Walt Bilofsky wrote:
> Are inexpensive phone cards to call the U.S. readily available in
> Japan, China and/or Korea (with instructions in English)?
>
> Can they be used from pay phones?
>
> Or, is there a decent card we can get in the U.S.? We would accept
> somewhat higher rates for the convenience of not having to buy cards
> in all three countries.
>
> Last year we got a $20 MCI international card from Costco. It worked
> great all over Europe, which was convenient because we went to a lot
> of different countries. But now Costco is selling $30 Verizon cards
> marked "95 cent payphone charge", which would eat up the card pretty
> fast.
You could use OneSuite from Japan to the U.S. (31¢) and Korea to the
U.S. (14¢), but they don't have access in all of China (28¢).
You don't need a card, you call a toll free number for access (except in
China, it's a local number in the southern provinces).
See "http://onesuite.com/access_international.asp"
I don't think that the payphone charge applies in all countries, but
you're right, that would eat the card value up pretty fast.
You might look into a callback service. The initial minute is high
because you have to call an international number, but then they call you
back at whatever number you indicate, and then you enter the number you
want to call. It's very cheap. China is 11¢/minute, Japan is 14¢/minute,
South Korea is 13¢/minute. See
"http://hiusa.ekit.com/ekit/About/MakingPhonecardCalls"
I.e., get an AT&T international calling card, and pay the 99¢/minute for
the first minute, but just call the callback number.
The question is whether or not you can receive an incoming call on a pay
phone in the countries in question. In the U.S. most non-private pay
phones will accept incoming calls. |