lyle@dimacs.rutgers.edu (Lyle A. McGeoch) (01/26/91)
Until now I've used AT&T (via my Bell Atlantic card) for my infrequent calling card calls. The MCI MasterPhone program, which has slightly better rates and automatic billing to a MasterCard, seemed like a reasonable way to save a bit. No fee to sign-on, no extra bill to pay each month... sounded great. Well I just received the information packet from them. The catch turns out to be the laborious dialing instructions: --- call their 800 number and wait for them to answer --- dial 0 plus the number you're calling, and wait for the tone --- dial your MasterCard number and PIN (20 digits) --- dial # I can live without this nonsense. Lyle A. McGeoch, Rutgers University, lyle@dimacs.rutgers.edu
dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com (David Tamkin) (01/29/91)
Lyle McGeoch wrote in volume 11, issue 71: : Until now I've used AT&T (via my Bell Atlantic card) for my infrequent : calling card calls. The MCI MasterPhone program, which has slightly : better rates and automatic billing to a MasterCard, seemed like a : reasonable way to save a bit. No fee to sign-on, no extra bill to pay : each month... sounded great. Well I just received the information : packet from them. The catch turns out to be the laborious dialing : instructions: : --- call their 800 number and wait for them to answer : --- dial 0 plus the number you're calling, and wait for the tone : --- dial your MasterCard number and PIN (20 digits) : --- dial # But MCI and US Sprint will gladly bill any account -- at least any residential account -- to a MasterCard or VISA. You can use a regular MCI Card and just dial 950-1022 and a fourteen-digit card number (already saving ten digits and the final octothorpe) and still have it billed to a credit card. No fee to sign on, no extra bill to pay each month; sounds just as good as it did at first. MCI and US Sprint will also bill your 10XXX dialing to a MasterCard or a VISA (or your 1+ dialing if they're your primary carrier, which MCI has a habit of becoming suddenly and unexpectedly, but that's another story). My accounts with both of them are billed to a MasterCard, and through other arrangements one of my VISA cards has an MCI PIN and my AmEx card has a US Sprint PIN; calls made through them would likewise be billed directly to the card. : I can live without this nonsense. You're the customer; make them live with yours. Get a no-fee Universal Card from AT&T (they've extended the no-fee introductory offer to March 26, 1991), place your calls through MCI or US Sprint, and have them billed to the Universal Card. AT&T won't like your using another carrier instead of them, the carrier you use won't like having to pay the credit card discounts to AT&T, and neither will like your being so blatant about it. You get to tick off everyone! David Tamkin Box 7002 Des Plaines IL 60018-7002 708 518 6769 312 693 0591 MCI Mail: 426-1818 GEnie: D.W.TAMKIN CIS: 73720,1570 dattier@ddsw1.mcs.com