Office of International
Students & Scholars
International Center
421 Temple Street
New Haven, CT 06511
USA

Phone: 203.432.2305
Fax: 203.432.7166
email: oiss@yale.edu

Telephoning in the U.S.

On this page:


Making a Call

Local Call — Dial the seven digit number (example: 432- 2305 to reach the OISS). Telephone listings that contain letters, such as 432-BLUE, correspond to numbers. Look at the keypad of any telephone to understand which numbers correspond to which letters. “#” on the keypad is called a pound symbol.

Internal Yale Call — Dial the last 5 digits of any number. (example: 2-2305 to reach the OISS). To make an outside call from any Yale telephone, you must dial “9” first to get an outside line. The campus security (blue) phones can be used as an internal telephone. Press the call button to dial the last 5 digits of any Yale number. Remember to hang up at the end by pressing the call button again.

Long Distance Call — Dial 1+area code+seven digit number. (example: 1-203-432-2305 for the OISS). Internal Yale phones block long distance toll calls unless you have a special departmental code.

Toll-Free Call — Sometimes referred to as “800 numbers” after the original area code. The following area codes indicate toll-free calls: 800, 822, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877 and 888.

International Call — Dial 011+country code+area code +number. Country codes are listed in the New Haven phone book or look them up on-line at www.countrycallingcodes.com

Telephone Cards

Telephone card companies generally do not accept returns and the quality of the different services can vary greatly. It is recommended that you first try the cheapest card (normally a $5 or $10 card) and then if you are satisfied with the service provided, try a more expensive one. Some people purchase telephone cards instead of having long-distance service on their home phone as a way to budget long distance calling. There are numerous options for where to go to purchase a phone card, including:

Locally — Walgreen’s, 88 York St, Yorkside Pizza, 288 York St, Rite Aid, 66 Church St, Gourmet Heaven, 15 Broadway and 44 Whitney Ave.

Online — One student asserts that, “Online cards give the best rates.” Here are some providers students and scholars have recommended:

For special cell-phone services try: www.gorillamobile.com.

Public Phones

$.50 per call in coins (no pennies). If you use a U.S. phone card, you will use up your minutes extra quickly since there are typically extra surcharges for using a phone card from a public pay phone. A working public phone (pay phone) is becoming increasingly more difficult to find with the extensive ownership of mobile phones. If you need to make a call and cannot locate a public phone on the street, check inside office building lobbies, restaurants and hotels for a phone. If you are driving, gas stations and fast-food establishments (such as Burger King or McDonald’s) often have public phones. In case of an emergency, you may want to explain the situation to someone and politely request to use their cell phone or the phone in a shop or other place of business.

Dealing with Telephone Solicitations

You may get soliciting calls from different companies trying to sell you different kinds of products, or soliciting donations for some kind of cause. You can listen if you want, but if you want them to stop phoning you, simply interrupt them and say “Please put me on your DO NOT CALL list”. By law, when you say exactly this, they are required to stop their conversation and must remove you from their calling list for ten years.

Sign up for the national Do Not Call registry to reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive at www.donotcall.gov and heed the following important advice: Never give any information over the phone to a telemarketer. Never give out your Social SecurityNumber, a credit card number or personal information for any reason.

If you are interested in something a telemarketer is offering, ask them to send you the information in the mail.

Never agree to anything over the phone.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

 

Practical Matters

In the event of an emergency, dial:

911

Do not dial 911 for non-emergency situations. If you use 911 to ask, for example, when power may be returned during an outage, you may be tying up the line and preventing emergency calls from coming in.

calling Cards

How to use a calling card

Look on the back of the card for instructions. Normally as follows:

1. Dial the toll free number on the card.

2. Enter the PIN number found on the back of the card (often under a scratch-off panel).

3. Hear a prompt or tone, and then you dial the number you wish to call.

Try to place your call from a private phone. From a public pay phone, or cell phone, you will probably incur additional charges that will use up your minutes very quickly.

Phone Resources

Directory Assistance
Dial 411
Beware, you will receive a charge on your phone bill for each inquiry.

Free Directory Assistance
www.whitepages.com

Yale Information
432-4771
Online Yale phone directory

Phone Home for Free
www.skype.com
Skype is software that allows you to make free calls from your computer to other Skype users and quite inexpensive calls to ordinary phones.