Cheapest way to call Mobiles for less than a minute

MASHER154

Can anybody point me in the right direction.We make a lot of calls to mobiles for less than a minute.I was wondering how the cheapest calls could be made.Currently i am on Talkmore by eclipse broadband and am charged 6p inc.VAT for any call less than a minute.Can anybody tell me if i could beat this.

Sprintblue

TalkTalk have a plan that gives 100 minutes ... which seems to be saving me at the moment

Downside 18mth contract

MASHER154

Thanks i will have a look.]

Stuart_W

You can use Telesave.
It's a prepay service.
Set up and prepay £10 instantly on 0800 066 4000
Mobiles are charges at 9.5p/min charged to the nearest penny, min 4p per call
NO CONNECTION FEE.
Can be used in conjuction with any other calls service.
Access is via 0800 0662266 which works even if your calls are with a different company.

20 second mobile call = 4p
30 second mobile call = 5p

NPowerUser

Why bother paying anything at all for weekend calls to mobiles for up to one hour at a time?

Post Office Home Phone offer free calls to mobiles all weekend from 8th September so that will include Friday nights!
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1055639

raaboo

In all honesty MOST telecoms suppliers are switching from Minimum Call Charges to Call Set-up Fees (aka Connection fees, Set-up Fees)

There is a HUGE difference between the two.

Minimum Call charges usually cover the first two minutes or so of the call - if you had a tariff of 3p min call charge and 2p per minute, then a 30 second call would be 3p (2p x 0.5 (half a minute) = 1p, which is LESS than the 3p minimum chargeso the charge is 3p)

a 2 minute call would be 4p (2p x 2 minutes = 4p, which is MORE than the 3p minimum charge)

Connection fees go ON TOP of your pence per minute rate, so if you had a Connection fee of 3p and call rate of 2p per minute, then a 30 second call would be 4p (2p x 0.5 (half a minute) = 1p PLUS 3p set up fee = 4p)

So altogether the companies are making more money out of you in several ways as below:
Call Connection/Set-up fees (Penalise the people who make shorter calls)
Inclusive minutes - Often you get charged a premium for free minutes, say £5 extra per month - firstly this means your calls are not free, they cost you £5 per month! Secondly the majority of the time the free package would not get used to benefit you at all, say you get 600 free minutes for £10 per month.... do you normally use 600 minutes of calls anyway?

ALWAYS work out how much you actually spend on calls and compare to the package price to ensure its worthwhile switching, a lot of companies make a lot of money other ways as well i.e non Direct Debit charges, service charges being more expensive, account handling fees etc so read your T&C's more deeply.

If anyone wants more info on any specific supplier then give me a shout!

M

MASHER154

Looks as though i may as well stay with my current supplier which charges min call charge of 6p and i get about 30 to 40 seconds for this,which is as much as i normally use.

alan99_2

Although this is no better than the OPs current deal:

If your call is definately going to be less than 1 minute (or 2mins in some cases) You can use a dialthro no re 0871 6p a min , using a phone co that doesnt have a connection charge eg Primus. So call will cost 6p for under 1 min .

But you get charged whether you connect to mobile or not. Also the charging time starts from the connection to the 0871 number.

Alan