There was a time, before phone cards, when long distance and international calls even to friends and relatives – required a good amount of preparations. Everyone making international calls had to back-calculate:
How much money do I want to spend on this international call?
How many minutes does it give me?
And what do I need to talk for this many minutes?
Sound funny?
Yes it does in todays world, where phone cards are making long distance and international calls cheaper day by day. Phone cards were first introduced to make long distance calling easy and convenient. One could make long distance and international calls from any phone using these cards. Then came the price war between the long distance operators and the cost of calling using phone cards started coming down significantly compared to post-paid phone connections.
Phone cards offered today come with different facilities and operating modes:
Some need a PIN to activate.
Some need a call to be placed from pre-registered numbers.
Some need a call to be placed on a toll-free number first to dial long distance, or
A combination of two of more of...