Do 10-10 Phone Plans Save Money?

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

December 8, 1998 / 12:34 PM EST / CBS

It may seem that just about every time you turn on the television these days, you'll see a commercial for 10-10 telephone call savings plans.

The plans promise big savings but are they a really good deal? When you call a 10-10 number, you dial around your long distance carrier and connect to the company offering the savings plan.

Their claims caught the attention of a consumer group, which did some investigating. TRAC Chairman Sam Simon, chairman of the Telecommunications Research Center, spoke about the group's findings with CBS This Morning Co-Anchor Mark McEwen.

"We found out that they don't always save you money," Simon says of the 10-10 plans. "In fact, if you're not really careful, you may end up spending a lot more money than you would if you just used your regular 'dial-1' or regular long distance phone plan," Simon adds.

Managing Your Money

While the commercials may make it seem that there are numerous 10-10 companies, in fact there are only a handful and they are offered by major long distance companies.

For example, 10-10-321 is an MCI company, while the Lucky Dog plan is offered by AT&T. Spring, Excel, and Quest also offer 10-10 plans.

While there are good deals, Simon warns consumers to look carefully to see if the plans have any minimums or hidden charges.

"They make it sound really good," Simon says. "The one that gets me the most is the one that says, 'hey, for 99 cents, you can talk for up to 20 minutes.'

"Well, if you think about that, a 99-cent call to an answering machine means a buck a minute. That's not a good deal," Simon says.

By comparison, some regular long-distance carriers offer weekend rates as low as five cents a minute and weekday rates of 9 to 10 cents a minute.

"That is very hard to get on 10-10s," he says.

Despite the pitfalls of 10-10s, Simon says, some do offer good plans.

The best plans, he says, are those that have no monthly minimums and offer a rate of 10 cents a minute.

TRAC has a calculator on its Web site (www.TRAC.org) that lets users compare rates among major long-distance carriers by plugging in frequently called numbers.

"The old adage - if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is - really applies to the 10-10s. Those that advertise the heaviest tend to be the ones with catches," Simon says.