You are paying 32p for a 1 second call

ACDeag

1carminestocky wrote: »

Is the 18185 call to mobile charge same off-peak as well as peak? Reason I ask is 15p is what I would have been charged for an off-peak call to a mobile with my 'normal' phone line provider and I just assumed 18185 would be cheaper...

No

http://www.18185.co.uk/mobilerates.php

Heinz

1carminestocky wrote: »

Is the 18185 call to mobile charge same off-peak as well as peak? Reason I ask is 15p is what I would have been charged for an off-peak call to a mobile with my 'normal' phone line provider and I just assumed 18185 would be cheaper...

18185 still operates a weekdays/weekends charging structure so, if you have to use the 08081703703 gateway access, it's 5p connection + 10p/minute weekdays and 5p connection + 4p/minute weekends.

For those on a BT line, the 18185 prefix is cheaper weekdays (6p/minute).

Stuart_W

If you regularly make short calls from a cable phone line, try out The Phone Co-op's CallerPlus tariff. Minimum call charge is 1p+VAT per call, charging per second. Works via an 0800 access code on cable lines.

http://www.thephone.coop/residential/telephone/callerplus.html

This would make all your 1 second phone calls 1.15p each.

MrsBartolozzi

Hasn't it always been this way? This can't be news to you surely?
Twenty years ago (and before - when I live with by parents) you had to pay by the minute/part of minute. I've always been told that if you get voicemail/answer machine you might as well leave a message as you pay for the call regardless.
Not saying it's fair, but expected.
Do you think it should it be free for a 50 sec call then? Who pays for this?

nolly2009

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

Hasn't it always been this way? This can't be news to you surely?
Twenty years ago (and before - when I live with by parents) you had to pay by the minute/part of minute. I've always been told that if you get voicemail/answer machine you might as well leave a message as you pay for the call regardless.
Not saying it's fair, but expected.
Do you think it should it be free for a 50 sec call then? Who pays for this?

No it shouldn't be free - it should be pro rata. I should be charged for 50 seconds rather than 1 minute. What I object to is calls being rounded up to the NEXT MINUTE. In other words a 5 second call is charged as 1 minute. A 61 second call is charged as 2 minutes.

nolly2009

BexTech

For many years it used to be billed per second, previously it had been in units, the last couple or so years they started to switch from per second billing to rounding up to the next minute and also dropping min call charge and switching to connection fee - all to increase the costs.

ACDeag

MrsBartolozzi wrote: »

Hasn't it always been this way? This can't be news to you surely?
Twenty years ago (and before - when I live with by parents) you had to pay by the minute/part of minute. I've always been told that if you get voicemail/answer machine you might as well leave a message as you pay for the call regardless.
Not saying it's fair, but expected.
Do you think it should it be free for a 50 sec call then? Who pays for this?

I think it was in the 80s when BT used to charge by the unit, with each unit costing around 5p, so each call was rounded up the next unit, so a short call only cost 1 unit. Competitive pressures and Ofcom (Oftel then) meant that all comms companies started to move to per second charging with a minimum fee, there was no connection fee either. Slowly (started by the cable companies I think) connection fees moved in starting at 3p then inexorably increased and then per second charging was dropped in favour of per minute. Suddenly we were faced with a minimum charge of 20p or more for a mobile call and over £2 for an international call.

This is all part of BT and Virgin to get you to buy their call packages rather than pay per call. I think we won't see the end of the increases in connection fees until they hit 20p and peak time UK calls are 10p/min. It was not that long ago that BT charged 3p/min (charged per second) in peak time with no connection fee.

Buzby

It was MERCURY (Cable & Wireless) that introduced billing calls by the second, forcing BT to dump unit billing and be 'competitive'. Mercury failled, and BT evolved and we all get stitched up once more....