One way to avoid long distance calls is to call someone Collect. By doing this you pass the payment off to them. Of course, unless you are trying to make your friends mad, this is not the best way to go about making long distance calls. Another way is to make sure your phone plan or cell phone plan covers long distance calls, however, if you are not making long distance calls all the time then you are more than likely going to be spending a lot more money on the plan than what you would be making the long distance calls.

So what is the best way to beat the system? Well I cannot really call it beating the system, but you could always get a phone card. This is a card that you put a set amount of money on, and then use it to make your long distance calls. Now sure you are still paying for the long distance calls, but you are putting a limit to how much money you are going to spend. This way there are no hidden fees at the end of the month on your phone bill. Everyone has to make long distance calls at one point or the other so a calling card could make a good gift. I am not saying that a phone card is perfect for everyone, but it could be a step in the right direction. Who knows you could end up saving a lot of money by using them. Also, you will save a lot of friends by not making them pick up your bill for the long distance calls.

Now when you are thinking about buying these cards the best thing you can do is look for a great place to buy the cards. Now, unless you just hate using the internet, I think that you should get them online. Buying them in a store is fine too, but after you pay for gas to drive around you are spending way to much money on it. A lot of times calling cards can be shipped to your house free of charge.

Let me just say again, calling cards are not going to be right for everyone. They do have their weak points as well. Like if you run out of money on one of them during a phone call they cut the call off. Now if it is just a friend, that is fine, you can tell him about it later. What if it turned out to be a big time business call? Then you would have a hard time talking your way out of that one. So make sure that a calling card is right for you before you go out and buy one. You may be happy you did.