Cheapest regular 01 uk calls - anytime. Skype?

greg123_2

I was on sky, £5 all the local/national I can eat.

I'm now ditching sky, sticking with bt rental for my 02 £7.50 broadband and want to reduce call charges.

Currently I have 18185 for 0845/70/mobiles
I had £5/month unlimited local/national with sky.

I plan to keep 18185 but add:

Primus saver 2, £0.00, free eve/weekend uk 01 calls
Skype - free anytime 01 uk calls for £2.24/month

All 'free' uk calls I have seen advertised wtihout a monthly fee have a connection fee, which if you use the phone a dozen times a day makes skype cheaper.

Can anyone beat this? I hear talk of free and 'proper' voip's, but who can offer me TRULY free local/national calls anytime for less than £2.50/month?

Any other comments appreciated.

Greg.

benjus

Is the Skype offer genuinely unlimited or is there a "fair usage policy"? Assuming that it is unlimited, the cheapest option really depends on how much you intend to use the service.

Several of the Betamax VoIP providers (e.g. www.nonoh.net) offer a service where you get inclusive calls to certain destinations (200 minutes per week for about 4 months) with every purchase of credit (minimum purchase about £10). So you're getting about 850 minutes per month free of charge (this of course assumes that the credit you have purchased is useful to you - i.e. that you will spend it on chargeable calls).

If you are likely to exceed this amount, Skype is probably the cheapest. I don't know of any completely free VoIP providers.

maly00

I have a skype subscription and pay 2.24 a month for unlimited landline calls. In addition to this you also get a skype-in number that peopel can use to call you. If you use skype a lot it also provides you with a voicemail. You also get SkyeToGo number but this is not any good in your case.
As for the fair usage policy- i think it is approximately 6 hours a day (10,000 minutes a month)

greg123_2

Skype it is then. 6 hours a day is way more than I would use, but I do use enough so that if I'm always getting hit by a 4p or 6p connection charge eg 18185 it's cheaper to pay the £2.24

Cheers, Greg.

far

It is supposedly 10,000 minutes per calendar month (the counter resets on the 1st of every month) but I have had it start charging for 01/02 calls sometimes after just under half that usage on any of my accounts and have never had the full 10,000 minutes a month. However, unless you add credit you can't be charged so it's not a huge worry in that instance but if you do reckon you'll be a heavy user then it's worth testing the waters for a month and seeing how it goes.

greg123_2

3hr/day average is still huge!

redux

Many of the Betamax brands have 300 minutes in 7 days, rather than the 200 of nonoh, to about 40 countries. And that's free calls, with the credit still left in the account to use for chargeable calls

greg123_2

But how long does the credit last? Most I looked at were £10 top up every 3 months or so. I suppose credit could be used on calling mobiles or 0845's....

redux wrote: »

Many of the Betamax brands have 300 minutes in 7 days, rather than the 200 of nonoh, to about 40 countries. And that's free calls, with the credit still left in the account to use for chargeable calls

redux

typically €10 + vat gets 120 freedays

BexTech

greg123 wrote: »

But how long does the credit last? Most I looked at were £10 top up every 3 months or so. I suppose credit could be used on calling mobiles or 0845's....

The credit doesn't actually run out.

You top up €10 (10 Euro) +19% VAT and for most of the Betamax providers this gives you 120 days of free calling to the free destinations usually 300 mins per week.

After 120 days you can either top up another €10 and get another 120 days of free calling and the €10 gets added to any credit you still have left over or you can not bother topping up and use the credit up.

I use VoIP stunt as when I joined they issued a local VoIP-In number, though some of the other Betamax services offer slightly better prices on some destinations.

I also use Vyke which charge 2p per call.

For me this is fine as I get inclusive evening and weekend call charges for no additional cost over the discounted phone, TV and broadband package I get.

I use VoIP on a PAP2 ATA.

I was VoIP only for about 3 years and only now have a landline as I was offered it as a reduced priced deal to stay with Virgin Media.

Due to being there at the right time and being able to use up free mobile phone credit to top up my account, for 3 years it only cost me about £10 for VoIP.

greg123_2

If you have to top up every 120 days, how did 3 years cost you £10?

So, I might be better you think going for this than skype and using the credit to phone mobiles and 0845? As with skype all I get for the £2.24 is free calls nationally, the £2.24 is not credit on the account.

On the other hand, is the voip worse rates than 18185 significantly to mean that I won't get many calls for £10 and Skype + 18185 works out cheaper all told? I do call a fair few 0845 and mobiles too.

Greg.

BexTech wrote: »

The credit doesn't actually run out.

You top up €10 (10 Euro) +19% VAT and for most of the Betamax providers this gives you 120 days of free calling to the free destinations usually 300 mins per week.

After 120 days you can either top up another €10 and get another 120 days of free calling and the €10 gets added to any credit you still have left over or you can not bother topping up and use the credit up.

I use VoIP stunt as when I joined they issued a local VoIP-In number, though some of the other Betamax services offer slightly better prices on some destinations.

I also use Vyke which charge 2p per call.

For me this is fine as I get inclusive evening and weekend call charges for no additional cost over the discounted phone, TV and broadband package I get.

I use VoIP on a PAP2 ATA.

I was VoIP only for about 3 years and only now have a landline as I was offered it as a reduced priced deal to stay with Virgin Media.

Due to being there at the right time and being able to use up free mobile phone credit to top up my account, for 3 years it only cost me about £10 for VoIP.