Cheap calls though 18185 - experiences please?

Ian011 wrote: »

Many people have an inclusive call plan on their mobile and are likely to be paying a lot more than £8 per month for it, and yet probably make most of their calls while they are sat at home.

One reason for having a mobile phone has been that making calls to mobile numbers from landlines has always been expensive. Now that landline providers offer inclusive calls to mobile numbers, that is no longer the case.

Landline providers have botched their marketing. They usually advertise unsuitable 'weekend' call plans to keep the headline price down. These plans have extortionate weekday rates and this along with the previous high rates for calls to mobile numbers has led most people to be under the impression that landlines are expensive.

If landline providers were to swap their advertising to feature anytime inclusive calls to landline numbers, 03 numbers and mobile numbers for £8 per month, many people would see this as a simple way to save money when making telephone calls.

Agreed. I have an O2 business phone account which gives me unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 2Gb Date for £7 per month plus VAT, so why would I want to pay £8 per month to a landline provider. I'm not sure if you are aware but Sky already offer calls to landline and mobile numbers for this price.

The_Groat_Counter wrote: »

I understand the argument but I don't necessarily agree with all of that analysis, besides I think there's a bigger picture here.

It's rather too little, too late for landlines - they're becoming more of a niche thing. Of course there's a significant generational divide on this, but for many younger people they're a bit of an irrelevance - they are just a delivery mechanism for home broadband.

Again, I agree. I only have a landline for broadband. I've made two calls via this landline this month via 18185 which cost me 28p in total as against more than £1.50 it would have cost via BT, and those only because there was a fault with the O2 network on that day. But I keep my 18156 account valid just in case of such eventuality.

I look on a landline as an anachronism which should really be in a museum now. I think the reason BT (and others) charge so much for their calls is because so few people use them to make chargeable calls, and they have to make up for this somehow. I can cast my mind back only a few years when BT used to advertise weekend calls (no matter how long) for 50p! It costs that to get a wrong number now.

But there again, I can cast my mind back to the 60's when I lived in the USA when you didn't pay for any local calls at all. They were all free way back then. I don't know what the situation is now.

Just found this thread after posting on another about 18585 as I'm thinking about using them after getting stung by BT when phoning Spain using Dialwise.

Do I have to have a direct debit?
I will only probably be phoning about 3 times as usually other means of communication is used e-mail. Facebook messaging etc.
Speedy replies would be appreciated as we will have to phone Spain soon.

Thanks for that,
As the site specifically mentions if you are a BT customer you only need to use the 18185 no. other have to use the 0808 *** prefix, is this because of a BT rule?

Went through the registration process last night and it does give you the choice of using either cards or d.d's.

I possibly will only need to use the company once for my call, and so aren't keen on leaving my card details with them.
Might just not bother and bite the bullet, but tell my friend I need to keep the conversation short, then use the other methods of communication.

Thanks Ian,
Saw that suggestion when viewing the Say No site.
Would BT accept those, and how do I find out who the providers are, payment etc?

Itemised calls are still there, for me anyway. As for queries or complaints, click on customer services, then click report a fault and fill out the form. I did that previously for a general enquiry and got an emailed response with a link to their reply.