Bill Galkowski wrote asking for help with Mr. McCabe's phone bills. I don't know who Ed McCabe is. Is he in jail? However, I have a couple of suggestions for you. First, avoid collect calls! You can usually refuse them and then call him back. That should save a lot of money. Second, you can get a personal 1-800 number from MCI that will charge you only about 10 cents per minute on domestic calls to your home number. The number can be unlisted so only those people you want to give it to will have it. Third, make sure that your long distance service is giving you good international rates. For example, Voicenet (1-800-500-9028), a calling card service, charges only 27 cents per minute to the UK. They charge an additional flat 35 cents (not per minute) if the call originates from a payphone (it's a charge mandated by the FCC to compensate the payphone company). You may be able to do better than than that on international charges with MCI or Sprint. Fourth, if you trust Mr. McCabe not to run up the bill, you can get him a calling card. Voicenet charges 17.5 cents per minute on domestic calls (again with the 35 cent flat fee for originating from a pay phone). If you let him make his calls direct, you save by not paying for two calls at the same time. Fifth, consider getting conference calling capabilities on your phone that allow you to connect two incoming calls so that Mr. McCabe's friends can call you at the same time as Mr. McCabe does, thereby shifting the burden of the international calls to them. I obviously don't know or understand the situation. However, as difficult as it may be, if Mr. McCabe cannot pay for his own calls, he should be very considerate of your plight and cut his calling way back. Calling his fiance in the UK and a friend in New Zealand at your expense, particularly several times per week is really stretching a friendship.
Bob Wells
