Pioneer will debit your credit card $10.00 upon sign up in order to validate the card. But, they do credit the full amount back to your account on your first invoice. (This is only if you provided a credit/debit card at sign up.)

If you opt to receive a paper bill instead of being billed online, and your bill is under $15 per month, there is a monthly minimum usage fee of 99¢ in the months that you don't use at least $15.00 in service. (With online billing the low usage fee is waived.)

IBNtel is one of the few companies that allow customers to sign up without giving out their social security number. To order service without a social security number, just fill all 0's in the SS# field. You will be required to prepay, or place a security deposit on the account, before it will be activated.

There is a billing fee of $1.95 if your usage is under $20 for a particular month. They also charge a $2.00 activation fee for every 800, 866, 877 or 888 number you order, but there are no monthly fees associated with the account.

All calls, both domestic and international, are billed in 6 second increments. Some international destinations, like Mexico, may have a 30 second minimum charge per call.

Customers are billed $2.99 in months where they have less that $20.00 worth of calls on their account. Unitel's PICC fee is $3.75 per month per business line.

Unitel is one of the few companies that will credit you account for switching fees charged by your local phone company. Please mail or fax a copy of the bill to:

Uni-Tel Communications Group, Inc.
55 S. Main Street, Suite# 304
Naperville, IL 60540

Fax#1-(888) 453-1522

They have an online billing center at unitelcustomer.com, where customer's can access their account to pay their phone bill by check, enroll in their auto pay program or do one time credit card payments.

ECG Communication's rate for business PIC-C fees is $3.50 per line with the first discounted to $0.00. PICC rates don't apply to residential phone service. ECG also charges 59¢ per month to recover other regulatory costs.

ECG has a refferal program which offers customers a chance to lower their long distance phone bill all the way to zero. Send your friends this link and have 5% of their telephone bill credited to yours.

Covista has no monthly billing fees as long as you sign up for their "Autopay" billing option. There is a $1.99 fee charged on non-Autopay accounts if your long distance bill is under $20.00 in that month. Covista Communications also charges a monthly Carrier Recovery fee of 99¢.

Toll free numbers are free to businesses, but residential customers will have to pay a one time $2.00 set up fee per toll free number. If your toll free usage is under $1.00, they will charge you $1.00 that month to cover the administrative costs associated with your 866, 877, 888 or 1-800 number. All businesses will be charges a PIC-C Fee of $4.31 per business phone line.

There is a minimum usage fee of $2.00 in any month that your phone bill is less than $20.00. A toll free number is $2.00 a month for the first number and $0.53 a month for each additional number. Opex also offers both verified and non-verified Product Account Codes (PACs), which give you the option of keeping track of who is using your phone service by making them enter a code before making a long distance call.

Everything is the same as with Pioneer's 2.7¢ phone service plan except that the service is billed in 6 second increments instead of the full minute billing associated with the lower priced plan.