When I am at home in the U.S., I use the long distance companies for the sign-up bonuses ONLY - their rates are too lousy to be worth the miles from continued usage.
Their so-called "deals" that involve paying several dollars a month to get "special rates" are a joke - I have always been able to beat these rates by using dialarounds (those 10-10 thingies) that offer the same or better rates without any monthly fee and a bunch of fake charges that they cram into the bill.
Try the website www.10-10phonerates.com if youŽre interested in a tabulated comparison of the different dialarounds (and IŽll note now that I have nothing at all to do with the above site and am not involved with the telecom industry in any way other than collecting signup milage bonuses from them ).
Yonatan