HI or ISIC Cards as Pre-Paid Calling Cards

[morgan23]

Reading again in my guidebook...

That "the HI hostel membership cards and the ISIC student identity cards can double as pre-paid calling cards. They sometimes also come with voicemail and virtual safety-deposit box (you can fax photocopies of your passport and other important documants to a certain fax number, and you can later retrieve them from anywhere in the world in case your originals are lost or stolen)"

Anybody ever done this before? Is a pre-paid calling card the best way to call home?

[stanncie]

Morgan
I used the ISIC prepaid card and it work fairly well in most places. I did have difficulty dialing from the netherlands for some reason but overall the access numbers they provided worked ok.

[Jules80]

my friend had trouble trying to get the ISIC card to work in some places.

[paint]

I had problems with the ISIC card only once, just went to a different type of phone in the same Czech town and it worked then... and the rates were good.