Phone cards are the cheapest way for international students to call home (except IP Phones). You can use phone cards from your home, from payphones, or from cell phones (in most cases). Phone cards can also be used from your home phone without changing your registered local or long distance carrier.

However, the "con" of using phone cards is that, before you dial your destination number, you need to dial a special 1-800 number and a long "PIN" number. Despite the inconvenience, phone cards are the most popular way for international students to call home, because of their low cost. So, in the next five minutes, let's learn the three basic things you must know about phone cards before you start using them:

1. How to choose phone cards: There are many, many calling card companies offering cheap rates, due to the deregulated environment. Since the industry is very competitive, some companies resort to marketing tricks to attract customers. International students need to be very careful when choosing a phone card.

2. How to use them: New arrivals might find it difficult or inconvenient to use a phone card. In this section, we show you step-by-step instructions. There is a hard way to use phone cards, and there is an iStudentCitizen way to use them. Check out the quick tips in this section.

   iStudentCity.com has picked out some quality phone card providers.

   Preferred Service Providers:
   

   • Pincity.com
     Meets all your communication needs with excellent rates

   • Thaitel.com (Recommended!)
     Low rate to call Bangkok during "Happy Hours"!

   • TollThai.com
     Place you can pick good rates for Thailand phone calls