Connection fees, Maintenance Fees, Surcharges Explained
Freedom would like to take this opportunity to de-mystify and also educate our valued customers on fees which are commonly charged on calling cards.
Connection fee : is a fee which is charged when one makes a call using a calling card. Its usually a once off fee per call.
Maintenance Fees : these are fees charged on some calling cards after first use and they can be daily, weekly, monthly etc etc
Surcharges : these are fees normally charged for using special numbers normally numbers which enable a customer to make a call from Mobile, Payphones etc
Why Connection fees
The calling card industry started to introduce connection fees on calling cards as a direct response from customers calling patterns. A card with connection fees is beneficial to customers whose calling patterns are usually characterised by long calls and few calls on a single card. For example Sarah calls her parents in South Africa regulary and when she calls them she makes long calls ranging from 45mins to 90mins at a time. A card with connection fees will suite her calling patterns as she would get the maximum minutes. Connection fees are like capped calling offered by Telcos i.e call USA for 2 hours and pay only $2.
Why Maintenance Fees
Unlike Sarah who makes long calls to her parents usually finishing a card in 1 or 2 calls. Maintenance fees are for people Like John who make many calls to his parents, Brothers, Uncles and Friends in Zimbabwe. They do not want to pay connection fees as this will end up costing him dearly as his calling patterns are he speaks with his parents for 20mins, talk to his brother for 20mins, talk to his uncle for 15mins and calls his friend for 30mins to catch up on the old stories. A card with maintenance fees would suite him as he only get charged the following day after first use a nominal fee and in 3 days he usually finishes the card. These cards usually have double minutes than a card with no maintenance or connection fees.
No Connection fees and Maintenance fees card
Both Sarah and John love to talk on the phone but Ruth has a different calling pattern. She calls her parents and friends once in a while and when she calls she does not finish up the calling card and neither does she make long calls. With a $5 card she will want to keep it for a whole month or 2 making occasional calls. A card with no connection fees and maintenance fees which has lower minutes than the 2 above would be ideally for her as she will need to keep it for long time.
Mistakes to Avoid when choosing a calling card
The market has some bad apples who mis-represent information to consumers. As a rule of thumb depending on which Class you fall in above, at any one time you need to avoid going for a High minutes card yet your calling patterns are like Sarah’s. According to research done in this market, most of the players buy the airtime at +- 2% difference from the wholesalers so be suspecting to get a card which has No connection fees, No maintenance fees and you get 10% more airtime than other genuine minutes card. 99% of the time its its not true you will lose your airtime or minutes and 1% of the time they are using illegal carriers and if they are discovered the next day you will lose your whole airtime as the card would have gone burst.
If you have any queries, please contact us immediately.
