Rebtel Cuts Cost of Calls to Mexico in Half

Rebtel has announced it slashed the calling rates to Mexico in half so that Mexicans living in the U.S. can call friends and family at home for just 1.5 cents per minute.

 

An Internet phone company, Rebtel (News - Alert) offers the smartest way to make low-cost international calls from a user’s mobile phone.

 

According to the consumer advocacy group, Consumer Action (News - Alert), even if a calling card functions, it may only work for a fraction of the promised time. A U.S. Senate report found the average card delivered only 50 percent of the promised minutes. This largely happens because of undisclosed or poorly disclosed terms and fees, like a 99-cent hang-up fee, or the practice of billing in 3- or 4-minute increments even when calls only last a few seconds.

 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC (News - Alert)), as part of a national crackdown, has sued and received multi-million judgments this year against some of the worst offenders. One such offender is the Diamond Phone Card, Inc., that claimed to deliver 400 minutes to Mexico but only provided 106 minutes of calling time after fees and service charges. It has been estimated by The Hispanic Institute, a nonprofit advocacy group that calling cards are cheating consumers out of $1 million a day.

 

Some of the common complaints about calling card rates registered with FTC are that they don’t deliver the number of minutes they advertise, they debit minutes or units even when the call is not connected to the number being dialed, hidden connection charges, taxes, and surcharges increase the rate-per-minute, bad connections and also that customer service numbers are often busy.

 

When compared to the pre-paid phone cards that don’t deliver, it is absolutely free to set up a Rebtel account. There are no monthly fees, connection fees or hidden costs associated with the account. Rebtel will work with any phone without modification; software downloads or changes to the user’s calling plan with their cell phone provider.

 

According to Andreas Bernstrom, CEO of Rebtel, whether it’s done with a paper card or on the Internet, fraud is always fraud. With Rebtel, a user will get exactly the same amount that he paid for when calling Mexico. So, it will cost a user just 1.5 cents per minute to landlines and 8.9 cents per minute to mobiles phones while calling Mexico.