1. Demand driven inflation: Simple rule of economics states that a valid way of coping with increased demand is increasing prices. This has already started happening. When VOIP services were new (and not much worse than they are now), you could call landlines for $0.03/min. Now Skype charges 2.1c/min. That is US currency that is also an added conversion fee if you are not in the US. Not to mention the fact that this represents a 70 fold increase in fees and charges over the last 5 years! Talk about inflation!

Compare that with China Calling Rates and you will find that most telephone card companies are cheaper!

2. Frequent dropout: Anyone who has used Skype even once recognises that 50% of the time you will place a call, it will ring, then it will drop out or you will hear them and they will not be able to hear you. This happens extraordinarily often, and seems like too much of an issue to be written off as coincidences. After all, you will agree that Skype and other VOIP provides have a vested interest and a plausible excuse for drop out calls. Meanwhile, millions of people around the world have become several cents lighter in the pocket…

3. PC exploitation: If you have ever wondered how Skype and many other VOIP services work, often they exploit your bandwidth and your computer as a telephone line of sorts. That is, your computer (when idle and running these VOIP services) is actually helping someone else make a call to somewhere in the world. Pretty dodgy stuff.

4. Credit Card security: Do some research online and you will find a bunch of people who have been receiving credit card charges on the credit card through their SKYPE and VOIP account automatically. This occurs when you go to buy credit with your trusty card and automatically tick the conditions boxes which you skim over. Then, every month, look forward to a nice $20 bill or service fees of around $1 which are almost not worth following up.

5. Simplicity: The new Skype interface is quite user unfriendly. Navigation and even dialling is very difficult to do. So what are the elderly and technologically challenged to do? Use a telephone! Calling cards are still extremely simple to use, and involve following a 4 step procedure usually:

How to use your telephone card

Tags: calling card, cheap, international, japan, telephone card, thailand