The UKs Cheapest Home Phones Solution Article Discussion Area

ginger_nuts

In my opinion its not a good deal .
1 you pay your line rental to swalec ,so they can block you making calls via other carriers .they charge £2.95 for evening & weekend package which you can get from primus for free .

Heinz

olliedog wrote: »

A Swalec salesman called yesterday to sell the new "talk with swalec" Can't find anything about this service. Is it any good? It doesn't include broadband, but he wanted me to sign then & there and if I changed my mind I would have to cancel within 7 days. I didn't sign. Should I have?

Welcome to the MSE forums olliedog.

I'd never heard of it myself but they're obviously connected with Southern Electric (their websites are almost identical).

http://www.southern-electric.co.uk/Home/Products/Talk/Default.aspx

http://www.swalec.co.uk/Home/Products/Talk/Default.aspx

Southern Electric's door knockers were reported to be doing the same sort of thing yesterday (see HERE).

I suppose Atlantic will be next.

http://www.atlanticeg.co.uk/home/Default.aspx

As ginger_nuts intimates, the requirement to hand over your line rental is the first warning sign!

dali-cat

Has anyone noticed on their latest BT bill that there is a section in the small print which says that if you do not make at least six chargeable calls through BT, they will now charge you £3 per quarter. Does anyone know who is the best line rental provider who do not charge you for using other companies for your calls?

Heinz

dali-cat wrote: »

Has anyone noticed on their latest BT bill that there is a section in the small print which says that if you do not make at least six chargeable calls through BT, they will now charge you £3 per quarter. Does anyone know who is the best line rental provider who do not charge you for using other companies for your calls?

Are you sure you've read that correctly?

I think you'll find that the '6 chargeable calls per quarter' (or 2 call per month if you're billed monthly) is the requirement to qualify for 'free' Caller Display and 'free' 1571.

If you don't spend 33p (6 x 5½p evening or weekend UK 01/02 calls of less than an hour), they'll charge £5.25/quarter (£1.75/month) for 'free' Caller Display and/or £3/quarter (£1/month) for 'free' 1571.

[Deleted User]

Are there any light user schemes for landline?

I am with Tesco at present but am a very light user as I use my mobile for all my calls (using my free minutes).

Uswitch don't seem to say anything about light users. (unless I've missed it).

I don't want to to be tied to free evenings and weekend use only.

Heinz

Deleted_User wrote: »

Are there any light user schemes for landline?

I am with Tesco at present but am a very light user as I use my mobile for all my calls (using my free minutes).

Uswitch don't seem to say anything about light users. (unless I've missed it).

I don't want to to be tied to free evenings and weekend use only.

BT does LUS but the T&Cs mean very few people qualify for it.

As you'll see from THIS thread it's thought LUS is on the way out - it's being replaced by a new 'benefit claimants only' scheme.

However, you might find THIS other recent thread of interest.

kaydee

I note that in the phones article Martin says that to finesse savings use call1899 over 18185 yet both seem to charge the same 5p per UK connection charge.
How does 1899 work out cheaper?

and on that is anyone out there using call1899 at the moment, and having a nightmare time today trying to make calls?

Heinz

I received a call from someone using 1899 this morning - no problems.

I don't understand that '[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Finessing the savings even further[/FONT]' bit in the article either - 1899, 18185 and 18866 all charge 5p connection and 0p/minute to UK 01/02 numbers now so there's no extra saving to be made (other than, as stated, using 18185 for calls to mobiles).

roob_the_doob

kaydee wrote: »

and on that is anyone out there using call1899 at the moment, and having a nightmare time today trying to make calls?

Yes. Both 1899 and 18185 have been permanently engaged for several hours. The engaged tone comes as soon as you dial 1899 or 18185. I've tried by-passing Primus and then dialing but it still does the same.

Heinz

roob_the_doob wrote: »

Yes. Both 1899 and 18185 have been permanently engaged for several hours. The engaged tone comes as soon as you dial 1899 or 18185. I've tried by-passing Primus and then dialing but it still does the same.

Dialling a prefix like 1899, 18185, 1280 does bypass your CPS.

If you have problems accessing 1899 and need to make a call, just dial without using the prefix - it'll go out on your CPS (Primus is 1p/minute cheaper than BT).