Calling Cards Key Terms

Understand calling cards key terms

A calling card, also called a telephone card or just simply phone card, is a card used to pay for telephone services. The way in which the card works for payment and the way in which the card is used to make a telephone call depend on the telecommunication system used for the card. Most cards are sold by telecommunications companies and can also be purchased from department and convenience stores. Learn the following calling card key terms that will likely be encountered when shopping around for cards for your business.

Prepaid calling card

A prepaid calling card allows a person to pay for local or long distance phone calls in advance by purchasing a preloaded phone card with a limited amount of minutes to be used on calls.

International calling card

An international or global calling card allows calls to be made between multiple countries. These cards may be a general global card with no limits on countries that can be called or specific for one country, such as a United States to Mexico card.

Access number

An access number is a 10 or 11 digit number dialed to use prepaid calling cards, and is usually a toll free number beginning with 800, 866, 877 or 888 or a local number. After dialing the access number, callers then type in the number they are trying to reach.

A PIN, short for personal identification number and also called authorization number, is the unique security code that a caller uses to access the account from which a call is made. PINs are used to show if a call is charged to a particular card.

Connection fee

A connection fee is charged to a calling card and subtracted from the balance every time a connection is made. Connection fees reduces the advertised number of minutes on the phone card.

Country code

A country code is a two or three digit code, unique to each country, that is dialed when making international or global calls outside of the United States.