How To Use A GoTalk Phone Card

Introduction

When travelling, it is often very expensive to make telephone calls. For example, calls from a hotel phone in the US/UK to Australia typically cost about AU$10 per minute. Using a mobile phone does not help. For example, calls from the US/UK to Australia from my roaming Vodafone mobile phone are about AU$1.70 per minute. In contrast, calls made from Australia to the UK using a GoTalk Phone Card are about AU$0.05 cents per minute — more than thirty times cheaper!

So, overwhelmingly, the cheapest way to phone someone in Australia from overseas is to phone them and read them a GoTalk phone card number and get them to phone you back in your hotel room using the GoTalk phone card number.

Unfortunately, using a phone card is more complicated than making ordinary phone calls, and it can be frustrating, time consuming, and expensive to explain to someone over the phone (at AU$2/min) how to use a GoTalk phone card. To overcome this problem, I have created this web page, which explains how to use the card. This will allow me (and you) to provide just the GoTalk card number and the URL to this page when I want someone to phone me back.

How To Call Someone Using A GoTalk Phone Card

Step 1: Dial the GoTalk access number. You have to be in Australia to do this.

   Adelaide   08 8124-0707
   Brisbane   07 3100-0707
   Canberra   02 6112-0707
   Gold Goast 07 5630 0707
   Melbourne  03 8803 0707
   Perth      08 9415 0707
   Sydney     02 9036 0707
   Australiawide(surcharge) 1-800 302050

You don't need to the dial the area code (e.g. 08) if you are in one of the cities listed above.

Step 2: GoTalk will ask you what language you want. Press 1 for English.

Step 3: Enter the GoTalk card number ("PIN Number") followed by the # key. GoTalk will tell you how much money is left on the card. For the example, below, we'll assume that the PIN is 44-4444-4444.

Step 4: Enter the phone number. If you are dialing a number in Australia, you should prefix it with the area code. For example 08 8232-6262. If you are dialing an international number, you should start with the country code. For example, for the USA, 1 555 555-555. Note: The country code for the USA is 1 and the country code for the UK is 44.

So in summary, to call someone in the USA, you'd end up entering: 8124-0707 1 44-4444-4444# 1 555 555-555 which is decomposed as follows:

   8124-0707        - GoTalk access number
   1                - Select English
   44-4444-4444#    - GoTalk PIN followed by hash
   1 555 555-555    - International number to dial

You should then be connected through. The charge will be about five cents per minute and this will be billed to the GoTalk card, so if you got the card number from someone else, you won't pay anything except for the cost of a local call to the GoTalk access number.

Typically you will use the above technique to get through to the hotel of the person who is calling you, so don't forget to have the person's room number ready to give to the operator.

General Information About GoTalk Cards

The remainder of this page provides general information about GoTalk cards.

Phone Cards

There are a variety of different phone cards on the market and each provides different rates to various parts of the world. I have found the GoTalk card to be pretty good, but it's possible that there are other cards that will provide better rates to particular parts of the world. This web page focuses exclusively on GoTalk cards.

What Is A GoTalk Phone Card?

A GoTalk card is plastic card that you can buy from newsagents and other retail outlets. There are a range of GoTalk cards of various colours that are all identical except for their cost ($5, $10, $20, $50) which is the amount of value preloaded onto the card. Every card has a value and this value decreases as you make calls.

Even though the card is a plastic card which you buy, essentially the card is just a retail object-for-sale and what you are really buying is a GoTalk account with an account number that allows you to make cheap phone calls. So once you have purchased the card, you can read the card number ("PIN") over the phone to someone else; they don't need the physical card to make calls using the card. In fact some newsagencies no longer sell the physical cards; they just provide you with the card number.

You can add more value to a GoTalk phone card by phoning the GoTalk service number listed on the back of the card and providing the operator with your credit card details.

GoTalk cards expire if they are not used or recharged for six months.

Where To Obtain A GoTalk Phone Card

GoTalk cards are available from many retail outlets. However, I can say for sure that (as at January 2004) you can buy one by visiting a newsagent in the David Jones complex:

   David Jones
   100 Rundle Mall
   Adelaide SA 5000
   Australia

Enter from the grand Rundle Mall entrance and immediately go down the escalator. At the bottom of the escalator on the right is a newsagency that sells GoTalk cards.

You may also be able to obtain a GoTalk card number by visiting the CardCall web site. However, I haven't done this myself yet.

Ross Williams (ross@ross.net)
1 March 2004