Using Prepaid Phone Cards

[SalandJeff]

Has anyone used prepaid phone cards from their WDW resort room? Can you just dial the 800 # access codes for the card the same way you would to access your own long distance carrier? Sometimes you can get these cards with really low prices per minute - I'm thinking this might be cheaper than using my long distance company's calling card.

Thanks.

 

[BethR]

Hi SalandJeff!

You are better off using them from a pay phone. WDW resorts will charge you 75 cents a call. If you use your phone card from a pay phone - it will just cost you a few extra units. The one that I use (AT&T from Sam's Club - 4.? cents a minute) uses 6 units at a pay phone which amounts to 30 cents - the same as if you had to put coins in the phone.
Hope that this helps!

 

[sherry7]

BethR....not sure of your particular calling card, but using a card from most payphones will now cost an extra 75 cent fee.

 

[BethR]

Hi Sherry!

I am using the AT&T Pre-paid Calling Card that comes from Sam's. I think that the rate is 4.1 cents a minute for calls within the continental U.S. There are no surcharges to use these cards EXCEPT that they charge 6 minutes (about 25 cents) to use a pay phone.
It has gotten to the point where I use these cards for ALL of my long distance calls!

 

[Muushka]

Those Sam's AT&T cards are great. I also use it for all of my long distance and have saved a lot of money. An additional way of saving is to order the cards over the internet (and when time runs out, just 'recharge' it by calling the phone number on the back of the card). You pay no sales tax, whereas with long distance on your phone bill, you pay a tax. For those real penny counters, it is 4.16 cents per minute. A great bargain.

 

[Cinders]

I know for a fact you cant use an 800 number from your room. I tried calling my mom's 800 number when we checked into ASMV's and it couldnt be done.....tried a payphone located in the Woody Building and it still didnt work......had to go into the resort center and could only use certain payphones to make 800 number calls. Was quite the hassle and royally yanked my chain not being able to call mom from our room.....resort center was loud and a family of 4 trying to use a payphone next to several other phones is not pleasant.

 

[mickey4ver]

I have used my phone card, which requires dialing an 800 number from my resort room on every trip to WDW. I have been charged the 75 cent surcharge and I have NOT been charged the surcharge, go figure. But, I have had no trouble using my card from my room.

The other posters are correct about using the AT&T card that you get from Sam's Club at a payphone, they surcharge you about 2 or 3 minutes, but it is still amazingly cheap to call this way. I use the cards at home all the time also, it is by far about the cheapest rate out there in my estimation.

 

[DebbieB]

I know for a fact you cant use an 800 number from your room.

I used an 800# for a prepaid phone card in Feb from the room at Coronado with no problem. I also called my office's 800# from OKW in May. Are you sure you were dialing the outside number code first (8 or 9, can't remember which).

 

[Mic]

I brought along a pre-paid phone card on my last 2 trips, and basically used it to call home to DH, to let him know we were in the room so he could call us back. Once home, I decided to look over our phone bill a few weeks later and discovered that it was actually less expensive to use the card sometimes than to have my husband call the room from our home phone(the per-minute charge from home was more expesive during certain hours of the day). Also, on my last trip, I discovered (through this board) that 800 numbers are free for DVC members, so it made sense to use the calling card from our room. I was also told by a front desk clerk at another resort that if you needed to make several calls, use your calling card for the first call(at a charge of $.75) and make the other calls immediately afterward, without hanging up, so you would actually be able to make 3 calls for $.75(but I never tried this, so I can not confirm that it works).

 

[Gillian]

For multiple calls with the AT&T card from Sam's club you just hit the # key instead of hanging up. It takes you back to the part where you enter the phone number.

Those cards are great! I recently programmed into our home phone & it's a big savings on long distance, especially for calls within our state! I saw it on the DIS somewhere, so THANK YOU!!

 

[Muushka]

Thanks Gillian for that tip.
I wondered how to make multiple calls!

 

[jgates]

Can someone tell me what Swan/Dolphin policy is on 800#'s? I use Sam's cards all the time, but I am seriously considering doing SpanAmerica for one month on my cell phone. It's $29 or $39 for the one month but then we are .10 per minute w/o having to hunt down a phone that will take an 800#. And then anyone can reach us anytime.