... in response to phone calls, posted by senge on Sep 6, 2003They vary from place to place, some that are offered in Tx. aren't offered in Calf...for dial arounds try 1016868 or 1010123..for cards (which can be better or worse, you just have to try a few until you find one that you like) go down to the ma & pa bakeries, resturants, convience stores, liquor stores etc. in the Mexican part of town...many stores stock 10 or 20 brands and should have charts listing the features and prices of each card. DON'T get a card with low per minute and a high connect fee thinking it will even out or be cheaper in the long run because you plan to use the whole card in one long call...sure as the world, 2 minutes into your call you will get cut off and you'll have to pay the connect fee all over again when you call back, and 2 or 3 connection fees can eat up a whole card and give you only 2 or 3 minutes of actual talking...better to pay a little more per minute and have no connect fee. Beware of hidden charges like connection fees, maintenance fees, 5 or 10 minute minimum, etc. If possible, ask a Mexican which one he uses to call home, although be careful too, that his home is where you want to call, some of the cards divide Mexico into zones and his home may be in a different zone (and therefore a different price) than the place you want to call.....also, some of the cards simply don't deliver what they promise, no matter what the chart says and most of them (even the one I use most often, but it's the best I could find) don't keep honest time, i.e. you talk for 20 minutes and it bills you for 26 minutes etc. This (dishonest timekeeping) doesn't seem to be a problem with the dial arounds. One more thing, both the cards and the dial arounds buy 'surplus' capacity from the major carriers and in times of high use (holidays, Sunday afternoons and evenings and emergencies such as floods or whatever in the destination country), there is no 'surplus' and you get the dreaded 'all circuts are busy' (or its equivlent in Spanish) recording.
