Last night I decided to try "Hello Asia" phone card by Sprint. Because my officemate said that it was good. So I went to Longs and bought one for $10. Apparently, this card got the same rate as anything else available; however, there are all these hidden fees:
- weekly maintenance 50 cents
- single maintenance 69 cents
- connection fee 59 cents (after the third call, the ad says No connection fee*)
- post call fee 20 cents (if the call exceeds 15 minutes, which hello? it always does!)
All top of that, the card expires in 6 months! I had the most difficult time connecting at 10PM HST (about 3PM in Bangkok), and all this time I thought there was something wrong with my parents' house. I actually called up the customer service but that did not help. So I gave up after 5 trials. Finally, at 9:30 this morning I could call home (2AM in Bangkok). It was just way too annoying.
I have been using a "Sears Connect" card by IDT since I moved to Hawaii to phone home (Thailand Direct - the collect call service to Thailand, is no longer available in Hawaii). The card has last 12 months without any maintenance fee. I can't actually believe that Sears actually provides the best Asia phone card out there. And all these times I thought I did not find the best deal and just use it out of convenience.
I've gotta get my mom and dad on Voice over IP... seriously...
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