POC Card or a phone interpreting service

A phone interpreting service puts a qualified human on the line, usually within a minute or two, usually charged by the minute. It is the right answer more often than software vendors like to admit.

When to call a human

Anything with consequences: a diagnosis, a contract, a statement to an official, a safety briefing. A human interpreter carries responsibility, can ask for clarification, and can say «I did not catch that». Software does none of the three. If a mistranslated sentence could hurt somebody or cost them a right, call a person.

When a button is better

The conversation that is too short, too sudden or too small to justify a call. Somebody at the counter asking what time you close. A customer describing a noise their car makes. A delivery at the wrong door. By the time a service connects you, that conversation is over — and most of them never happen at all, which is the real cost.

What POC Card is

A button each, English and Spanish, in the phone browser. Pay for the minutes you speak. No contract and no minimum, because it is for the conversations nobody was going to arrange an interpreter for.

What it costs: you pay for the minutes you speak, not a subscription. 15 minutes for US$6.99, 30 for US$9.99, two hours for US$24.99. Credits do not expire. Try it free first.

Where not to use it

Not for a medical consultation, a legal proceeding or anything where a mistranslated word has consequences you cannot undo. Those need a sworn or certified human interpreter, and no software replaces one. This is for the counter, the workshop, the site visit and the conversation that would otherwise not happen at all.

Questions people ask before buying.