Long Distance Phone Service Reviews

SaveOnPhone.com, Telecompare.com, 1+ Call Saver and TollChaser.com are just a few of the websites we visited that serve up charts listing the best long distance phone services. These charts emphasize cheap long distance plans, listing rates along with notes on service, availability and extra fees. Many of the same long distance companies were listed in the top five or at least the top ten at multiple websites. Other sites, such as MyRatePlan.com have interactive tables, which offer suggestions depending on where you live and what types of calls you make. Having a couple of months of old phone bills on hand will make these sites more useful, since their rate calculators ask for the number of monthly minutes your phone's in use and the percentage of calls you make in-state. Consumer Reports occasionally covers industry news and gives some basics tips on ways to cut your bill, but it provides no insight about which phone plans are best.

Reviews continue to recommend smaller companies for cheap long distance rates. Since smaller companies don't have multimillion-dollar advertising campaigns, they are able to pass on savings to consumers. In addition, many of these companies no longer send paper bills, either billing directly through a credit card or sending an e-mail invoice. We found many long distance phone companies offering plans for well under 5¢ per minute. Monthly fees and incremental billing by seconds (six seconds and one minute are the most common) are also things to take into consideration in judging long distance services. Some of the reviews we found also take customer service into consideration.

AT&T offers a variety of plans. However, after comparing these plans to others, we found that despite a low advertised rate, fees and other charges quickly outpace savings. AT&T's 5¢ Nights Plan, for example, imposes a $9.00 minimum usage charge and a $1.99 Carrier Cost Recovery Fee (which is not required by the government in any way). Before even picking up the phone to make a call, your bill is already going to be at least $10.99 (not including tax), and that doesn't include the current 10.2% USF (Universal Service Fund) fee. AT&T also offers their One Rate 10¢ Nationwide Direct Plan, which has a monthly fee of $2.99. Verizon's 5¢ plan sounds enticing, but on top of the low rate is a $6.00 monthly service fee with a $10 per-month minimum charge. In contrast, most reviews favor a smaller company called ECG as the best long distance carrier. ECG offers a 2.5¢ per minute plan with a 59¢ recovery fee (that's less than most other carriers), and six-second billing increments. ECG is included in ConsumerSearch Fast Answers.

Our Consensus Report shows how many times products are top-ranked by reviewers included in our
All The Reviews Reviewed chart.

ECG is the choice of most reviewers as the best domestic cent-per-minute provider. Total Call is also listed in our Fast Answers. Even though it's more expensive than ECG, Total Call is available in areas that ECG does not serve. CogniState and Pioneer aren't far behind ECG with their low rates and no monthly fees. However, these companies cost more than ECG's 2.5¢ plan and don't have any better availability. 3U offers some terrific international, Hawaii and Alaska rates.