Phone Calls Home - BEWARE

[Gordo]

We recently got a nasty surprise! During a recent trip to the DR my wife made a phone call home to Canada to her mother. She has an elderly mother, whom she speaks to every Sunday. By the second Sunday a phone call was a must. Most conveniently there was a tent card by the phone that said "Use your calling card - no additional fees". Sounded good! When she tried to use our calling card it wouldn't work, the operator said "It is not compatible with our system, but you can use your CREDIT CARD!" Word of warning if you ever hear those words, stop there! Do not pass GO! Our Visa bill came back with a charge of $68 US - $97 Can for a 10 minute call! My wife called the Co. in the US that the charge came from, BMG, but to no avail. Apparently they think that this is a standard international rate. We checked with our local phone Co. and the highest rate we would have paid with them, assuming no phone plans etc. is $18 US. By the way the resort we made the call from was Casa Marina Reef in Sosua.

I guess we can call the charge a "stupidity tax!" We would normally never make a phone call on our credit card, but once they have you on the phone it's just too easy to continue.

And speaking of stupid, I miscalculated the time difference and my wife woke her mother up at 6 AM on Sunday - I told her it was NOON! None the less she was very happy to hear from her.

LAL - Live and Learn!

[Hlywud]

It has been posted a dozen times "beware"
Use Canada Direct only, many calls were over $600 for 3 minutes or less, I paid $22 for 17 minutes with CD in November.

[ricktoronto]

Originally posted by Hlywud
It has been posted a dozen times "beware"
Use Canada Direct only, many calls were over $600 for 3 minutes or less, I paid $22 for 17 minutes with CD in November.

Canada Direct is a better deal than this calamity but not so inexpensive either ( and neither are Bell calls from Canada to the DR so that is why).

Also note: the phones with the "power buttons" , e.g. push 1 for Germany, 2 for Canada etc., are also rip-off credit card billing so skip them when you see them like at the airport.

Just go to a Codetel, or whatever calling joint is in the town, e.g. Boca Chica has about 27 of them and call from there.

The one in Boca Chica which is also a cambio that I use is next to the Zanzibar in the newer mall thingy and 4 calls to Canada in January were about 10 minutes total and cost me 39 pesos, so US$1.50.

They said 13 RD$ a minute and then charged a third of that for some reason. A little (DOS based so it appears - wow) computer tallies the score.

If you are going to the DR a LOT and want convenience at a bit of a price (and you get to own something at a similar one time cost) just buy a pay as you go cell phone, have the party in Canada or USA have a calling card like you get at the corner store (the 10 cent a minute jobbies) - call them for 1 minute and they call you right back since the coolest thing about DR cell phones is you don't pay to receive calls.