18866/1899 May you go bust!

mike_paterson

Whilst they may not have a UK-wide monopoly, they absolutely dominate the market to the extent that I (and millions of others) have no option other than BT.

I would love to know who else I can go to instead of BT !

Steve_xx

Yes you're right, BT do have a monopoly which is why the UK regulator forces them to allow other operators to use their lines on a least cost routing or carrier pre-selection basis. No other operators are forced to allow this due to the fact that they haven't attained significant market share.

The alternatives are the cable companies. Though I appreciate that they may not be available in your area. Do remember that if you did take service from one of the cable companies, then you may not be able to least cost route your calls.

Fortyfoot

Hi there,

Call 18866 is great, one of several great tips I have had from this site! I hope that it does not go bust.

Fortyfoot
8)

red

Hi, just to say I have used 18866 and had problems (am experiencing them at the moment) but I am putting that down to it being a small company and emails are never the easiest way of conducting a dialogue. I would not be put off them too easily...I haven't...yet!

Fastflys

I cannot praise 18866 to highly.  I have had an account with them since their service was first mentioned on this site.

I mainly call UK landlines [odd call to USA] and have never had any problem connecting or holding a conversation.

My 18866 call charges for December 04, are £2.93, which equates to 293 time unlimited peak time calls.  For evening and weekend calls I use Talk Talk who’s tariff was free for 12 months when I opened an account, thus in true MSE style saving 18866’s 1p per call connection charge.

My total telecom bill per quarter is now only around £40.00 [£31.50 being BT’s line rental charge].  I am able to view my account and usage details online and billing payments have been correctly taken from my bank account as and when.

18866 free service [1p connection charge] is also available to business users.

I am amazed and delighted to obtain so much for so little.  I sincerely hope that 18866 and it sister company go from strength to strength and look forward to another year of extremely cheap chatting.

sergeant121

My 18866 call charges for December 04, are £2.93, which equates to 293 time unlimited peak time calls.  For evening and weekend calls I use Talk Talk who’s tariff was free for 12 months when I opened an account, thus in true MSE style saving 18866’s .1p per call connection charge.

18866 free service [.1p connection charge] is also available to business users.

You've got a couple of superfluous/misleading decimal points in your post there Fastflys.

Fastflys

Noted and removed.

oap

;)Hello, I am new this evening to this board, and new to this website by two days, I am wanting to sign up to this company 18866.,my only concern is that I do not know who they are where they are, have waded through all the faq's and was a bit worried about giving someone my switch number who I do not know, but after reading the foregoing, nobody seems to be having problems save one, so is it safe? Not used to putting credit card or switch numbers on line, and a bit wary. I have actually e mailed 18866 asking who and where they are, but too soon to have had a reply. Any help here would be very much appreciated. Best wishes oap

sergeant121

;)Hello, I am new this evening to this board, and new to this website by two days, I am wanting to sign up to this company 18866.,my only concern is that I do not know who they are where they are, have waded through all the faq's and was a bit worried about giving someone my switch number who I do not know, but after reading the foregoing, nobody seems to be having problems save one, so is it safe?  Not used to putting credit card or switch numbers on line, and a bit wary.  I have actually e mailed 18866 asking who and where they are, but too soon to have had a reply.  Any help here would be very much appreciated. Best wishes oap

That sort of concern has been raised by a few people on MSE but (as far as I am aware - and that includes myself) nobody has experienced problems of the sort you are clearly worried about.

It appears 18866 and 1899 (and a number of others) are Swiss-based companies all of which appear to be franchises competing against one another (hence - good end-user prices).

Fastflys

Hi oap,

Welcome aboard.

Click the link below.  This will take you to Martin’s article on The UKs Cheapest Home Phone Call Providers [18866/1899 & Others].


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095003038,99872,


Regarding your method of payment concerns.

I would ideally prefer not to use credit or debit cards for this type of payment as you are entering into a “Continuous Payment Authority”  

Click the link below for info on CPA’s.


http://forum.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=Questions;action=display;num=1082515286;start=


Direct Debit is by far the best payment method and 18866 are working towards offering this in the future.  That said, I set up an account with 18866 using my debit card details and to date have not encountered any problems.  I have read their T&C’s and account closure appears to be straight forward.

18866 seem to be a reputable company and I believe the risk of entering into a CPA to be minimal.

This of course is only my opinion.  You must decide if opening an account with 18866 is right for you.