Options to Keep the Costs Down When Phoning From Abroad

Terry Perito learned the hard way that calling the United States while traveling abroad can cost you a fortune.

Perito and an associate were staying in Cabo San Lucas. They called the United States from their hotel, gave their calling card numbers to the long-distance operator, and believed the calls were being routed on their contracted long-distance carriers.

Perito uses Sprint; his friend uses AT&T.;

When Perito returned home to Sherman Oaks, however, he discovered that the hotel had routed the calls through Capitol Network, a Dallas-based carrier that charged much higher rates.

“I was led to believe I was accessing our calling cards and their respective rates,” said Perito. He made three phone calls for a total of 12 minutes and was charged $125. Had they been billed to his calling card, the charge would have been about $30, he said. His associate made 15 calls for a total of 37 minutes. His bill was $530 for calls that would have cost about $111 on his calling card.

“If they had posted the prices and let us know about the loan shark rates, we never would have made those phone calls,” said Perito, who is taking his complaints to the Mexican Tourist Bureau and the Federal Communications Commission.

Perito is not alone.

According to a recent survey by AT&T;, about half (47%) the 1,100 travelers polled said they had been “unpleasantly surprised” by high hotel phone surcharges, which may be part of deals with higher-priced long-distance carriers.

U.S. hotels have begun to reduce or eliminate the fees, with some promoting the changes as a way to attract business. But surcharges remain more common overseas than in the United States, according to Pat Robinson, a spokeswoman for AT&T; in New York.

There are ways to cut such costs. Most U.S. long-distance carriers have local numbers that provide access to their systems.

In more developed countries, consider bringing along a rented international cellular phone. (Buying such a phone is prohibitively expensive for use on only one or two trips.) Although cellular calls aren’t always cheaper than calling from your hotel room, a cell phone can be more convenient. Cell systems in other countries are improving all the time. Among U.S. companies specializing in such rentals is Global Cell in Canoga Park ([818] 884-6795).

But when traveling, try to find out upfront about hotel phone policies, including whether it’s possible to access a particular long-distance carrier through the hotel operator and whether there are surcharges attached to each call.

Before leaving, contact your long-distance carrier to see what programs are available for overseas calling and to get a list of local access numbers for the countries where you’ll be traveling. Using a local access number in conjunction with a calling card should ensure that your calls are handled by the carrier of your choice.

AT&T; even publishes a global hotel directory listing overseas hotels that will give guests access to AT&T; services and whose surcharges are low. For more information, call (800) 241-5555.

MCI operates a WorldPhone Hotline ([800] 444-4141) for travelers are planning an overseas trip. The hotline provides information on dialing instructions and access phone numbers. MCI also provides subscribers with a wallet-card guide that lists local access numbers around the world.

Though accessing a familiar long-distance carrier from overseas is one way to keep costs down, the “call-back” option has been growing in popularity.

Call-back services are the high-tech equivalent of the old college trick: Call home, let it ring once, hang up and wait for your parents to call you back on their dime. Only now it’s done with sophisticated switching equipment, and it’s a computer calling back to give you access to a low-cost long-distance line.

“It’s been growing because it saves so much money,” said Kevin Shaughnessey, owner of America Tele-fone in New York. It’s particularly helpful for travelers who want access to the Internet while abroad, he said.

Here’s how it works.

When you sign up with a call-back service, the service assigns you a special U.S. phone number to call whenever you’re in a foreign country. You call the number, let it ring once and hang up. The service automatically calls you back at a number you’ve punched into the system and gives you a dial tone.

You place as many calls as you want using that dial tone and are billed at the call-back service’s rates, which are often significantly lower than if you used the country’s local phone lines.

Call-back services buy long-distance minutes in large volume from long-distance carriers, then pass on some of the savings to consumers, said Eric Doescher, director of marketing for Seattle-based Kallback. “We buy 20 million minutes a month.”

You can change the number the system uses to call you back as you travel around, said Oscar Hansan, vice president of Globaltel, an Atlanta-based call-back service. The switch can even be programmed to call a hotel and ask for your room number’s extension. Customers can use the same dial tone to make multiple calls by pressing the pound sign between each call.

Because it’s an incoming call, the hotel can’t reroute it to another line, the way it can for outgoing calls, Hansan said.

Making phone calls using local phone lines can rack up charges fast. In Argentina, for example, calls to the United States cost about $6 to $9 a minute. “We charge 95 cents a minute,” said Hansan. “There’s a big difference.”

America Tele-fone charges 67 cents a minute to call the United States from Argentina. It costs $1.02 a minute to call from China, 32 cents from the Netherlands and $1.07 from Mexico.

If you’re not using a call-back service, the most expensive calls home are from Japan, South America, the Middle East and some African countries, Hansan said.

There are dozens of call-back services available. Most of the larger ones have their own switching equipment. Others buy time from larger services and resell it.

Many of the companies have minimum monthly charges to cover the cost of maintaining an individual’s account. At Globaltel, for example, the minimum charge is $25. At America Tele-fone, the minimum billing is $10 a month.

Other services don’t charge a minimum each month but may charge a fee to activate your account, or tack a surcharge on to each call.

They also vary in their billing practices. Some, such as America Tele-fone and Globaltel, bill in six-second increments. Others round up to the minute or require a minimum billing per call.

Because of the variation, it can be difficult to compare rates directly in choosing a service, Hansan said. The best thing for a consumer to do after selecting a service is to keep track of his or her own calls for a month, then compare the actual time on the phone to the time billed for.

If you make enough calls from overseas to warrant the minimum monthly billing, call-back services are the least expensive way to reach the United States. In most cases, the most expensive way is to use the hotel switchboard. AT&T;, MCI and Sprint also offer their “call-home” services, which give you a number to call locally that connects you to their services.

Carol Smith is a freelance writer based in Kirkland, Wash. If you have suggestions or comments on Executive Travel, write to Daniel Gaines, Executive Travel/Markets Editor, Business Section, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or message business@latimes.com on the Internet.