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International and UK CallChecker Discussion Area
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dominiquereynolds wrote: »Nice their conection charge is only 4p :j
Yes their 18866 sister company,and their rates are often cheaper.:D0 -
I have been using these external providers for years. This month I asked Virgin to send me a list of my "below 50p" costs, which they never send "automatically", because they appeared to be rather high ...
"Surprisingly", I found that on that list there are many calls to numbers which I never dial. Interestingly, they are almost the same as the ones I use for Bestminutes/Discountdial/Telesavers but with a additional zero in the middle (as a new sixth digit). These calls all last seconds and they all cost a lot per second - though never more than 50p.
For example, on this list there are calls to the no. 0844 2000 9595, which I never dialled but which is very similar to the 0844 200 9595 I use from Discountdial. There are also calls to 0844 4039 2424, which I never dial but which is very similar to the 0844 439 2424 which I use from Bestminutes ...
I complained with Virgin saying that I did not dial those numbers with the zero in the middle. Virgin tells me "someone" did from my phone and that the numbers with the 0 belong to the same companies that own the no. without the 0.
It looks to me as if "someone" was charging me a connection fee for each call, so that as long as I do not get connected, my call is charged at a much higher rate. I never noticed this before because because I never asked for this "below 50p list" and these weird calls never cost more than 50p ...
I think there is some criminal energy behind this.
I have tried to contact Bestminuted and Discountdial but they have not written back. Needless to say that you cannot contact them by phone, who knows where they are based ...
Has anyone experienced this problem?
Any ideas on what I could do?
Thanks
Tom0 -
Any ideas on what I could do?
There have in the past been cases of people being erroneously charged 50 pence (= £0.5) a minute for calls that should be 0.5 pence per minute on certain 0844 numbers. This is a billing error by the provider concerned, caused by their own system wrongly defining the tariff, and not a fraud conducted by the destination number. I'm slightly confused by your description, but as you mention 50p, I wonder if that has happened here.0 -
The title should be, "Watch out for Virgin" - because Virgin charges you for your calls, the other companies do not.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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Thanks, redux, for your comment on the length of the numbers. That might be the best argument to use!
The reason why I suspected the external provider to be ripping me off rather than Virgin is that the excessive charges never applied to the calls I definitely made. For those calls, which are by the way to 11 digit numbers, I get billed correctly.
The excessive charges only come on calls that appear to have lasted only 1-12 seconds (!) and that were made to those mysterious 12digit numbers. Therefore, Virgin's argument is that I did make calls to both 11 and 12digit numbers, that they are charged at different rates, and that therefore I needed to pay for them.
I hope this was clearer now.
P.S.: And may I suggest that anyone using Virgin phones and external providers should ask Virgin for detailed lists of calls in order to check this.0 -
The top number for mobiles in Israel is Dialabroad at 1.5p/min, but the number listed is for a much higher tariff.0
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The top number for mobiles in Israel is Dialabroad at.5p/min, but the number listed is for a much higher tariff.
BT charges 6p per minute at all other times for calls to that number.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0 -
The call began with a recorded message announcing about 5p/min (can't remember exact price).0
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That doesn't alter the fact that, if you make the call via that number from a BT residential landline during the evening or overnight, it'll cost you 1½p per minute.Time has moved on (much quicker than it used to - or so it seems at my age) and my previous advice on residential telephony has been or is now gradually being overtaken by changes in the retail market. Hence, I have now deleted links to my previous 'pearls of wisdom'. I sincerely hope they helped save some of you money.0
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I have just been bitten with international calling charges when I called a number that looked every bit like a UK mobile number, starting with 07781. I expected this call to be within my monthly inclusive allowance. In fact, this is a Channel Islands prefix. Since the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man are not part of the UK (or the EU for that matter) - they are Crown Dependencies - calls to such numbers are charged at international rates. (*)
What annoys me is that these islands are allowed to use the UK numbering system and yet calls to them are not classed as UK calls. This means there is no way to tell how much you are going to be billed, just by looking at the number. Ofcom ought to change that and give them their own country code with an international dialling prefix.
Anyway, to keep "on-topic" I would suggest the International Call Checker on this site should include the Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
(*) Charged at international rates at least by T-Mobile, O2 and Three. I have heard rumours that Vodafone charge UK rates for these - if that's true then I applaud Vodafone.0
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