Interval International phone number: which one to call from abroad

Interval's list of Member-Services Centers gives 1.800.INTERVAL (1.800.468.3782) for exchange deposits and requests and adds that its "800," "888," and "877" numbers are toll-free from the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Elsewhere, an 800 number may not connect from your own phone.

The same list gives a regular Miami number next to it, 305-666-1884, for Exchange Services and Membership Services. It is not toll-free: from abroad you dial +1 305 666 1884 and pay for an ordinary call to the US. Spanish speakers have their own line, 305-665-1918.

The Miami centers answer Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and on Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., US Eastern time, and are closed on Sunday. Interval lists English, Spanish, French and Portuguese as the languages spoken.

The 800 number answers with a voice system. In our test it said that our number was not linked to a membership and asked us to say or enter the Interval membership number. If you do not know it, you can say "I don't know".

When we stayed silent, it moved on and asked for the phone number linked to the membership where you can receive a text message. We hung up there, after 90 seconds, without reaching a person.

On +1 305 666 1884 our test call reached a keypad menu: 9 for someone in the call center, 1 Exchange, 2 Travel, 3 Membership, 4 Getaways and Tours, 5 Customer Relations, 6 Internet Support.

Choose a key right away. When we pressed nothing, the call moved to the Executive Offices menu and then to their voicemail, where we hung up without leaving a message.

Interval runs regional offices with their own numbers and hours in local time. Interval lists these, among others:

Interval's list also covers Mexico, Argentina, Finland and other countries; in Asia most countries go through the Singapore office, with toll-free numbers and chargeable +65 alternatives. We did not call the regional offices; the UK, German and Singapore offices were closed at the time of our test.

Browzerphone dials +1 numbers from a browser tab, with no SIM card and nothing to install, and shows the price per minute before you call; the rates page lists it for the United States. Our test calls went out through Browzerphone's US phone provider from a US (+1) number, which is why 1-800-INTERVAL connected in our test. The keypad for Interval's menu is in the same tab.

Without credit, Browzerphone only allows a free trial call, and it ends after one minute. In our test, the 800 number was still asking for membership details after a minute, so top up first if you need to reach a person.