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Review content:
Caution: I'm admittedly a "bleeding heart" who's happy in Western Washington. No need to go on if you feel we don't really have inequality in our society or some screwed up policies.
I've been with Working Assets http://www.workingassets.com/index.cfm for my long distance for as long as I can remember. Sure, I use my cell phone most of the time, but we still have a land line and gotta pick a long distance company, so why not pick one we feel good about? It may not be the cheapest, but it's certainly competitive, and what sets them apart is what they do with their money.
First and foremost, though, you get a FREE PINT of Ben & Jerry's every month for 12 months if you are new (you get a coupon each month). That sold me. A company who knows the value of good ice cream. What can go wrong?
In short, every time you talk on the phone, 1% of your charges automatically go to progressive nonprofits at no extra cost to you. Since 1985, Working Assets has donated more than $50 million to different organizations; in 2005 they raised almost $4 million. You get to nominate and vote for what organizations receive funding each year.
You can also voluntarily "round up" your bill, to make a tax-deductible donation.
Each month they also include "Citizen Actions" in your bill, which talk about some current issues that could use activism on your part. They would do a targeted campaign to call a certain representative, and you can make those phone calls to Washington FREE if you use your registered phone. If you so choose, instead, you could send "CitizenLetters" for a fee, and they'll send a letter to the targeted representative on your behalf. It's no-pain activism for busy folks (or a lazy person like me)! You may not agree with every action they bring up, but at least you have an option to be a collective voice if you agree with something. For example, this last month they were 1. urge Pres. Bush to seek a UN peacekeeping for Darfur, 2. raise minimum wage (still $5.15!!! That's $10,700 a year) and 3. restore funding for Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
They also recommend some current books and you can buy those from them if you so choose. There are a lot of stuff they include in their bill (but no more pages than a typical phone bill) - if you're busy or don't agree, you can choose to ignore it.
The rates are very competitive I think - since we moved and signed up with a new account, we got 2.9 cents a minute for a full year, and 5c a minute thereafter. They have good international rates, too (with their optional international plan I believe it's 10c a minute to call Japan).
I've been happy with their service - we've never had any problem. And when you call their customer service, you don't have to wait forever like you would with a huge company, and they seem actually happy that you are their customer.
They'd started offering wireless services as well as a credit card, but I haven't tried those since we're against credit cards and we have a wireless service contract. But for long distance they pay your fee to switch, so there's usually no pain.
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