AT&T Offers Limited-Use Card - 1996-10-14

New York </I>- Thanks to a program rolled out in September by AT&T, corporations can now offer occasional travelers a limited-use telephone card without having to pay for their telephone time in advance.

AT&T's Global PrePaid Promotional Card looks and operates like an ordinary pre-paid telephone card. But rather than paying for the cards up front, the corporation is billed only for the actual minutes used, on a monthly basis, at its negotiated corporate rate.

"Frequent travelers will probably have permanent calling cards, but if a corporation is sending people out just one time, or just to an occasional meeting, this is an easy way to let them make calls," said AT&T spokeswoman Patricia Sieh. "With other pre-paid cards, if you lose the card, the company has lost its investment. But with the Global PrePaid card, although it's pre-paid for the user, the company only has to pay for the actual minutes used by the traveler. If you use it for 15 minutes and lose it or throw it away, that's all the company has to pay for."

The card allows not only domestic calls but calls to and from 150 countries through an international toll-free number. And to keep things as simple as possible, it comes with a PIN number printed on the back, so travelers have nothing to remember.

Companies that already have an AT&T corporate discount plan will be billed for card usage at their negotiated rate, and will get detailed billing on the cards consolidated with their regular monthly bill, Sieh said.

There is a 100-card minimum order, but cards can otherwise be purchased in any number of units or minutes, and can be customized with corporate logos as well as company-specific greetings or messages in six languages. Corporate customers and their travel managers also can include announcements that will be played to all card users; these can be changed daily.

Norwegian Cruise Lines, Northwest Airlines and Choice Hotels already have purchased cards in bulk to offer both to their internal travelers and as promotional giveaways to customers, Sieh said.