We are not going to talk about mill, salmon, beacon or something like that. Funny as it is, but calling cards can also be evaluated by their “best before” features.

Among various calling cards there are plenty of those that have a certain expiration date. This fact is understandably not very much announced by the calling cards providers. Reasons actually lie on the surface – when people don’t know their calling card may shortly expire, they don’t actually care of using it during the active period of service. When their card expires and they can’t use it any longer, they contact the provider’s support and try to find out the problem. And the problem is sorted out easily – clients are carefully explained that they should have read the Terms of Service where it is clearly stated that on a certain date the card expires and all money/minutes left are no longer their for you to use them.

Many people claim this as unethical practice, but who really cares about ethics in modern business? Of course, calling cards providers benefit a lot from the fact many clients just have no intention about the “best before” feature therefore losing their money, simply giving it to the provider.

However, as the calling cards market increases and rivalry becomes more and more tough every day, some calling cards providers use the “best before” factor as their marketing vehicle. Slogans like “Our calling cards never expires!” or “No more expiration date!” do their job. People start sorting out the differences and no longer purchase calling cards from those providers, who can’t still quit the “best before” practice.