Free Ratewatcher Phone Guide displays best rates for toll calls

BANGOR – If you use AT&T’s Lucky Dog plan to make a toll call, you may not feel so lucky when you look at your phone bill. And, according to the state’s public advocate, you can buy more telephone minutes for a buck if you don’t use 10-10-220.

The best way to save money on toll calls, whether they are made to other states or within the state lines, is with the Sam’s Club/AT&T prepaid phone card, according to the current Ratewatcher Phone Guide, released earlier this week by the Public advocate’s office.

The Ratewatcher Phone Guide, which is available free to the public, reviews all of the rates of the 13 companies that sell long-distance service in Maine and the nine companies that promote a 10-10-then-the-number dial-around service statewide.

The Sam’s Club rate – 3.5 cents a minute – is the cheapest of all of them and it stays the lowest even when factoring in membership fees, said Wayne x, an attorney with the Public Advocate’s Office who prepared the guide. The second cheapest rate is 5 cents a minute being offered by VarTec FiveLine. To get that rate, you need to call 10-10-811 before dialing the telephone number. VarTec charges 50 cents for the first 10 minutes and 5 cents a minute after that.

Sam’s Club sells three types of prepaid calling cards: one with 600 minutes for $20.83, a six-pack of 100 minutes also for $20.83, and 1,000 minutes for $34.70. Membership to Sam’s Club is $30 a year for a business and $35 a year for an individual.

A person who has a 600-minute or 1,000-minute card never has to return to Sam’s Club to buy another one, Jortner said. The customer just has to call a number and follow the instructions to get more minutes added to the card for the same fee as if the card were bought at the store.

Jortner said a person who pays for a Sam’s Club membership and uses a prepaid calling card to talk for 1,000 minutes a month could save about $600 a year over the nearest competitive toll rate.

Melissa Berryhill, a spokeswoman for Sam’s Club, said the savings on toll rates have made the cards popular among members. They’re so popular, she said, that on any given Saturday Sam’s Club will sell enough phone-card minutes nationwide to equal 66 years.

“If you started a call in 1936, and talked continuously since then, you would be finishing it now,” she quipped about a typical Saturday’s worth of phone-card sales.

But the Sam’s Club/AT&T prepaid phone cards aren’t popular with everyone, Jortner said. Users don’t get a record of their calls, and having to dial a series of access and account numbers before actually dialing the telephone number is cumbersome, he said.

“However, if you have a programmable speed dial feature on your phone, you can hit one button to access the service and another to transmit your account number before dialing your call,” he said.

Other disadvantages to the card is that a caller could run out of minutes while talking on the phone, and they have to pay in advance for the service instead of paying a bill every month for their calls, Jortner said.

The Public Advocate’s Office is sending a warning to consumers when shopping for prepaid phone cards – not all AT&T prepaid calling cards have the same per-minute rate and not all prepaid calling cards offer the same type of service and the same rates. Some have fees, which are paid by a subtraction in the number of minutes on the card, just for using them, Jortner said.

Also included in the ratewatcher guide are warnings about accepting collect calls, a graphic on alternative ways to make toll calls, a sampling of residential Internet services in Maine, and a comparison of wireless telephone rate plans.

To receive the guide, call the Public Advocate’s Office at 287-2445. The office doesn’t have a toll-free number.