Budget & Finance > UtilitiesJuly 20, 2007

Tips for saving money on calling long distance. Post your ideas!

Use Your Cell Phone

I dropped my land line and only use a cell phone. It's great because I can walk around the city and feel safe, plus, anyone can get a hold of me in an emergency.

I get free nights and weekends, eliminating the need to pay for long distance. Plus, I get caller ID free on the phone. I have T-mobile service and save a ton.

By wheelbarrow_1

Calling Cards or a Cellphone

To save money on your long distance charges you can do a couple of different things. First of all, you could buy long distance phone calling cards from stores, convenience stores, etc. They are usually cheaper per minute than using your house phone. The other option, which happens to be the one we chose, is to get a cell phone. You pay a certain amount for a certain number of minutes per month. It has been lot more economical than long distance from our home phone.

By Robin

USA DataNet

USA DataNet has a website. You are only billed for the time you use. There is a maximum price per call or a small fee for very short calls. So much better than ATT which charged us every month, whether we used it or not.

By Barbara

Editor's Note: There is a website like this that I have used for a number of years called OneSuite.com. You have to dial a long number to call long distance but you can program it into your phone.

Wal-Mart Phone Card

We make a lot of long-distance phone calls from our home. My husband's family lives 4 hours from us and my son's dad lives an hour and a half. We buy the 500 minute phone cards at Wal-mart and they last forever! Plus our phone bill is so much lower!

By Alica

Take Advantage Of Free Weekends

Most cell phone plans have "free" weekend minutes. Make sure to take advantage of those minutes, too!

By Sandy

Call People On The Same Network

If you have a Cingular cell phone, you can call anyone else with a Cingular cell phone and it is free anytime, day or night, weekends or weekdays. If you want to call someone who doesn't have a cell phone, there is no long distance fee, and if you call at night or on weekends, the calls are free. The only reason we still have a phone line into our house is for our Internet service. We are in an area where there is no cable service. Our son added us to his family plan with Cingular, so our phone is only $9.99 a month. His wife is a traveling nurse, and this enables us to talk to them wherever they happen to be without paying a long distance bill. In December, they were in Iowa, presently they are in Ohio, and when they are "home" they are in Missouri... 5 hours away from us. It sure has saved us lots of money while keeping in touch.

By Harlean from Arkansas

Momentum Phone Service

I don't have a cell phone. I lived quite well without one before and still do. I do have Momentum for my phone company. It gives me unlimited long distance, local and regional calls besides 12 different features including Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Three-Way Calling and a bunch of other stuff for no additional charge. The total cost is $39.95 a month plus state and local taxes you are already charged on your regular phone bill. It comes in just under $50 which is great since I'm on the phone to my family in NY several times a day!

I have never had a problem with them, their customer service is excellent and I have had them for two years now.

By Fran Marie

Reload Your Phone Card

We have gone the route of the phone card also. But instead of buying a new card every time it is empty, we just add new minutes to it. We use an MCI card and the cost per minute is about 3.5 cents. I haven't seen a company or card that will beat that rate unless they charge you a per call fee. There is no fee for the call with MCI. Since we do not use a long distance company our phone bill is less than $25 per month and I usually put about $10 on a card at a time and that will last about 2 1/2 to 3 months.

By Dani

Pay By Minute Plan

The best long distance is no long distance. I do have family out of state but I got rid of the long distance service reluctantly at first. I was given a phone card. It has been wonderful. I have over 300 minutes left on it. It started with 450 minutes. it just requires an 800# then my pin #. That way, I don't have a long distance bill if I don't use it this month. It's cool!

By Sandy

VOIP - Vonage

Hey if you use a cable modem you can sign up with any voice over internet service. I am with Vonage and they give you all the bells and whistle services plus free long distance to anywhere in the US and Canada. My price plan is $24.99 which with tax come to around $28.00 a month. Beat that! This is unlimited long distance!! The sound quality is excellent and I can't tell the differece. It's great!

By Randy

ECG Long Distance Or Just Use Email

I am happy with ECG at 3.9 cents/minute with no monthly fees. It's the lowest I know of without having to sign up for direct debit. Frankly, if it comes down to rent, food, or my long distance company, guess who's going to wait? I don't do direct debit because it forces me to put the least important thing first.

Another option is to use email and written letters in place of phone calls some of the time.

By Papillon

Shop Around For Phone Cards

If you make a lot of long distance phone calls. Shop around for phone cards. I found one (at Sam's Club) for 2.9 cents per minute. That is a real bargain, the 2.9 that includes tax, FCC line charges, universal fee. Those fees can add up to $10.00+ per month.

By Ladyjudy

Spring PCS

We use SprintPCS for our long distance. Long distance is free and Sprint to Sprint phones provide free calls, as well as after 7pm and weekends. http://www.sprintpcs.com

By Kidseatfree

Compare Your Phone Company Rates First

See if your phone company has a long distance plan. We have 250 minutes a month for just $12. It's through the phone company, so there's no dialing numbers off a phone card before calling.

By BrookesMommy

Make Sure Long Distance Is Canceled On Your Home Phone

I didn't realize, until I called the phone company, that you aren't *required* to have a long distance company on your home phone. We use our cell phone for long distance, and so we were paying our long distance carrier for NOTHING! They charged us a fee even when we didn't use it at all. Better late than never.

P.S. The man at the phone company didn't even know if we "had" to have a long distance carrier. He had to put me in touch with a customer care rep.

By LizCar

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