--from: http://paytel.com/faq-ftc-1.html

Forced into a Paytel Account
As you can see, Paytel forces you to sign up for a Paytel account. In every county jail we've ever heard of, you are able to make a collect call. A collect call is most commonly recognized as a an action where the receiving party's phone company pays for the phone call. In using that exact definition, Paytel lies when they state they provide a collect calling service. Via some sort of influence, they've been able to take away the ability to make a collect call, and have ensured that they are paid for every call made from the phones they control.

You are stuck. You must sign up for a Paytel account because Paytel has power over you, and your son, daughter, brother, and whichever family member is spending the night in a county jail. You'd be under tremendous stress given the circumstance, and you'd be full of emotions, and you'd just want to talk to your loved one. When most people discover they must sign up for a Paytel account, they only care about creating an account and putting money on it so they're loved ones can call. Even if they did have other concerns, they'd have no choice but to create an account and put money on it if they want to talk to their loved ones.

Signing up for Paytel
Upon visiting Paytel's website, you will (obviously) go to the new account page. There, you will see a bunch of marketing tactics, misleading statements, etc. You will obviously select a prepaid account because the website leads you to believe you'd get a "discount". However, some may select the direct bill option, which gives you a $50.00 credit, and you must pay a bill each week. Below we explain both options, but would like to first detail one similarity between both accounts.

When signing up for either Paytel account, you have an account number and a pin number (password). The vital piece of information everyone should know is: the account number is your 10 digit phone number. You must therefore have one account for each phone number (and the minimum you can put on an account is $25.00). Furthermore, Paytel attains more power through this setup, able to make sick demands described below, and able to make far more money. We just want to stress that you are really creating an account for a phone number, not for yourself.

The direct bill account is rarely chosen. On the direct bill webpage, Paytel does not directly explain the consequences of missing a payment due date. Nonetheless, Paytel addresses the issue in their typical devious, roundabout fashion. They state: opening a direct bill account "is a permanent decision." So, since Paytel forbids you to switch to a prepaid account one you've opened a direct bill, they have the power to put a block on your number until you make the payment. This leads us to believe Paytel will charge outrageous interest on late payments, which you are forced to pay if you want the block on your number removed. Since you must pay a bill each week, the likely hood of late payment is dramatically increased.

The prepaid account is much more common. This is due to the fact that all other county jails in America offer real collect calls and prepaid calls. The county jails only allow the prepaid calls to be contracted to a phone company, and this company will give you actual discounts and the charges will be very reasonable. However, Paytel charges obscene amounts of money, no matter what words they use. They will charge you 4% less (no more then 10%) then their sick normal rates and call these figures "discounts", even though their charges remain despicable. People are also likely to go with the prepaid account because there are no weekly bills and they may not have acceptable credit.

Regardless, with this account, you are required to pay a minimum of $25.00 each time you add money. Most people will pay with their credit cards. And here, we come to Paytel's blatant violation of every credit card policy. no company is allowed to charge extra if you pay by credit card. Credit card companies (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) enact this policy to ensure ethical business practices. Because, when you use a credit card at any company, like Walmart for instance, the credit card company charges Walmart 2% of the amount you paid with your card.

In other words, the company that accepts your credit card is charged a processing fee, because someone needs to be paid for processing the card. To protect us (consumers) company's able to accept credit cards must agree they won't charge us extra to cover their extra cost. Well, Paytel charges you an extra $3.00 fee which is sick, disgusting, and way more than the processing fee credit card companies charge. Paytel usually makes 100%+ profit off of their unfounded fee alone.

Update! - After posting the above information, we wanted to check it's accuracy further than our knowledge. As it turns out, we are correct, Visa and MasterCard explicitly prohibit extra charges for using a credit card. However, we've made another discovery, showing another blatant violation of credit card policy by Paytel. Among others, Visa and MasterCard prohibit minimum charge requirements. Paytel openly acknowledges a minimum charge requirement of $25.00.

For proof of both violations, please visit this Paytel web-page, which explicitly lists a minimum charge amount and explicitly lists the additional amount of money you will be charged if you use a credit card. We also hold photographic proof (screen shots) of numerous Paytel web-pages, which explicitly show minimum charge requirements for credit cards, and a required additional fee for credit cards.

Phone Cards
Though we've finished explaining how Paytel works for those outside of a county jail hoping to communicate with loved ones, we've not explained how it works for people inside a county jail. Anyone who's in a Paytel county jail may be able to purchase calling cards, which provide a much better rate then loved ones prepaying in the same way, yet charges an unimaginable "connection" fee. However, Paytel has ways to ensure the difficulty in acquiring calling cards. In the following, we will make references to this Paytel web-page, the same referenced in the paragraph above.

Firstly, Paytel states "several" of their jails have prepaid calling cards. So, this already means that there are jails friendly enough with Paytel to agree to keep calling cards out of their facilities. Furthermore, Paytel states "The availability of the calling cards is at the discretion of the confinement facility". In direct terms, it means even if the jail officially offers calling cards, it may not be possible to acquire one. Mr. Kimball has verified this weeks before this article was written, he has had immense trouble acquiring a calling card until the employee in charge of calling cards was (rightfully) relieved of her duty and replaced.

We must ask ourselves how is it Paytel influences their serviced jails to make it very difficult to acquire calling cards? The answer - the jails receive a portion of Paytel's profits (referenced / discussed in another article under this section). Upon entering MCJ, Mr. Kimball was told one person controls the calling cards. He had not been able to speak with this person since his arrival. When he ordered a calling card it took weeks for him to receive it. We were aware of this before reading Paytel's statement, and learning the jail receives a portion of Paytel's profits. If it were not for the ethical Mcintosh County Sheriff replacing the woman in control of calling cards, Kimball probably wouldn't have received another one for weeks. The new Sheriff has done an excellent job, however, there are jails controlled by Sheriffs who do not put American values over money.

Conclusion
Though this article was meant to detail how Paytel works for both parties, we could not help but stumble across some of Paytel's / Vincent Townsend's disgusting business practices. As you can see, Townsend created and designed Paytel to attain the most money possible from families who have loved ones unfortunate enough to find themselves in a county jail. We believe their business practices are nothing short of blackmailing families going through an emotional / traumatic event. What should enrage everyone most is this repulsive company actually has contracts with our government.

We ask that everyone reading this continues reading the rest of the section, and ultimately unites with us to shut this company down. As you browse through this section, you will see anyone who finds themselves in Paytel's network is powerless alone. You will see that's the exact way Paytel continues to become more powerful.

Paytel Home

Which leads us to believe Paytel will charge you interests and restore the block on your phone number if you do not pay on time. Since Paytel forbids you to switch to a prepaid account one you've opened a direct bill, the block will remain on the number until you make payment. This way, you are forced to pay the total bill, with the highest interest, if you want to talk to your loved one. Please remember, you must be a bill each week the likely hood of late payment is dramatically increased.