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.