With the economy down in the dumps and companies laying off workers, people everywhere are looking for ways to cut costs and pay their bills. One such cost-cutting effort that my company recently made was to switch to a free conference call service. I was skeptical at first, but it really works, and it really is free. The service works great—to be honest, I can’t tell a difference between the expensive service and the free service. This would also be a great solution for families and groups of friends who want to stay in touch with multi-party phone calls.

The company we use is called NoCostConference.com, and they allow free conference calls, both with and without reservations. They allow up to 250 callers on a single conference call, and they use regular phone lines (no computer or Internet needed).

What’s the catch?

There really is no catch. The company is up-front about the way they make money: the regular service is free, but if you decide to upgrade to an 800 number, they charge a small fee.

Bottom line: in hard economic times, this is a sweet deal.