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OK. I want to share a tool with you today. No affiliate links. No product pushing. Just something I love.

I have to make international calls periodically to chat with some of my larger clients. I don’t do a lot of phone work now that I’m not consulting, but I do still occasionally get a request – usually from Australia or the UK. I also have a good friend in the UK. Frankly, my phone company’s international rates suck (as many do). So I decided to try an online phonecard from Pingo.com.

I never ended up using it to deal with any big client calls, but I was chatting with that UK friend yesterday, and later thought “I bet this would come in handy for other writers if they’re like me and have clients all over creation.”

Pros

1. When you sign up, they give you $5 in free calls (nice to test it out). You should do a search for Pingo coupons too – they usually have some for new customers floating around.

2. You can set it up so your phone(s) is always recognized when you call your local access number (meaning you don’t have to spend time entering your account number – which is your phone number – every time you make a call).

3. Their rates seem fine and dandy to me.

4. The calls are incredibly clear (once you get them going) – at least based on my experience with calls to the UK – haven’t used it for a lot else yet.

5. When you do need support, they’re helpful. For example, when we first tried using this new card to connect, the call wouldn’t go through at all for a while. When it finally did, I could hear them fine, but they couldn’t hear me at all. Apparently it was an issue due to calling a mobile. I gave the support folks the number I was calling, and they went into the system, tinkered with something or another, and now it’s all honky dorey.

Cons

1. Sure, it’s not as easy as just picking up the phone and dialing. But if you make a good amount of international (or even just long distance) calls, it can be worthwhile.

2. It can be frustrating if it doesn’t connect at first. It might take some trial and error early on.

So give it a look. It’s not perfect, but for what it is, it seems to do a pretty good job. Hopefully it’ll come in handy for someone here, given our little “global market” and all.

Related posts:

1. Writers: Is Your Website Working for You?
2. The “Global” Writers’ Market
3. Cool Tool to Help You Choose Domain Names
4. Working Yourself to “Death” – How Many Hours Should You Work as a Freelance Writer?
5. Rick Frishman’s Book Publicity Tool Kit

About the Author: Jennifer Mattern

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Jenn is a professional blogger and freelance business writer. She has worked as a freelance writer since 1999, and has been an active business and niche blogger since 2004. She owns All Freelance Writing as well as several other sites and blogs covering PR, small business, and related topic areas. She is also currently writing a nonfiction book for freelance writers called The Query-Free Freelancer, and is the author of the Web Writer's Guide e-book series.

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