Phone Card Smile Review
I get a lot of request to make a review about the the phone card company called Phone Card Smile. They are one of the first companies that I started using from the Internet all those years ago (yes I’m old).
Today I’ve pretty much stopped because… well there are simply a lot of better phone card companies out there. Aren’t you glad I just came up and said that instead of making you read through useless diatribe.
The main reason why I stopped using and recommending Phone Card Smile is because their phone cards with fees are really vague and mysterious. Now to me or and other seasoned veterans phone card buyers know it’s best to stay clear away from them. But to a newbie it, well they just might have a hard time understanding what’s not right and just purchase away regardless.
No Connections fee... so far so good until you click on "Terms and Conditions"
5 stars for quality, connection and air time accuracy. To be honest I really don’t pay attention to those because not everyone has the same results with the same phone card.
What I do focus on is the card’s full details. Starting off with Toll Free access number you use to connect your call. In parenthesis it says “1-5 cents per minute by using 800 access”. So which is, it 1¢ or 5¢?
Because it makes a difference right? So now I focus on searching for fees. As you can see I’ve highlighed Connection Fee and it says there is none. That’s good. Then I clicked on the Terms and Conditions Link.
This is where the major problem is found. A new screen pops up with text in ALL CAPS (makes it hard to read) and looks like a legal form (even harder to read).
I cut out the first paragraph which states the fees and you’ll see also see that it’s absolutely vague and confusing:
BY USING THIS CARD YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING: PROMPTED MINUTES ARE BEFORE APPLICABLE CHARGES AND FEES, APPLICATION OF SURCHARGES AND FEES HAVE AN EFFECT OF REDUCING TOTAL MINUTES ON CARDS. – ONE OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING MAY APPLY: 1) A WEEKLY MAINTENANCE FEE RANGING BETWEEN .49 AND .79. 2) A HANG-UP FEE RANGING BETWEEN .05 AND $1 DEPENDING UPON LENGTH AND DESTINATION OF THE CALL. 3) A DESTINATION SURCHARGE OF BETWEEN 0% AND 100%. – MINUTES AND/OR SECONDS ARE ROUNDED TO MULTIPLE MINUTE INCREMENTS“. – INTERNATIONAL CALLS MADE TO CELLULAR PHONES ARE BILLED AT HIGHER RATES. – TOLL FREE ACCESS NUMBERS ARE SUBJECT TO AN ADDITIONAL FEE OF UP TO 4 CENTS PER MINUTE. – A PAYPHONE SURCHARGE OF UP TO .99 APPLIES. – PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. – THIS CARD HAS NO CASH VALUE. – CARD EXPIRES 3 MONTHS AFTER FIRST USE OR 12 MONTHS AFTER ACTIVATION.
That’s just a part of the term and conditions of this phone card ( I told you it’s hard to read). So as you can see this card will make it absolutely impossible for you to keep track of your minutes.
I’m not saying that Phone Card Smile is a scam company. They have phone cards with fees and without fees, just like any other phone card company. And the phone cards they provide work fine when I used them.
With that said, their phone cards may provide a difficulty for new phone card buyers, who are not aware of the pitfalls of choosing a phone card with fees. And to be quite honest there are plenty of other phone cards companies who provide great reliable phone cards, with great rates and easy to read details and you can find them here at Best Internet Phone Card Companies Reviewed. That’s the main reason why it’s not easy for me to recommend Phone Card Smile, unless you already know how to choose the right phone cards.