How to Save Money on Long Distance Calls

If you use a conventional (non-internet based) land line in your home, you are probably being charged for long distance calls.  A company like ATT offers long distance plans with different pricing options. In my area, they have the following 3 plans:

 1)      Unlimited Nationwide Calling - $25+taxes/month
 2)      One Rate Nationwide $5+taxes/month + 7₵ per minute
 3)      All Distance $40+taxes/month – unlimited calling + popular features.

Notice the “+ taxes” by every price.  I don’t know what the taxes will be, but I’m usually overwhelmed by the taxes on my monthly phone bill. So, I’m guessing that they are not insignificant. If it’s been a while since you looked at the details on your phone bill, have another look. But, you may want to sit down first.  

So, here is my proposal. Consider buying a Prepaid Long Distance phone card. I bought one from Verizon for $20+tax that has 700 minutes. I know it’s a pain to have to punch in the numbers before you actually get to the phone number that you want to call. But, I found a solution to that. Many phones have “memory” buttons on them labeled as M1, M2, M3, etc. I’ve programmed two of the buttons to handle the 800 access number and the PIN. I dug around to find the phone manual to figure how to program the phone, but could never find it. So, I got on the internet and searched for the manual by phone brand and model. Still, didn’t find it…I think my phone is too old. But, I did find one for the same brand and used those instructions…it worked.

Here is a table that shows the annual cost of the different options based off of the number of minutes you use in a month.   

Minutes/  Month	Verizon	Unlimited	One Rate	All Distance
58	$22	$330	$115	$528
233	$88	$330	$262	$528
350	$132	$330	$360	$528
525	$198	$330	$507	$528
817	$308	$330	$752	$528
1050	$396	$330	$948	$528

As you can see, the Verizon pre-paid plan costs less annually compared to all plans if you use less than 800 minutes per month. Since I don’t know what the taxes are, I assumed they were 10%.

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