Are you missing somebody at home? Or is your sweetheart out of the country? The best way to make international long-distance calls is by using an international calling card. Such telephone cards were introduced to make long distance calls simple and effortless. But they have slowly developed into the cheapest way of making telephone calls from one country to another, owing to the increase in the number of private telecom companies and their price wars.

Before the advent of calling cards, it required a lot of time, money and preparation to make an international call, and involved contemplation on how much should be spent, how to convey maximum information in the shortest time, and how many minutes that would take.

Today's international calling cards are activated either by entering a pin number into a toll free number, or by placing a call from a number that is pre-registered. A secret pin number can be used to activate some cards. Others use a combination of any of these methods. You can pay for these cards online, or by cash or credit cards. Many cards are prepaid and will automatically hang up once you have used the allocated amount of time. But there are some calling cards that allow you to extend the time of call by paying extra, even after the allocated amount is used up.

There are many calling card operators on the web as well as in your neighborhood. You need to be judicious while buying a card, and choose your operator prudently. You have to check the reliability, rates and time slabs offered by each operator and for different countries. Customer service standards of the operator have to be taken into consideration; also, avoid any problematic pin codes or disrupted voice lines.