Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father’s Day weekend everyone! This Sunday, the third Sunday in June, is celebrated as Father’s Day in the U.S. and over 60 other countries all around the world, including Nigeria, Pakistan, India, China, United Kingdom, Cuba, and Brazil.

In the USA, the first Father’s Day was technically held on July 5, 1908 in Fairmont, West Virginia. The one day holiday was created to honor the 210 fathers who had died in a mining disaster late in 1907. The day was not registered as a holiday though, and Sonora Dodd was credited for creating the holiday in Spokane, Washington two years later. Though it was regularly celebrated by many around the nation for many years after, it wasn’t proclaimed a national holiday until 1966 when Lydon B. Johnson designated the third Sunday of June as the holiday. It was then signed into law by Richard Nixon six years later in 1972, making it a permanent national holiday.

Though the languages and cultures are different, the holiday is celebrated similarly no matter where you are in the world. It is simply a day to honor the all of the Father’s out there and let them know that they are very much appreciated.

With Stanacard, getting in touch with your Father this weekend is easier than ever, no matter where he is in the world. Simply dial a local number to make an international call and reach your Father. Our rates are over 75% cheaper than Skype and we have absolutely NO hidden fees or charges – with Stanacard you pay for what you get. Sign up now for free and tell your friends – each one who signs up will earn you a $10 referral bonus!

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.

Earth Day 2011: How to Help!

Today, all around the world people are celebrating Earth Day in an effort to raise awareness about the state of our planet.  April 22^nd has been officially named International Mother Earth Day since 2009 when it was named by the UN, but the tradition of Earth Day has been carried on since April 22, 1970.  The day is promoted and coordination worldwide by Earth Day Network, and is currently celebrated by close to 200 countries around the world.

The biggest initiative to come from this years’ Earth Day is the “Billion Acts of Green” campaign run by the Earth Day Network.  The campaign encourages people to pledge one act that would help “save the planet” ranging anywhere from pledging to take the bus more often to turning off lights before leaving a room.  At the time of writing this article, there were just over 102 million pledged acts of green.  To pledge your own act, please click here.

In StanaCard’s home, New York City, Times Square has become a “virtual forest” in honor of Earth Day.  Most of the digital billboards covering Times Square’s busy landscape will be filled with images of forest and vegetation throughout the day, and some of the screens will also display the running total of the UN’s Year of Forest fundraiser.  To donate to this cause, all you need to do is text “tree” to 85944, and $5 will automatically be added on to your next phone bill.  The proceeds will fund tree plantings in struggling lands such as Mexico, Kenya, and India.  There will also be a parade of green vehicles driving around the city in the pattern of an ‘E’, including hybrid garbage trucks, the world’s fastest electric sports car, and even a fully electric DeLorean.  

Today is a day that we can all come together and recognize the fact that we have to be very conscience of how we treat the planet we all live on.  It’s also a great day to get in touch with friends and family and see how they are acknowledging the day.  Remember to use StanaCard when calling abroad, as we are not only far more reliable than our competition, but also much cheaper.  No other company will give you $10 when you refer a friend AND give your friend $10 to get started.

Happy New Year!

Today, all of us at StanaCard wish a Happy New Year to Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. All four countries have kicked off their New Year’s celebrations today, and people from each nationality all around the world have begun to take part in their respective traditions.

The Cambodian New Year, or Chol Chnam Thmey in Khmer, takes place today and will last until the 15th. Traditionally, the first day of the New Year, known as Maha Songkran, is a quiet, religious holiday where family members come together to pay respects to Buddha. On the second day, Virat Wanabat, people volunteer their time to charities and attend a ceremony for their ancestors. On Tngay Leang Saka, the final day of the celebrations, families cleanse their Buddha statues and elders with perfumed water, believing that they will then obtain their good fortune for the future.

Songkran, the Thai New Year’s holiday, is also celebrated over a three day period starting today, April 13. One of the main and undoubtedly most fun traditions of Songkran are the massive water fights that constantly go on in this three day holiday. Thais wander around the streets with buckets and water guns and try to soak each other, while celebrating the start of the New Year the way many of us Westerners ring in the New Year – with parties and drinks.

In Myanmar, the Burmese people celebrate their New Year with a four or five day celebration leading up to the actual day of the New Year called Thingyan. Thingyan is celebrated very similarly to the way Songkran is celebrated in Thailand; with country-wide water fights. Before and after the water festival, the Burmese visit their families and pay religious respects, as well as give back to charity and volunteer their time.

The Laos New Year, also a three-day celebration beginning on the 13th, is the country’s most widely celebrated and most anticipated. This holiday is celebrated all across the world by Laotians. In Laos, people also cleanse their elders, along with monks, and then each other with perfumed water. Sand is made into stupas and then decorated and given to the monks, and animals all over the country are set free. There are also many large beauty pageants where Miss Lao New Year is crowned, the most famous one taking place in Luang Prabang.

For all of you from these Southeastern Asian countries, now is the perfect time to call home. Luckily for you, StanaCard offers a cheap, simple, and reliable way to call abroad. Check out our site now or click here to find out how to get $10 free to make your international calls with!

Schalke Shocks Inter in UEFA Champions League; Two Giants Clash

Today is a big day for football fans worldwide, as it’s the second day of the 2011 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, and Chelsea and Manchester United–two of the most storied clubs in the world–met today. For many American’s, the sheer amount of leagues alone is confusing, but all football fans around the world, and certainly in Europe, know the importance of the Champions League. For me, the Champions League is by far the most thrilling, as teams from all over Europe that rarely meet are able to play each other, and many times the team from the lesser-league comes out ahead, as the German squad Schalke did yesterday.

For lack of a better comparison, the Champions League is like the NCAA tournament, in that it gathers the best from all different leagues, whether they play in the powerhouse leagues like the Premiership, La Liga, Serie A, or the Bundesliga, or smaller leagues in countries all around Europe such as Sweden, Albania, Isreal, and Armenia among many others. Football fans were as thrilled to see Schalke shock defending champs Inter Milan yesterday as basketball fans were to see small-conference VCU take down Big 12-giant Kansas on-route to the Final Four.

This year, 52 countries were represented in the league, while teams from 13 different countries made the 32 team group stage, and at the beginning of the quarterfinals we are left with five different countries being represented. Yesterday was a surprising day and certainly a very disappointing one for Tottenham and defending champion Inter Milan. Milan went down in front of its home crowd to huge underdog Schalke by a humiliating score of 5-2, while Ronaldo and Real Madrid easily shut down Tottenham 4-0. Because of the goal differential format, both losing teams would need a miracle to advance to the semifinals.

Today’s action was a bit more predictable, as Barcelona ran all over Ukrainian side Shakhtar, playing to a final score of 5-1. Rooney put away an early goal and Manchester was able to hold off Chelsea to win on the road 1-0. Chelsea will now have to come back strong with a high scoring win when they play at Manchester’s Old Trafford this coming Tuesday, which–judging by today’s performance–seems unlikely at best. With all the other matches being completely one-sided, this epic matchup between powerhouses Chelsea and Man U will be easily the most anticipated quarterfinal fixture.

Football is certainly the sport that brings the world together, and UEFA is a unique way to unite an entire continent with the spirit of competition. Now is as good a time as any to check in with your friends and family back home, whether it be to gloat about your team topping theirs, or just to catch up. With StanaCard, you can simply dial a local number to reach anywhere in the world, and when you tell a friend about our service, we give you both $10. Enjoy the rest of the football action!

ABC News and Consumer Reports Reveal Dirty Calling Card Secrets

Last night, the local New York ABC 7 News ran a short segment on calling cards that would certainly be of interest to our readers and anyone else making international calls on a regular basis. The segment outlined some of the difficulties in using calling cards, and the hidden fees that some people don’t even realize they are being charged. The basis of the story came from a Consumer Reports article about the downsides of calling cards when making international calls.

As the reporters explain, calling cards can tend to appear to be inexpensive, but most of the time you end up paying a lot more than you think due to connection fees, hang-up fees, daily or monthly charges, and/or ridiculous rounding fees, meaning cards that will round your call up by three minutes or more, often doubling your total call time.

The newscasters and Consumer Reports recommend making sure to closely read the terms and conditions of the calling cards, but as they also point out, this can be difficult to do when the cards are sold behind the counter like they are at many convenience stores. Also, the terms and conditions of calling cards have been found to use tricky and deceptive language to try to disguise their fees and make it difficult for people to understand.

Luckily for all you international callers out there, there is a service out there where you can avoid all of this AND get better rates and clearer calls. This service, of course, is StanaCard. While Consumer Reports mentioned that Skype is a great way to make international calls, they failed to mention that Skype is generally close to 50% more expensive per minute than StanaCard. Pingo, which is also mentioned, is also more expensive on average and they do not use the local SmartDial technology that StanaCard does, meaning you have to dial the long international number every time you want to make a call!

So if you or any of your friends or family needs to make calls abroad, make the right decision and go with StanaCard. Not only do we have extremely low rates and great connection, but we also give $10 to any customer who refers someone, and we also give $10 to the person who they refer! To check out the video, see below.

Reasons Why Some Countries are More Expensive to Call than Others

Recently there have been some questions as to why calls to some countries are more expensive than others, and why we were recently able to lower rates for some countries but not others. Unfortunately, we do not have full control over the rates. There are many factors in the process of determining a rate to a country. It depends mostly on how connected the country is to the outside world, and how competitive the telecommunications industry is in the country. For example, Gambia and Sierra Leone are more expensive to call no matter what service you use, because the countries are not connected to the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable which connects many other ECOWAS countries, and they are also dominated by provider Africell, which has over a 69% market share in Gambia and 55% in Sierra Leone. Because they control the markets’, Africell can charge high termination fees, which are the fees that providers charge other providers to allow calls in their network. This makes it more expensive to transfer calls from other countries to Gambia and Sierra Leone, which is why the rates are higher. Other ECOWAS countries, such as Nigeria, are connected to the cable, and have far more competition in their telecommunications industry, which allows calling rates to Nigeria to be significantly less expensive. Many African countries have the problem or market domination and limited connectivity, which will hopefully be improved in the near future.

StanaCard finds this gap in technology and pricing as upsetting as you do, and we want to express our sincere frustration to our customers. We understand how expensive international calls can be, and if there were any way we could lower the rates all-around, we certainly would. Thankfully, with StanaCard you never have to worry about disconnection or connection fees. There are never any hidden charges, unlike many less customer-friendly services and calling cards. We assure you we will continue to offer extremely competitive rates and provide you with high quality service.

Please tell your friends and family about our great service, as the more people who call, the better the rates we can offer. Don’t forget there are always ways to save money with StanaCard. Our unmatched referral program doubles the first purchase of your friend and offers you the same amount as a bonus, which you can use as credit or even cash out using PayPal. Just think; all of your calls back home could be completely free! Also, with our new Gifting service, everyone can use StanaCard, even if they don’t have a credit card.

Rates to the Dominican Republic now 65% Cheaper Than Skype!

I recently came across this very interesting story that clearly relates to our previous post about World Water Day. A Chicago-native named Lisa Ballantine, upon returning from a mission trip to the Dominican Republic in 2000, realized there had to be a way to help Dominican citizens sanitize their water to make it safe for drinking. After taking a ceramics class a few years later, Lisa came up with the idea to create low-cost ceramic water filters to sell to the Dominican people.

Since then, she has opened two factories, one in the Dominican Republic and one in Haiti with plans for a third in South Africa on the way, where she and local workers produce the filters to sell among the community. Though the $35 that the filters sell for is quite expensive for many Dominican people, Ballantine is always willing to work with the customers to establish an affordable price. The filters are all tested individually and make the water 99.9 percent pure, preventing diarrheal diseases which kill over 1.8 million people a year, 90 percent of those being children.

In other great news for the country, we have decided to decrease our rates to the Dominican Republic! The new rates have decreased over 39% and are now well over 65% cheaper than other providers, including Skype. The price to call landline phones in the Dominican Republic is now just 2.9 cents a minute.

A $10 credit will now let you call the Dominican Republic for up to 344 minutes! That is about 68% cheaper than Skype, and unlike Skype and most calling cards, we charge absolutely no connection fees. You pay only for what you use.

What’s even better than cheap minutes? Free minutes! Simply refer us to friends, their first purchase is doubled and you get up to $10 worth of bonus credit as soon as they make their first call with us. For more information, check out our referral site.

Traveling abroad soon? See how to avoid all roaming charges no matter where you go.

World Water Day Brings Attention to the Lack of Clean, Urban Water Worldwide

For those of you who don’t know, today marks the 19th annual World Water Day. March 22nd was declared World Water Day by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993, and has been recognized ever since. Each year, a specific issue with the world’s water problems is addressed, such as 2004’s “Water and Disasters” or 2009’s “Transboundary Waters”. This year, named “Water for Cities: responding to the urban challenge” emphasizes the growing scarcity of clean water in the world’s urban areas.

Access to clean water is something many of us certainly take for granted, but for too many people around the world, sanitary water is simply not available. As Mashable pointed out in its article about ways to help the cause of World Water Day, drinking non-sanitary water causes more deaths in children than AIDS, malaria, and measles combines.

As I mentioned earlier, this year is dedicated primarily to raising awareness for the water-related issues in cities around the world. According to the official World Water Day site, one in two people on earth live in a city, and this number is quickly growing. Of this rapid urbanization, about 93 percent takes place in poor or developing countries where water supply is already an issue. Between 2005 and 2020, the world’s slums are expected to gain about 27 million citizens per year, and the urban population of Africa and Asia will double. Despite all this growth, the investments in infrastructure have stayed about the same, causing a decline in the quality of the water, and an inability to find a sustainable sanitation solution. Waste disposal is not being handled safely in these cities, allowing it to seep into the drinking/cleansing water supply.

The UN is trying to bring attention to these growing issues which, as of now, do not have many real solutions. Funding is desperately needed for research into topics such as the creation of more efficient water treatment technologies, and ways to increase the recycling of water.

To find out more about World Water Day and the main event based in Cape Town, please visit the UN’s official World Water Day website, and to find out how to get involved through social media, check out Mashable’s article here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day Readers!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! Today I’m writing from about a block away from the largest and oldest celebration in the world, the one and only New York City St. Patty’s Parade. The NYC parade began in 1762, and has been held annually ever since. Today, over 2 million spectators lined the streets just outside this very office to watch the precession of close to 250,000 march up Fifth Avenue from 44th St. to 86th St., past the historic St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 50th and the American Irish Historic Society 83rd. Though the parade in New York is the biggest and oldest in the world, it is far from the only celebration going on around the world.

Of course Ireland – the country that brought us this great holiday – is hosting its fair share of celebrations today, as the day has been an official public holiday since 1903. The biggest of these is taking place in the capital city, Dublin. The parade and festivities in Dublin attracts about 1 million people, and the city also hosts a five day festival each year. In the UK, Birmingham is the place to be for the celebrations, as they put on the third largest event in the world behind NYC and Dublin. London also hosts a parade on the weekend before or after the 17th in its famous Trafalgar Square, complete with dyed green fountains.

Surprisingly to many, large scale St. Patty’s Day celebrations don’t take place in just Ireland, the UK, and the US. There are also many events throughout Australia, culminating in a large parade in Sydney this coming Sunday. New Zealand is also known for its widespread celebration because of the large number of Irish emigrants in the 19th century.



The famous "green river" in Chicago.

Even countries you wouldn’t exactly associate with Ireland get in on the celebrations. Tokyo puts on a huge annual parade, though this year it has been postponed due to relief efforts for the earthquake and tsunami. The Irish Association of Korea throws an annual festival in Seoul, South Korea, and the small island of Monserrat aka “the Emerald Island of the Caribbean” is known as being the only other country besides Ireland to name the day a public holiday, due to its founding by Irish refugees from St. Kitts and Nevis. Buenos Aires, Argentina uses the day as an excuse to throw an all day and night beer-drinking street festival, commonly attracting over 50,000 people to Reconquista street, home to several Irish pubs.
So no matter where you are in the world, have fun this St. Patrick’s Day. And if you want to call home and talk to family and friends to see how they’re spending the holiday, be sure to use StanaCard for our low rates and SmartDial technology!

Great Resource for Expats and StanaCard Users

Last week while looking through a number of helpful expat resources to share with our readers I came across a fantastic website for expats all around the world. The site is called InterNations, and it was founded in 2007 by two expats who knew there needed to be an easier way to become knowledgeable about living in a new country. To maintain its trusted and secure reputation, the community is invite only, but anyone can request an invitation right on the homepage for a chance to be a part of the helpful expat community.

During the free sign-up process, you can choose your local community, and then your homepage will be filled with events, tips, forums, and guides based on your area. You can interact with fellow expats in your area about anything from where to eat to how to learn the language to where to work and live. Since the membership process is invite only, you know that you are always getting advice from actual individuals who are having similar experiences as you, not companies looking to exploit your unfamiliarity with the area.

You can then create a profile which is a bit of a cross between a Facebook and LinkedIn profile page, where you can make contacts and list your groups and the countries you have lived in among other bits of information. Also, though the service is web-based, you will often have chances to meet with other members of your area, as the local Ambassadors organize official events at least once every month where members from the community can meet in person.

As most of our readers and customers are expats, we think that you would certainly be interested in this service. Again, for more information please go to http://www.internations.org/, and when you become a member, be sure to spread the word about StanaCard and our great services!

Young Expats Bring Their Partying Ways to the East

When many people think of expats to Eastern countries such as India, China, or Japan, they often think of older, upper-management business people. Because of the struggling economy in countries like the USA , UK, Italy, Spain, Greece and many others in the Western world, the average expat to the East is becoming quite different than most people think.

A recent article in The Times of India covered this transformation of the typical expat from an older, upper-management family man to a young, single, lower- or middle-management employee. Since jobs are becoming more and more non-existent for the recent graduate in the US and many countries across Europe, young workers are taking their degrees and heading to cities like Mumbai, where the economy is booming and there are a plethora of jobs. Unlike the expat of the past, these workers aren’t working for lucrative salaries with unbelievable benefits. Instead, they are taking regular salaries, often comparable with the locally born employees.

So what’s the benefit of traveling thousands of miles to a country with a completely foreign culture to you? Well, according to The Times of India, one thing that young expats love the most is the social life. Local clubs are finding it easier than ever to attract customers, as word of a deal or party can get out to hundreds of customers in a matter of minutes through the social networking websites that most of the young expats belong to. Once Facebook group administrator claimed that in Mumbai, about 4,000 expats are invited to parties at least once a month. Most expats say that their social life is far more active than it would be at home, because the foreign communities form social groups and seek entertainment at the local clubs quite often.

Bars and stores are even beginning to cater to these expats by offering local favorites such as home-country beers and foods. One grocery chain in India even offers Butterball turkeys for young American’s craving the turkey they grew up on around the holidays. With the thriving social life and availability of jobs, it’s not hard to see why young people are willing to travel across the world for work, especially with the lack of jobs in so many Western countries.

Plus, with StanaCard it is cheap and easy to stay in touch with family and friends back home when living abroad. You can use our service from one of our many countries with access numbers, or you can call to and from anywhere in the world with our SIP service. And why not make money by taking advantage of our referral bonus by telling friends in your international community about our service?

Happy 100th International Women's Day!

Happy International Women’s Day! Today marks the 100th anniversary of the annual celebration which first took place in Germany in 1911, and has been celebrated on March 8th every year since. Today, the day is celebrated as an official holiday in over 25 countries including China, Russia, Ukraine, and Cuba, and is widely observes in numerous others. In many countries it is celebrated like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, with men giving gifts to the women in their lives.

This year, events and tributes are schedules in over 100 countries. It is celebrated in much of Eastern Europe and Russia as a political even, as the day was originally started as a Socialist political event, but in many other regions the day is simply to celebrate women and their achievements and to bring attention to the struggles of women in many countries around the world.

In the US, President Obama has not only vowed to recognize March 8th as a holiday, but has also named all of March to be Women’s History Month. Also, last night Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched the “100 Women Initiative: Empowering Women and Girls through International Exchanges.” The event is a three week professional exchange program which will include 100 women from 92 countries around the world who she calls “pioneers” in business, academics, and government.

The Global Fund for Women has also released a list of Top 10 Wins for Women’s Movements of 2010, while Mashable has shown us how to support International Women’s Day using social media. For all of you with wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, or any other loved ones abroad today, make sure to get in touch, as it has never been easier with StanaCard’s local SmartDial numbers and super low rates. To see a full list of the events and locations around the world, click the graph below to redirect to the official site of 2011 International Women’s Day.