Who Pays Less for Phone Calls: Friends & Family Prepaid vs Commissary-Funded Calls
Want to keep phone costs down? Start by understanding how calls get paid. With ICSolutions, there are two funding paths—and which one's cheaper depends on how you're set up.
Phone calls can be funded two ways: you pay from the outside through a Friends & Family Prepaid account with ICSolutions, or the person in custody pays using phone minutes purchased through commissary from their trust account. This matters because the charges hit different accounts - and the costs can vary depending on which method you use.
To cover calls yourself with Friends & Family Prepaid, you'll need to create and fund a prepaid ICSolutions account. Once there's money in it, calls draw from that balance whenever your loved one calls you.
Commissary-funded calling works differently. Money goes into the incarcerated person's trust (commissary) account, and they buy phone minutes from commissary using those funds. Even if the money originally came from family, the minutes are purchased on their end.
Here's an out-of-state example using sample cost figures. A 10-minute out-of-state call runs $0.117 when paid through an ICS Pre-Paid Friends & Family account. That same call costs $0.088 when paid through commissary-funded minutes. In this scenario, commissary-funded comes out cheaper.
For in-state calls, the gap is smaller. A 10-minute in-state call shows $0.091 using ICS Pre-Paid Friends & Family, versus $0.086 through commissary-funded minutes. Still cheaper with commissary in these sample numbers, but not by much.
Note: Total amounts charged are rounded up to the nearest cent, and partial minutes are also rounded up. That rounding can slightly change what you actually see billed.
Looking at these examples, commissary-funded minutes cost less in both scenarios: out-of-state (10 minutes: $0.088 commissary vs $0.117 Friends & Family) and in-state (10 minutes: $0.086 commissary vs $0.091 Friends & Family). If you're focused purely on the lowest cost, commissary-funded minutes win - especially for out-of-state calls where the difference is more noticeable.
Keep in mind: These are illustrative examples. Rounding, taxes, and fees can all affect your final bill. Before deciding, check the current posted rates for your specific situation and pick whichever funding method shows the lower total.
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