Communications

There is an overwhelming feeling of pride from parents, watching their kids go off to study away from home. Yet at the same time those parents may feel a sense of sadness that their children are no longer near them where they can be watched over. There are many ways for parents and students to stay in touch but the most convenient way is by using their mobile cell phones.

But making long distance and international calls through your mobile carrier's international plan will cost you an arm and a leg. So the best option is to use a prepaid phone card that can be found conveniently on the Internet.

Using prepaid phone cards to stay in touch with kids out of state or overseas in college is the best way to go. But finding the right phone card can be the difference between saving a little bit of money and saving a lot of money. Even though you may have stumbled upon a phone card with a low call per minute rate to the United Kingdom, if you tack on the fees that you may have missed when you purchased the phone card you will soon realize that your minutes are evaporating into thin air.

Believe me, many first time phone card buyers have encountered this problem not realizing that there are "Maintenance Fees", "Connection Fees" and "Carrier Fees". Now here comes the tricky part. Not all phone cards possess all those fees. Some may have just one fee and some may have all three. But you have to look for them. There is no such thing as a perfect phone card. So please read all the fine print on a particular phone card of your choosing and don't worry most reputable prepaid phone card companies make their fees easy to find.

One thing I would highly suggest is getting a PIN-less phone card for your child going to college. This way every time your child makes a call to you, he or she will not have to enter a set of numerical security number to make the call. When you set up PIN-less dial with the phone card provider you have chosen, the provider will have a record of the phone number you are using to make your call with. This way is much more convenient. PIN-less dial phone cards cost slightly higher but it is well worth it.

The phone card should also be "Auto-Rechargeable" too. So even though your phone card is low on minutes, your phone call will not be dropped. Because "Auto-Rechargeable" phone cards will bill your credit card automatically for a fresh calling card restoring your full minutes and diverting a dropped call. This feature is free and very handy.

But my most important point in this article is to keep an eye out on hidden fees. There are plenty of phone card providers out on the Internet, some are good and some are just plain bad. So buyer beware rule applies as usual.