AT&T International Long Distance Costs vs. Calling Cards

International long distance dialing can be a very tricky business, especially for consumers or looking to get the most of the lowest rates possible. Consumers are often presented with several choices, a person can choose to use an international calling plan with a phone company such as AT&T, Verizon, etc. for the same person can choose to use a phone calling card.

Today we're going to compare the costs associated with using an international long distance dialing plan with AT&T to that of a traditional calling card. In order to begin a comparison with most first note that companies such as AT&T require a contract for a commitment which is something that can turn people off especially when they just use the phone to make international calls a few times a month, on the plus side this company does offer lower rates for those who choose to subscribe to their international calling plan which for the most part starts at $3.99 a month.

The cost we just mentioned doesn't cover or include a certain amount of minutes a month, instead of those who choose to pay $3.99 a month are able to call internationally with the relatively low dialing rates, if you were to use your phone to dial internationally without subscribing to this plan then the fees that you would pay would be substantially higher which is why it is recommended that if you use a phone companies such as AT&T and you are planning to call internationally a few times a month then your best bet would be to subscribe to their $3.99 plan in order to avoid an outrageous bill.

If we compare the costs of calling from a specific country such as United States to France and we are able to get a much better picture about which of these two dialing methods will save us the most money. If we are to call from the US to France after subscribing to AT&T's world connect plan we would be paying nine cents per minute to call a landline, using a phone card such as EURO East/West gives us the ability to call it that very same landline for seven cents a minute in other words, if we were to cap the money we were allowed to spend with AT&T at five dollars then we will be able to talk for 62 1/2 minutes compared to 71 1/2 minutes with a calling card.

We have just compared one of the many international calling cards that are available for the consumer to choose from however, it is important to note that to take full of vintage of calling cards you must choose those that provide a local number to dial from, otherwise you will be using a toll-free number which jacks up the rate per minute bringing down the value and overall benefit of the card.