Even though my wife and I both always carry our cell phones I'm thinking about getting a couple of pre-paid phone cards as EDC.
Thinking that we could carry them in our wallets (no weight) and have them for emergency use. Also thought about putting one in the glove box of each of the cars.
I've never bought/used them before. Does anyone here have any experience with them? If so what would you recommend?

I got AT&T cards from Wal-Mart. There are several diffierent denominations available. These cards may be a little more expensive than others, but they DO NOT EXPIRE. Thare are lots of cards by various companies out there, but you need to read the fine print. Most of the cheap ones expire in 60 days.

Craig.

Stick with the big companies like
Sprint and AT&T.
The other brands are rip offs, have hidden fees and expire.

Why prepaid? Why not just a regular calling card? I assume they still have these. I used to use one - AT&T - years ago. Probably still have it somewhere, but we just use cellphones now (free long distance). We have found places where cellphones don't work though, but that is rare now-a-days. You don't need to carry the actual card if you don't want. Just write down the numbers on notecards and slip copies into various wallets, purses, kits, etc. You don't pay anything up front (at least you didn't have to). Never use the card - never pay a thing - nothing to expire on you. Rates were the same as regular long distance from your home (I think), not the inflated rates/hidden fees of some to the prepaid cards. Things may have changed over the years, I'm telling you stuff about regular calling cards as they existed BEFORE cellphones where the norm.

Depends how you're going to use them, too.

The WalMart/AT&T ones have HUGE fees for using pay phones, and other surcharges.

The Costco MCI cards are a great buy and also have one of the lowest charge for using a pay phone.

I found a site that lists all of the brands of cards and their surcharges - sorry I don't have the URL, but do a google search and you should be able to find it.

Here's an informative site from the Federal Trade Commission on pre-paid calling cards, and the difference between them and regular long distance calling cards:

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/products/buytime.htm

Sue

I used to have one many moons ago too. My problem now is that I use my cable provider for telephone service and they don't offer calling cards.

This may not prevent you from setting up an AT&T (or other vendor) normal long distance account. Your cellphone vendor may even have something available that could be used with landlines. It would be worth checking out. Of course, if there's a monthly service charge just to keep an (unused) account open, then that would eat up any cost savings pretty rapidly. A higher cost per minute plan might be better than a lower minute cost + service fee plan, if such an option exists. A few phone calls to check out various vendor's offerings couldn't hurt. Sign up for their long distance plan. You don't have to tell them you never really plan to use it (or are incapable of using it given your cable phone service).

Or, if this calling card is just for emergencies, buy yourself a low dollar one from a major vendor and just eat the higher costs and be done with it. Just remember that if you're in some disaster or other situation where you need landline long distance, you'll probably need more of it than you originally estimated.

This subject was discussed several times in the past. A review of the archives by setting the search date to all and including all forums/threads should provide several minutes of reading on the subject.
FWIW
We've been using the Costco cards since they introduced them and a copy of their calling / refill # is included with the calling card # in each of our family PSK's as well as on a small label maker tape wrapped in a spiral around the batteries in our ARC AAA and AA flashlights that are EDC. We've used the callling card several times when cell service and other providers were not available. The Costco card does need to be used every so often (yearly?). At the time we purchased it, it was the lowest priced per minute card available and it can be refilled.
SIDENOTE: I've included a Costco "CASH" card in each of our USK's ($30-$50) which has come in handy from time to time. These can also be used at the Costco stores (having gas stations) to purchase gas in addition to the normal purchasing in the store itself. Like the phone cards, these are also refillable. In some areas there may not be a Costco nearby for you, but there are many other brands of cash cards now...everybody is on the bandwagon it seems. Hope this helps.

Regards,
Comanche7

I carry a 500 min. AT&T prepaid phone card from Sam's Club. The "per minute" charges are very low with the high minute cards. I use my cell phone for all our long distance. However, there are times that I don't have service, such as at some of the more remote camps the Scouts go to. AT&T charges extra minutes to use the card at a pay phone. Considering that it is just an emergency back up, I don't worry too much about it. The minutes never expire and there is no minimum usage requirements. I have had my card for close to 8 years with no problems.

"This subject was discussed several times in the past. A review of the archives by setting the search date to all and including all forums/threads should provide several minutes of reading on the subject."
I did a search before posting and might not have gone back far enough. Thanks for your reply.

I carry the number and code for an AT&T card that must be at least 5 years old and I still haven't used up the minutes. I don't even know where the card is anymore. I probably use it once a year. After Katrina, I sent the number to some local hams that were relaying messages from the affected area and they used a hundred minutes or so calling family for people. I'm probably never gonna use that thing up.

Hi Bill,

No problem, happy to help out where I can. The searches can be a bit tricky at first. It is a trade off, search all forums, threads, dates and it takes longer but may provide additional information that more restricted (and consequently quicker) searches may not turn up.

Regards,
Comanche7

Our local Walgreen Drugstore has two-for-one sales on phone cards occasionally, so we used to stock up. Problem is, the _do_ expire after 12 months. Read the back of the card.

Another issue is that some payphones will not let you dial 800 numbers. We've run into that problem at a couple of places.

Hmmm, that definitely would be a problem. Did you ever figure out a way around that, or just looked for another phone? Gosh, it's been so long since I used a pay phone. If you put coins in first, I wonder if it would let you dial an 800 number? I guess it's also possible that whatever company's card you have also has local access numbers that can be dialed. I mean, these companies just buy minutes from the big telecoms and they all have local numbers, but maybe they don't work for these generic calling card companies' calls. Unfortunately, if the closest local access number is a long distance call from you, you're out of luck.

Here's a different twist to the calling card angle. Make sure you also write down the voicemail access number for your cellular service so that other people can leave you messages and you can listen to them from a pay phone. I haven't actually tried this in an emergency situation where the cell phone system could be overloaded, so not sure how reliable it is during an actual emergency. But eventually, even if particular cells are still down, the core system will be able to respond and hopefully people can call your cell number and leave you messages.

After Katrina, so many families and friends were split up and spread to the four corners of the country, and if a landline was their only phone number back in the hurricane area, they had no way to get in touch with each other once they were moved elsewhere.

>Did you ever figure out a way around that, or just looked for another
> phone? Gosh, it's been so long since I used a pay phone. If you put
> coins in first, I wonder if it would let you dial an 800 number?

Some pay phones are "private." They are intalled by the owner of the property and are not ATT or whatever other common carriers there are these days. Since that owner doesn't get paid if you call an 800 number, the phones block you from using them to dial toll-free numbers.

It may be that my recollection on this is out of date. I've noticed that calling cards now mention a 79-cent or 90-cent surcharge from payphones in the US. WikiPedia mentions that some 800 numbers reject calls from payphones because of the surcharge being paid by the owner of the toll-free number. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payphone
for information.

My suggestion is to be aware that prepaid cards _may_ not be useable at all payphones.

Given that phone cards expire and some phones do not accept 800 number dialing, you migh consider focusing your energy on --
your cell phone and its back-ups
carrying change
making collect calls
other forms of communication