Happy Mother's Day Weekend!

Happy Mother’s Day Weekend everyone! This Sunday, many countries around the world will celebrate Mother’s Day, recognizing the accomplishments and value of Mother’s everywhere. Over 50 countries recognize the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day, while others celebrate on one of the surrounding weeks or months.

The holiday can be traced all the way back as far as 6,000 BC, with some form of worshipping of Mother’s evident in numerous ancient societies. Ancient Greece had a holiday to worship Cybele, the great mother of Greek gods, which would be held around the vernal equinox every year. Ancient Roman’s even carried on the holiday in the form of Matronalia, which was dedicated to Juno, and early Christians developed the festival of Mothering Sunday, which still exists today and is the day that the UK and many other countries celebrate Mother’s Day.

While many countries have their own unique ways to celebrate Mother’s Day, the idea of the holiday is universal. At StanaCard, we have created a special promotion for our customers where we give them 10% of the money they spend over the weekend back. We are also giving customers $10 when they send a $25 gift to a new customer over the weekend. We hope that all of you call your Mother or any Mother’s you know on this holiday.

If you are an international caller and aren’t yet a customer of StanaCard, now you know why you should be! This will certainly not be the last of our great promotions. We run some promotions all year ‘round, such as our referral bonus where we give $10 to anyone who refers a friend, and we give another $10 to the person they refer as a welcome gift! To sign up, please go to www.stanacard.com.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone! Today we celebrate Cinco de Mayo throughout the United States and in many parts of Mexico. Contrary to popular belief, today is not Mexican Independence Day, or Grito de Dolores. Grito de Dolores is actually celebrated on September 16th annually, and is Mexico’s most celebrated and important national holiday.

In Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is celebrated in a few areas, but primarily in the state of the Puebla, and there are also widespread celebrations in the US by Americans and Mexican-Americans. The day marks the Mexican Army’s underdog victory over France in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. On this day, a small Mexican army of about 4,000 defeated a highly-trained French army twice their size, signifying a great victory in the resistance.

In the US, the holiday has become more of a celebration of Mexican heritage, and of course, an excuse to go out and have a couple margaritas. The holiday is said to have been spread to America originally by Mexican’s living in California during the American Civil War. Since then, the event has become similar to a St. Patrick’s Day in America, where citizens of all ethnic backgrounds come together and celebrate. The holiday has even inspired events in many other places in the world, including numerous countries in Central America, Canada, the Cayman Islands, and even Malta.

We hope you all have a fun and safe Cinco de Mayo! Today is a great day for Mexican-Americans to call their friends and family and see if they are celebrating. With StanaCard, you can call abroad by just dialing a local number, and you can always count on us to bring you the lowest rates and best connection. Also, if you tell your friends about StanaCard, we will give you a $10 bonus for each friend who signs up, and we’ll give each of your friends the same bonus to welcome them to the service!

European Freeze Shuts Down Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Holiday travelers in Europe have run into some serious problems this week, as flights are down in many of the continents busiest airports, and there is currently no end in sight.  Even many trains – which seem like the safer alternative in winter weather – have been cancelled across Europe.

Only a few flights managed to make it off the ground at London-Heathrow, and over a third of flights in other travel hubs like Frankfurt and Paris have been grounded.  Perhaps the city hit the worst by the freeze is Brussels, whose airport has cancelled every flight until at least Wednesday because they were not prepared with de-icing liquid.  European train companies with services between UK, France, and Belgium have also canceled or delayed several of their scheduled services. 

Paris has just gotten another round of snowfall, shutting down their bus system, slowing down traffic, and worst of all for many young Parisian’s, forcing Lady Gaga to cancel her show at Bercy Stadium.  Berlin had to shut down their commuter trains and many of their roads, while Dutch authorities decided to enforce a 50 km/h speed limit on many of their highways.  Italian airports at Pisa and Florence just reopened today after being shut down all weekend. 

Need a better idea of how bad things are?  In Moscow – one of the coldest and snowiest places in the world, where over 9,000 snowploughs clean the streets – numerous city roads have been shut down by authorities until further notice.   

This string of unseasonably cold weather has been hitting Europe since late fall, and as we’ve mentioned before, this has caused an influx in holiday travel reservations, especially out of the UK.  Unfortunately, it appears for now that many of these hopeful holiday travelers literally cannot escape the freeze, as the Met Office in Britain has warned of even more snow and ice in the coming week.  Temperatures got as low as -19.6 degrees Celsius in the UK, and radar only shows more snow and below zero temperatures. 

Have any relatives who may be stranded in European transit hubs?  Looks like they’re going to have plenty of free time on their hands, so why not give them a call?  With Stanacard’s call forwarding technology, you can simply dial their local number and pay absolutely nothing, and they will only pay our service’s super-low rates.  So go ahead and spread the holiday cheer, but whatever you do, do not complain about how badly you want a “White Christmas.”

By @StanaMark

New Access and SmartDial Numbers in Peru and Poland

Yeah! We have new Access and Smartdial numbers available in Peru and Poland.

StanaCard is always trying to add new countries to its ever growing list, allowing people all over the world to reach their families with a local call.  Please visit www.stanacard.com to see where else we offer Access and SmartDial numbers.

What does this new addition mean to you?

We know you call your friends and family in these countries, well now they can call you.  All they need to do is open an account and set up SmartDial numbers so they can reach you fast and affordably.  Need a little more help? Click here.

Since you’re already telling your friends and family about our new Access and SmartDial numbers why not take advantage of our referral program.  Remember friends and family can receive double their first purchase and you can receive up to $10.  Everyone wins!

Happy Calling

The StanaCard Team

Rate Decrease for Pakistan!

Lower Rates to Pakistan!
Calls to Pakistan are now as low as 5.35 cents per minute.

We understand that this is a difficult time for you and your family, and connecting to people back home is important. Stanacard is happy that we can make calling home cheap and easy.  Just a reminder: we have extended our recharge bonus until the end of September. So log on now and recharge!

WANT TO MAKE FREE CALLS TO OVER 300 COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD?

Click Here

Happy Calling
The StanaCard team

Rate Decrease to Liberia Mobile!

StanaCard has done it once again, we have DECREASED the rates to Liberia Mobile.  Our new rate is 17.9 cents per minute.  

Other companies are still charging you over 25.0 cents per minute plus hidden charges and fees.  While StanaCard always promises never to surprise you with hidden charges or fees.  What you see is what you get with us.

We work very hard to keep our call quality the best there is and we hope that you will continue to use our service to make all your international calls.  We value your opinions and use your comments and concerns to make our company better.  Please use our blog as a way to communicate with us and let us know how we can make our service better for you and your family.  

Happy Calling

The StanaCard Team