If you need to make international calls to China on a regular basis, there are ways to do it that can save you significant amounts of money. These options are accessible by almost anyone, and easy to use. The two primary methods available today are VoIP and phone cards.

VoIP, short for Voice over Internet Protocol, is a technology which uses your high-speed internet connection to make telephone calls. To use it, most companies send a box which is plugged directly into the high-speed internet line. The box has a jack on it which the telephone is plugged into, and you’re immediately able to make free local and long distance calls, and very inexpensive international calls. The downside to VoIP is its cost. Most of the companies charge a monthly access charge, similar to phone companies. This is in addition to any charges that you may be paying for the internet access.

If you don’t have high-speed internet, or don’t want to get started with a new phone company, rechargeable phone cards are a powerful alternative. There are now many companies that offer phone cards for any situation. They all have different rates depending upon where you’re calling from and where you’re calling to, so you’ll want to search around a little bit to make sure that you’re getting exactly what you want. In addition, it’s important to make sure that you find a card that is usable in your country of origin. Not every card is usable everywhere, so make sure the card you select can be used in the country you’ll be calling from.

In general, phone cards have a few different features that make the cards more or less usable and economical by people. One of these is the feature of having local access numbers. Phone card companies tend to charge more for those users who call the 1-800 number on the card. This extra charge can be from one to five cents more per minute, depending on where the call goes to and which company is being used. Local access numbers are an alternative to that, allowing users to call a phone number in their area code and avoid the extra charge.

Another money-saving feature of phone cards is the capability to purchase a no connection fee card. These cards do not charge the user a fee when they make a call, but in return, minutes for these cards are usually more expensive. The difference is negligible, though, when you consider that a chunk of the minutes you buy will end up going to pay the connection fee, if you don’t get a no connection fee card. The extra cost of the connection fee is a waste that is better just avoided.

The simple fact is that calling internationally is going to cost more money than calling long-distance or locally. With a little shopping around for available options, though, you can cut that cost down to a rate that’s almost negligible, meaning that even you can save on international calls to China.