The UKs Cheapest Home Phones Solution Article Discussion Area

britters

Thanks for the info. I did find one that was cheaper at 2ppm, and that was 'PhoneCheap', but only to landlines. The cheapest to mobiles (at 6ppm) is 'Cheapest Calls'. I've yet to find out what BT and my mobile provider charge for calls to the access numbers, and that could be a killer.

wygde3

Something I've mentioned somewhere else (can't remember where) a few months ago but never got any replies (as far as I know) ...

The MSW Callcheckers are great! They can tell me what I need to know, but at a cost of tiem and effort. I have the Orchid Dialler v4 and use CW Client to set up a routing table to allow me to use the chepest calls in all circumstances. But keeping it up to date is a nightmare! I have to go in and check every so often (currently not very often!) to see what has changed ... and boy does it change!

The reason it takes time is that I need to know the cheapest for ...

all versions of UK calls, landline and mobile
New Zealand, landline and mobile
US, landline and mobile
Canada, landline and mobile
Czech Republic, landline and mobile
Italy, landline and mobile

So this comes down to lots of clicking and something like 15 or so lookups to be done!

So, my suggestion ... can the Callcheckers be set up to allow you to 'subscribe' to receiving a single email with the cheapest provider for a set of countries with both landline and mobile costs, in my case for UK, New Zealand, US, Canada, Czech Republic and Italy? preferably when they change or maybe weekly?

Maybe a big ask but boy would it be useful!

P.S. It's no good saying that you can here if it changes with the voice when you ring because I have an example where I happily carried on ringing one of teh countries at 1p/min and there was another provider at 0.5p/min that I only found out about when I did my (infrequent) visit to teh Callchecker.

jaspert

Does anyone know where the £40 cashback for TalkTalk sign up is available? I've found £22.50 at Quidco

Heinz

britters wrote:

I've yet to find out what BT and my mobile provider charge for calls to the access numbers, and that could be a killer.

BT's prices from a residential landline are HERE.

The MSE Callcheckers show costs from a BT landline.

PACH

Having an NTL line is a major disadvantage for using both of these providers. Can anybody recommend an alternative? When I read about 18185, I thought that at last a cheap land line provider. But NO, it only works if you have a BT line, same as 1899.

creddish

PACH wrote:

Having an NTL line is a major disadvantage for using both of these providers. Can anybody recommend an alternative? When I read about 18185, I thought that at last a cheap land line provider. But NO, it only works if you have a BT line, same as 1899.

You can still access 18185 and 1899 from an NTL line but you do so using an 0808 number and for landline calls you incur a 1p/min rate as well as the connection charge.

Colin

yves.ferrer

Hi folks,
be aware that TALK TALK in their previous ONETEL form introduced a promotional plan called TotalUKTalk as replacement/addition to their TotalUKCall plan last February; confused? it does not stop there: when you contact the number provided, it takes a while before someone who knows of the plan activates it and reduces the montly payment from £11.99 to £7.99; Hurrah!!! BUT they fail to mention thta international rates go up to 18/20p a minute for France, Belgium, etc...
Consequently, if you call abroad (as we do) regularly, the small saving is very quickly turned into a much larger loss (£18+ so far in our case).
Read everything very carefully before signing it and remember that verbal negotiations can be very misleading! I have queried the bill with TALKTALK and I wil keep the forum posted.
Yves Ferrer

SteveTymms

PACH wrote:

Having an NTL line is a major disadvantage for using both of these providers. Can anybody recommend an alternative? When I read about 18185, I thought that at last a cheap land line provider. But NO, it only works if you have a BT line, same as 1899.

I have just signed up for a thing called Vonage. It is a box which plugs into my broadband router.
It costs £7.99 per month, which gives unlimited free calls to UK landlines.
Calls to mobiles are between 5p/min (at weekend) to 20p/min for peak weekdays.
International calls vary, but South Africa is 6p/min (I think)

This seems good value.
I have NTL as my broadband provider, but don't have telephone of TV with them. So, I pay £7.99 for the phone, and £17.99 for unlimited broadband (I guess TT is not unlimited but capped in some way). I, therefore, have no phone line rental, or bills for calls to landlines.

Could Martin or anyone at MSE compare this against the other options?

Steve

hurrah

SteveTymms wrote:

I have just signed up for a thing called Vonage. It is a box which plugs into my broadband router.
It costs £7.99 per month, which gives unlimited free calls to UK landlines.
Calls to mobiles are between 5p/min (at weekend) to 20p/min for peak weekdays.
International calls vary, but South Africa is 6p/min (I think)

This seems good value.
I have NTL as my broadband provider, but don't have telephone of TV with them. So, I pay £7.99 for the phone, and £17.99 for unlimited broadband (I guess TT is not unlimited but capped in some way). I, therefore, have no phone line rental, or bills for calls to landlines.

Could Martin or anyone at MSE compare this against the other options?

Steve

Recently discussed here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=191007&highlight=vonage

yves.ferrer

Further to my post about TalkTalk and the confusing offers, they have now given us afree International add-onn as a gesture of goodwill. They have also promised to investigate the amount of bumf shoved through letter-boxes; I'll report on that too.
Yves Ferrer