Work at home moms: How to save money on long distance.

Jobsformoms.com researches scam-free work at home jobs and home businesses for stay at home moms.

How Work at Home Moms Can Save Money on Long Distance

By Leanne Tremblay

Saving money on long distance phone bills is something everyone wants, especially if you work at home and use your phone, right? But what a hassle! If you’ve looked into long distance plans at all lately, you’ll know that there are too many options. There are the big guys like Sprint and AT&T, your local phone company, prepaid phone cards, this new thing called VoIP, dial-around services—and they all spend big bucks on advertising trying to get your attention. If you’re a work at home mom the type of phone service you have can greatly affect your cost and effectiveness of working at home. So how exactly does a mom know which one to choose?

Hopefully, the rest of this article will give you a quick guide on how to keep it all straight.

Tried and True Long Distance Companies and Local Phone Companies

Long distance plans from the likes of Sprint, MCI, AT&T, and Qwest should be familiar to you. What these companies offer is traditional long distance services using the Public Switched Telephone System (or PSTN). They are reliable services with good call quality.

But the maze of calling plans can be confusing: one rate for weekends only after six o’clock, another rate for mid week, and so on. In comparing the long distance rates, they can be 50% more than the services like VOIP, which can be 2 cents a minute or less. For overseas rates, you should compare on a country by country basis. If you know which countries you’ll be phoning most often, look at those rates specifically.

What’s interesting to note is that traditional long distance companies usually charge more per minute for calls within your home state than to numbers outside of state. So the well known “Only 5 cents a minute” actually applies to state-to-state long distance. Calls within your state may be charged 7 to 14 cents per minute. Make sure you read all the terms and conditions of the plan before signing. This is the type of plan you should avoid if your work at home job involves calling long distance in your own state frequently.

To compare long distance companies: www.phonedog.com

Prepaid Phone Cards or Calling Cards

If you travel frequently, prepaid phone cards or calling cards are a great idea. You can purchase cards in $10, $20, $50 increments and loaded with minutes. You’re basically paying in advance for calling long distance. Rates vary but for long distance within the US, you can find cards with rates under 2 cents per minute.

The advantages to phone cards are: no monthly bills and no detailed statements. To make a call, you dial a toll-free number or local access number and sometimes PIN number as well. Then, dial the phone number. That’s it.

What you may find inconvenient about phone cards though, is the hassle of remembering and dialing all those extra numbers and access codes. If you travel to different countries, that number could change depending on the country you’re in.

Another alternative for frequent travelers is a VOIP internet phone service. If you do most of your phoning from your home or home office, you’re better off with a monthly long distance plan, either with a VOIP provider or long distance company.

To compare prepaid phone cards: www.callingcards.com

VoIP Internet Phone Service

Another way you can save money on long distance is by using your internet connection for more than just surfing and email. If you’ve heard about this thing called VOIP, it’s essentially an internet phone, or using your high speed internet connection to make calls instead of the regular phone lines.

If you work at home, there are many additional features that Internet Phone Service offers that may enhance your cost-effectiveness.

There are three really great things about internet phone worth mentioning. One is the low cost of long distance, second is long list of free features that come with a VOIP unlimited long distance plan, and third is how easy it is to take with you on the road. It’s the perfect phone service for traveling.

Broadband phone providers have monthly flat rates starting at $10 to $15 that give you either unlimited calling anywhere in North America or limited 200-500 minutes anywhere. Depending on your phone usage, one of these types of plans could save you lots of money. If you’re an independent contractor who gets paid for results, you can reduce your cost – and increase your net income – by having unlimited long distance if you work at home.

Internet phone services also give you up to 30 free features like voicemail, three-way calling, and caller ID. Regular phone service often charges for these, sometimes $5/month per feature. You can get a new 10-digit phone number or you can often port your exiting number over to the service free of charge. Neat phone features!

Your internet phone service can travel with you as well. As long as you can get hooked up to the internet in your hotel room, internet café, or wireless hotspot, you can have a broadband phone conversation with anyone and keep performing your work at home job on the road.

The downside to internet phone service is that it is dependent on your internet connection and therefore tied to regular wall power. If there’s a power outage, you can’t make or receive calls. Emergency 911 calls also work a little differently, but internet phone providers are required by law to pass along the subscriber name and address information to the nearest Public Safety Access Point when 911 is dialed. Call quality is also sometimes patchy, with clipping, echo and noticeable voice delay when speaking.

However, internet phone service is growing in popularity overall, especially for home-based workers. Researchers predict that 34% of all US landlines (or 25.5 million subscribers) are expected to be using VOIP by 2010! (TIA reports)

To compare VOIP internet phone service: www.quickstartvoip.com

Dial Around Services – Watch out for Scams. (10-10)

With dial-around services, you dial an access number, such as 10-10-228, to bypass or “dial around” the local or long distance telephone company. You then pay low rates once the call is connected and the charges appear on your regular phone bill. . However, beware of 10-10 dialing scams, such as those that advertise a low per minute rate that only applies after 10 or 20 minutes on the call.

The advantage to 10-10 service is that you don’t have to register, and you won’t get additional bills or pay extra fees. Dial around services are best for the occasional long distance call. If you plan to make regular long distance calls for personal or home business use, then one of the other services listed in the article are a better choice.

To compare dial-around services: www.10-10phonerates.com

So, your best bet for saving money on long distance, especially if you work at home, is to first decide what where you plan to call and how often. Also consider what’s most important to you: is it the lowest rate or is it reliable call quality. Then choose either a long distance company plan, phone card, VOIP internet phone service, or dial around service that meets those criteria.

Leanne Tremblay is a freelance writer and publisher of www.quickstartvoip.com, a site all about the wonders of internet phone service, free video phone services, and internet phone hardware for the home office.