[Andrew W Scott]

I want to buy a cheap phone card so I can call back home (Australia). So I searched through the threads here and found many references to Worldwide house - people say this is a good place to buy phone cards. Someone mentioned that I should be able to get a phone card where the rate is <30c/min to Australia.

So a few days ago when I was in Central I go to Worldwide House - well, er, I think I went to Worldwide House - I went to the building that both exit A and B at Central MTR come out of. It said Worldwide House on the building! So I walk all around looking for places that sell phone cards...and couldn't find any! I'm thinking to myself "am I just dumb or what? What am I missing here?"

Please can someone tell me where these magical phone card places are? Did I missed some vital stairway or something? Am I going mad? Do I need a secret password? Are the phone cards sold by a shady looking character in a trenchcoat?

[discobay]

Don't know about the exit numbers but I've been to WWH and there are a lot of shops selling phone cards. Mind you they seem to cater more for the Phillipino community to call home.
These cheap phone cards are on sale in a lot of other places other than WWH. Which areas do you frequent?

[Andrew W Scott]

Originally Posted by discobay

Don't know about the exit numbers but I've been to WWH and there are a lot of shops selling phone cards. Mind you they seem to cater more for the Phillipino community to call home.
These cheap phone cards are on sale in a lot of other places other than WWH. Which areas do you frequent?

Sheung Wan and Central. Thanks

[discobay]

Firstly, did you consider ringing from your landline? 0060 charge 15c/min. and 1507 9c/min. for landline to landline calls.

[PDLM]

He may well not have a landline - an increasing proportion of people don't these days. I've come close to cancelling mine several times.

And in fact on most cheap calling solutions if there is a difference between calling from a mobile and calling from a landline then it is the mobile which is cheaper.

[Andrew W Scott]

To Australia?? That is cheap. But unfortunately, not possible for me. Assume I have a landline that can only make local calls. Presumably the phone cards work like they do everywhere else in the world, by calling a toll free number here in HK?

[discobay]

Yes they do only most nearly all phone numbers here are free to call anyway.

[PDLM]

When you say "can only make local calls" what do you mean? For any line to make an international call you need to be signed up with and IDD provider (001, 0060, 0080, etc etc). Once you have done that then you can use any phone in HK to access the international service.

[Andrew W Scott]

Originally Posted by discobay

...most nearly all phone numbers here are free to call anyway.

Could you explain that to me a bit more? So if I call any local HK number, be it a landline or a mobile, that's normally free is it? How does that work? How do the telephone companies make any money out of local HK calls? Is it just from the money you have to pay to buy a SIM (for mobiles) or the regular access fee (which I presume there is for landlines).

Also, do calls to China (or I should say "the mainland") count as international calls? I presume they do since one is dialling from +852 to +86. I'm guessing though that they should still be relatively cheap given the geographical proximity of the "two" countries.

As you can see, I am still trying to wrap my head around the question of whether Hong Kong is a separate country from "China" or not.

[Andrew W Scott]

Originally Posted by PDLM

When you say "can only make local calls" what do you mean? For any line to make an international call you need to be signed up with and IDD provider (001, 0060, 0080, etc etc). Once you have done that then you can use any phone in HK to access the international service.

I am staying in a serviced apartment that provides calls to any +852 number for free, but charges exorbitant rates for any IDD call. Presumably those exorbitant rates exist irrespective of which IDD provider I choose to use.