Editor, PrefixBook
Marit writes and edits everything on PrefixBook. She started the site after a relative saved a contact with a doubled country code and spent an evening convinced the person had blocked her. Her routine is plain: find the original rule or agency page, copy the exact wording, test menu paths on a real phone, and put the date of the reread on the page. She keeps a paper list of dialing mishaps that friends send her, and it decides what gets written next.
Marit writes and edits every page on PrefixBook. Her working method is a plain one. She picks a question that real people ask when they stare at a phone screen, such as when to dial a 1 or what to do about a missed call from Jamaica, finds the original rule or agency page, and writes the answer in the order she would give it across a kitchen table: the answer first, then the reason, then what to do next. The shape of each page follows its subject: a glossary where there are terms to pin down, a checklist where there are things to check, copyable scripts where the exact words matter, and a long essay where the reasons are the point.
What she checks
Before a page goes up, Marit rereads each claim against its source and writes the date of that reread on the page. She keeps a habit of testing menu paths on a real phone, because a setting renamed in an update is the quickest way for a guide to go stale. She does not quote prices that change, and she leaves out any number she cannot trace. When a rule has exceptions she names the exception instead of smoothing it over.
How she works
She keeps a paper list of dialing mishaps that friends and relatives have sent her over the years, among them a number saved with a doubled country code and a return call to a Caribbean number that nobody had recognised. The list decides which topics get a page. She writes in short pieces, reads them aloud once, and cuts anything that sounds like a brochure. Corrections that arrive through the contact page are handled before new writing.
What she does not claim
Marit does not claim credentials in telecommunications and does not give legal advice. Her only claim is that the pages are checked and dated, and that the tool reads digits and nothing else. For rules and complaints she points you to the FTC, the FCC and the numbering plan administrator.
Articles by Marit
The list of everything she has written is below. The newest page is at the top.
- Calling cards and international calling apps: how the number shows up, in four sample callsFour invented sample calls show what caller ID can display when a call starts on a prepaid card, an app or a hotel phone, with notes on each line. Updated .
- How to save contacts in international format: one invented week, and the fixAn invented but typical story shows why contacts saved without a country code, or with a stray 1 or zero, fail abroad, and how to repair them on iPhone and Android. Updated .
- Country calling codes cheat sheet: reading the first digits of a numberA cheat sheet for the first digits of a number: world zones 1 to 9, 26 common country codes, look-alikes such as 212 and +212, and dialing recipes. Updated .
- Dialing the US from abroad: messages and formats you can copyCopy-ready messages for calling a US number from abroad: the plus, 1 and ten digits format, a hotel desk line, toll-free workarounds and time zones. Updated .
- 011, 00 and the plus sign: a checklist for how other countries dial outA checklist for dialing out and sharing your number: 011 in the US, 00 in much of Europe, why the plus sign works everywhere and what to check before you travel. Updated .
- 900 numbers and pay-per-call prefixes: nine myths, checkedNine common beliefs about 900 numbers and toll-free codes, each checked: who pays, why a 900 number calls you, what blocking does and what disputes can win. Updated .
- How to call Canada and the Caribbean from the US without a surprise billCalls to Canada and Caribbean islands dial like domestic calls but may bill as international. Steps to check a code, place the call and handle one-ring scams. Updated .
- When do you dial 1 before the area code?An essay on the 1 before an area code: what it was for, how overlays and 988 changed the rules, and how mobiles, landlines and office phones differ. Updated .
- Dialing internationally from the US: a glossary from 011 to the plus signA plain-word glossary of international dialing from the US: exit code, country code, trunk prefix, 011, the plus sign and why a copied number fails. Updated .
- Why numbers start with +1, and how country calling codes workThe +1 on a US number is a shared country calling code for the whole North American plan. Quick answers on how codes work and which places share it. Updated .