You think that MCI call is bad?
 

My AT&T platinum credit/calling card charged me 3.96 for a 1 second call from Arizona to Burbank IL. I called that number and the person was not home. I tried thier cell phone no answer either but AT&T charged me another 3.96 for it also. What kind of crap is that? <BR>And this has to do with the Caribbean how? Well I been to St John, spent a week there and enjoyed it. So if you have any q's let me know. Happy Easter.

Yep, that's pretty bad; and certainly on a par MCI's rip-off tactics.<BR><BR>From here on in, I'll be purchasing local phone cards in the destination country or state, and use them to place calls. Information I've seen elsewhere (on another message board) tells me that's the cheapest way to go.

Make that, "on a par with".

Go to your local Sam's Club and get a phone card there. The cost per minute in the US, Canada and the USVI is $.0347/minute and there is no connection fee unless you are using a pay phone (although your hotel may charge one). Calls to the BVI are 11 times that rate, which is still cheaper than $3.96, don't know about other destinations. There is not a single calling plan out there that is this inexpensive. I use it for all my calls, even those from home. Other discount warehouses may have cards with similar deals.

I called home from Houston airport just to tell the grandkids bye and that I loved them, total call time about 2 minutes and AT&T chanrged me over $8. I cut that card up and I too have one from Sams Club. You can't beat the price. I think they have even upped the number of minutes you can carry on it to 3000, and they don't expire.

Some local prepaid phone cards won't work in the Caribbean because they don't have the company there that issued the card. The above poster who stated they would purchase the prepaid card AFTER they arrived at their destination was right on. That is probably the cheapest way to make calls from down there.

Be careful buying the island pre-paid cards, they are only good on certain islands. You can buy one in the Grenadines that works on several islands, you just have to read the back. Most islands seem to be going this route now. It is still expensive, bit IMHO it beats the heck out of calling from your hotel room. Now THAT is robbery....

You think your deal was bad, how about this? I didn't even make a call!!!! I just thought about calling home when I was in St. Martin and AT&T charged me $10.00, because they said I thought about the call for more than 20 seconds, and their rate is based on 6 second increments, so I got hit for 4 increments at $2.50 per increment.<BR>Incredible!!!!

Top this.....My daughter was in FLA over Christmas and her grandfather was in a bad car accident. When she got word, she called my home and got the answering machine. She immediately hung up and tried her grandmother's phone. Got answering machine and again immediately hung up and tried my number again, got the answering machine again and figured out that we were on the phone with her grandmother and tried and connected later. When I got the ATT bill, these "calls" and seven other tries cost $17.43 each! We were billed for three 2 minute calls in the span of one minute! After a heated call to the phone co, we got the chages removed. The moral of the story - get a phone card from Price Club and use it for ALL long distance calls. I hope I don't need to call anyone from BVI this June....