We want you to shop at CheapCard.com.au with confidence and be totally satisfied with our services.Therefore we provide this guide to help you to to understand what are the jargons used in this industry. All this information may help you to choose the most suitable calling card.
NOTE: A prepaid calling card is a card you purchase to make long distance phone calls. Many people use a calling cards because of the card’s convenience - it can be used anywhere and, because you pay in advance, there is no bill. It is very among travelers, students, people who frequently call overseas, and those who haven’t selected a preferred long distance telephone company. In addition, now you are not only can get it from convenient places which has business hours (post offices, news agent, etc) but you you can get your cards online 24/7 from us with many benefit.
Prepaid Calling Card - Are telephone products with a set value, which are used to make domestic and international phone calls. Prepaid calling cards are referred to as "international phone cards," and "prepaid phone cards." A PIN is used in a prepaid system to recognize each prepaid phone card. Customers of CheapCard.com.au will only receive the access number and PIN in their email or SMS as requested in the order form.
PIN - This is the Personal Identification Number for each prepaid phone card. PIN's are used to identify customers with their respective prepaid phone cards.
Connection Fee - A fee that is charged when a telephone call is connected.
Also called first-minute surcharge. It's charged when a telephone call is connected. It varies between 25 cents to as high as $3. The easiest way to evaluate whether a cheaper phone card with connection fee is worthwhile or not is to estimate the average time for your phone calls. If you make 10 mins calls, a card for 5 cents/min with $0.50 connection fee is actually more expensive than a card for 9 cents/min with no connection fee. It's better to use a phone card without connection fee if you are not sure the person you are calling is there, and the phone call may trigger an answer machine. Phone cards with high connection fee is good for the case when you know your party is there and you intend to talk for a long time.
Disconnect Fee - A fee that is charged when a telephon call is ended.
Surcharge - A fee that is charged for processing an order or handling a phone call.
Minute Rounding - A basic measurement to record the length of a phone call. If you made a two minute phone call on a phone card with three minute rounding, your call would be billed for a full three minutes.
Industry standard is one minute rounding, as in the case of your residential telephone services. Prepaid calling cards can be rounded to one, two, or even three minutes. If it rounded to 3 minutes, your 30 seconds phone call will be considered as 3-mins phone call and your 4 mins phone call will be considered as 6 mins phone call. Statistically, on average, for 2 mins rounding, you will be charged for one more minutes for each phone call, and for 3 mins rounding, you will be charged for one and half more minutes for each phone call. So try to avoid using phone cards with more than one minutes rounding.
Expiration - Most calling cards have an expiration date. Any unused minutes on a phone card will be forfeited at the point of expiration. This date is determined by the first time that you use the phone card. For example, cards that have a 90 days expiration date and are first used on 7/1/2005, will expire 90 days from 7/1/2005 or 10/4/2005. Some cards do not have an expiration date and can be used indefinately.
Maintenance Fee - A fee that is charged if you don’t use all of your minutes on a single phone call. Typically it is charged immediately after the termination of the first call unless otherwise stated. The charge has the effect of reducing the available minutes on the phone card. For example, if you purchased a .00 prepaid phone card with a 50¢ Weekly Maintenance Fee and did not use all of your minutes on the first call, 50¢ would be deducted from the card. An additional 50 cents will be deducted every seven days thereafter. Some cards refers it as booking fee. Please call Card Customer Service to confirm this type of fee.
Access Number - The phone number you will dial first before entering your PIN and making a phone call.
Off peak hours: Periods of time during which carrier offers discounted rate when service is used on specified time.
Please aware that there are different times zone used in Australia. Most common time zones used in this industry are:
1. AEST: Australian East Standard Time - Also known as EST (Eastern Standard Time). This time is used during winter in ACT, NSW, TAS and VIC. EST is used all year in QLD.
2. AWST: Australian Western Standard Time - Also known as WST (Western Standard Time). This time is used during winter in WA.
Time zones in Australia
The following table lists the Australian time zone abbreviations, click on the time zone links for more information about individual time zones and where they are used.
| Abbreviation | Full name | Other abbreviations | Time zone |
|---|---|---|---|
| NFT | Norfolk (Island) Time | UTC + 11:30 hours | |
| EST | Eastern Standard Time | AEST | UTC + 10 hours |
| EST | Eastern Summer(Daylight) Time | AEDT | UTC + 11 hours |
| CST | Central Standard Time | ACST | UTC + 9:30 hours |
| CST | Central Summer(Daylight) Time | ACDT | UTC + 10:30 hours |
| WST | Western Standard Time | AWST | UTC + 8 hours |
| WST | Western Summer(Daylight) Time | AWDT | UTC + 9 hours |
| CXT | Christmas Island Time | UTC + 7 hours |
International Calls - A phone call to a destination outside of Australia. Or a phone call from any country back to Australia.
Account Recharging - If your card has a recharge feature you can set up an account and then when you buy new cards you can add the new minutes to your account. However, please note if you use account recharge service from the card company, you will not be able to enjoy the benefit of discounted value for all your recharge and no bonus voucher like when you purchase from our website.
Carrier - A company that creates and sells telecommunications products such as prepaid phone cards.
This information is provided as a guideline only. Please confirm the information with your calling card company that you have choosen. CheapCard will not be liable for any losses, confusion or anything based on those information.
