calls wherever you carry your cell phone. If
you already have a cell phone, you can take
your cell number with you to another cell phone company. To
avoid receiving most telemarketing calls, register your current phone
number(s) at the National Do-Not-Call Registry which the telemarketers
legally must honor.
TracFone has wireless as low as $7.99
(a jaw-dropper of a price!) One drawback is that you must purchase one
of their cell phones (you can't use their service with your current cell phone,
but you can transfer your current cell phone number to your new phone.)
The phones they sell cost $39 to
$99 and they display the number of remaining calling minutes.
They achieve their low prices by giving you three options: (1)
The cheapest option is buying a year of prepaid service for $94.99 (including only 150 minutes however);
(2) you can buy prepaid cards good for 60 days, such as a $19.99 card
including 40 minutes; or (3) have them bill your credit card or
checking account for $14.99 per month, and get double the
usual minutes.
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If you want to take a look at a good selection of long distance plans and
pick the best one for your situation, I like LowerMyBills.com. They
gave me some special offers to show you (see below) and all I can say is "wow!"
They let you choose between Qwest, AT&T, MCI and some other lesser known
discount providers (note: the lowest rate is 3.3¢ per
minute, but that plan and some others are unavailable in a few areas.)
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