Information About Collect Calls
Landline phones are being replaced in many households by cell phones. One of the disadvantages of using cell phone is that it is not able to receive collect calls. This is because of the mobile phone service providers who does not allow the receiver to get such call because of the difficulty in billing them. Generally, the mobile phone providers give a bill plan, which charges according to the number of calls that are being made however, this facility does not include collect call plan.
Available Collect Calls Services
Few mobile phone service providers are trying to allow this type of call while for the time being the third party service provider facilitates the calls. You would have to provide the jail inmates with your phone number as well as the third party service provider’s toll free phone number so that they can make prison collect calls. The third party operator would call you after receiving a request from the prisoner and then ask for your credit card details. It is very important for you to have credit card, check card, etc. in order to receive such calls.
Call Charges And Payment Method
Once you provide the credit card details and the payment is completed, you would be connected with the inmate. In this situation, you would have to bear both collect call charges and mobile phone charges. You can set up a prepaid account with the mobile phone service provider for the jail inmate. This would provide the service called “Collect to Wireless”. With this the prisoner need to call a toll-free number as given by the mobile phone service provider.
Prepaid Collect Calls
The caller needs to enter the phone number and tell his name before the call could be connected. The calls would be charged accordingly. This whole process can be termed as prepaid inmate collect calls service. However, you need to make sure whether the jail allows this facility or not. If not then you can restore to the service of third party. Calling card is cheaper than using any other mode, hence, you can see if that is allowed or not, so that you can talk with your loved ones and stay in touch.
The Process Of Making Collect Calls
Many people in jail face the problem of making collect calls to a cell phone to their family members. In a situation when more and more people are giving up their landline telephones to use cell phones, jail inmates and their family are concerned about the current scenario of making and receiving collect call. Most of the cellular phone service provides do not allow anybody to receive such type of call since the payment process is cumbersome. However, in order to solve this problem several third party service providers have come to make this process easily possible.
Payment For Collect Calls
However, you need you need to have a credit card or bankcard in order to process the service. When you receive collect calls from prison from the third party service provider, it would prompt you to provide your credit card details before connecting the call. In order to use this process for calling you need to find a third party service provider who would arrange call for the inmate. The service provider would give an 800 number to the prisoner to dial from the prison. The collect call from inmates would be chargeable to the number he would call.
Number To Call
However, the receiver would be charged on per minute basis. When you are arranging for this service, you must provide the prisoner your cell number along with the third party operator’s 800 number. The operator would call you and ask for your credit card information and once the payment is confirmed, it would connect you to the prisoner. However, you must ensure whether the prison can have a phone card. You would get to know after reading the guidelines of the jail.
Jail Guidelines To Keep Phone Card
If the prisoner is allowed that, you might provide him with this alternative option for prepaid collect calls. However, if he does not have the facility then you need to arrange for a third party operator as discussed earlier. The only disadvantage for this type of calls is that you would be charged twice for receiving the call only. You need to pay the third party as well as your mobile phone operator. However, this is a small amount, which you are paying to talk to your near one.