A "toll free" number is just that -- toll free. Accordingly, I don't understand why you're getting charged, regardless if you have a long distance plan or not. I thought long distance plans were included in the cell phone.
I think you first need to determine exactly who is charging you that
35c.As Pat noted, perhaps your voice mail service is the one charging the fee, not your cell phone.
Now, some cell phones do charge their normal airtime rate when you fetch your messages. But getting a calling card won't change that.
Perhaps you need to look at your entire cellphone service and make a change.
[For myself, I pay a lot per minute on my cellphone, but I use it so rarely and pay a low monthly rate it works out ok for me.][TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The way those guys pull this off is by saying "YES, the telephone transit or toll is reverse charge; it is FREE to you and paid for by us ... what you are paying for is the _SERVICE YOU PURCHASED_ -- i.e. a voice mail box -- not the cost of reaching us. We are _here_, you are over _there_, you want to use our service, we pay the toll charge for you to call us long distance, but you pay for the services you purchased." And further in their defense they say "you call lots of 800 numbers; catalogs, credit cards, etc. Do you expect those people to pay for the services you got from them just because they agreed to pay for your phone call in the first place? Then why do you expect us -- your voicemail provider -- to pay for your voicemail costs as well?" And just because their principal -- or only product -- happens to be delivered over the phone lines, for example an 'advice' line or 'consulting' service or 'secretarial' service, i.e. voicemail, even though we did take your phone call for free, you want our services for free also? Our service happens to cost
35 cents per minute, whether you call us on our toll-free line or if you want to call us on our regular number at your expense." Is it a rip off? Well, some would say so. Depends on how well you shop around. Many cell phone carriers provide voicemail with no charge at all, or the charge embedded in the overall cost of the service. PAT]