Prepaid calling cards extend well beyond the card that a customer buys. Why? The processes of getting the minutes to the customer actually start with the customer. When someone is enrolled in a monthly plan, there is typically unused minutes that do not get used. But since the phone company has already sold the minutes, and do not carry over the minutes (in some cases, the customer will still get rollover minutes, but they are in fact renewed minutes). Therefore, when phone companies have their extra minutes, instead of losing money and throwing away the minutes, they choose to turn around and sell the minutes, so that they do not lose the money. This is where the minutes come for prepaid calling cards.

Many people like to think of the unused minutes as unsold seats in a plane. When an airline has open seats in a certain flight not being sold, they turn around and sell the seats for a lower price. While the airline is not making any money off of this, they are instead losing less money. So, someone has the opportunity to get a plane ticket to the same location as someone else, but for a cheaper price.

Prepaid phone card minutes are used in the same respect. The phone company will be losing more money with the unused minutes if they were to not do anything. So, they choose to lose less money, and sell the unused minutes in bulk. Then, the phone card companies buy the minutes, and place them on the phone cards for another price. The phone card companies are making the most money in the long run, because they are able to buy the unused minutes from the phone companies and then sell them for another price, one that will make them money. If the phone card company were to sell the phone cards at the same rate at which they bought the unused minutes, it would be difficult to make any money, let alone pay for their own service charges.

The phone card companies will keep a lower calling rate, but they add on some fees and service charges that make up for the costs of the lower calling rate. Sometimes these fees will cover their services, and other times it is to get more pennies from someone’s pocketbook. There are some calling card companies that will minimize their service fees, but they often have the higher per minute calling rates.

Calling card can be found in many places. They are in convenience stores, airports, and other places that have high traffic. Phone cards are sold with different minute allotments and at different rates. A person can purchase calling cards with a certain amount of time on the card. Prepaid calling cards have the minutes already paid for, so as they are getting used, a person can see how much time they have left on the calling card. Once the minutes that were purchased on the calling card are used up, the calling card can be thrown away.