CallCalculator.com
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You buy a phone card on Saturday for $10.00. It offers you calls to Malaysia for only 10¢ per minute.
The fine print on card says
Cost per minute to Malaysia is 10¢
Domestic (US) cost per minute is 1¢
Service fee: is $0.50 per week
Domestic (US) connection fee is $0.49
International Connection charge is $2.00
Billing Increment is 1 minute.
Sunday morning you call your family in Kuala Lumpur for 30 minutes
Connection fee costs $2.00
Minutes used costs $3.00
Remaining value of card = $10.00 - 2.00 - .3.00 = $5.00
This call actually cost you $5.00, or 16.67¢ per minute
Sunday night you call your cousin in Washington for 15 minutes:
Connection fee costs $0.49
Minutes used cost $0.15
Remaining value of card = 5.00 - .49 - .15 = $4.36
This call actually cost you 64¢ or 4.27¢ per minute
The following Sunday you call your family in Kuala Lumpur again:
Maintenance fee costs $0.50 (a week has passed)
Connection fee costs $2.00
Remaining value of card = 4.36 - .50 - 2.00 = $1.86
You only have enough left on the card for an 18-minute call at a cost of $1.80
This call actually cost you $4.36 or 24.2¢ per minute
You have now used the entire card.
You have talked to Malaysia for 48 minutes at the rate of 19.5¢ per minute.
You have talked to Washington for 15 minutes at the rate of 4.27¢ per minute.
This is probably NOT what you expected! CLICK HERE to find a better rate!