1899 and 18866 same company? ?

ocoste

I came across this on another forum, for Broadband users. Poster reckoned that "1899" and "18866" are the SAME COMPANY. The following being found in the smallprint of terms & conditions. I have not checked the information. Anyone know if this is accurate. It would explain the "phoney" price war of late.

Steve



Finarea SA trading as 1899 (registered in Switzerland with number CH-514.3.024.457-9/) ("1899")

Finarea SA trading as Call18866 (registered in Switzerland with number CH-514.3.024.457-9/) ("Call18866")

Edinburghlass_2

Its been common knowledge that they are sister companies but I think most people use which ever one is cheaper for their needs or in some cases both.

Personally 18866 suits me as its cheapest for UK daytime calls at 0p per minute and only 1p connection charge and as I call NZ frequently its also cheaper than 1899 at 2p per minute.

Welcome to MSE

ocoste

Hi there.

Do you really just pay 2p min to call NZ? I have friends over there. What time of day does this apply?
Thanks

Edinburghlass_2

ocoste wrote:

Hi there.

Do you really just pay 2p min to call NZ? I have friends over there. What time of day does this apply?
Thanks

This applies at any time of the day which is great as you don't need to worry about the time difference. I usually phone in the morning when its night time there. It just went up to 2p a minute, used to be 1p when I first started using it and it was cheaper to call NZ than my next door neighbour!!

sergeant121

edinburghlass wrote:

Personally 18866 suits me as its cheapest for UK daytime calls at 0p per minute and only 1p connection charge and as I call NZ frequently its also cheaper than 1899 at 2p per minute.

Tut, tut, EL.

Set an example will you!

Using the MSE Callchecker, you really ought to have found the 4 ways to get those NZ calls down to 1p a minute again.

Here's a clue:

Ratebuster 1p/min (08447202020)
Budgetcom 1p/min (08448612612)
Telesavers 1p/min (08448615252)
CheapestCalls 1p/min (08448611313)

andy88_2

If you combine two deals widely discussed elsewhere on the forum you can get down to virtually free for NZ and about 40 countries. Namely the 500 minutes per month on 3, and pre-dial.

student100

Yes 18866 and 1899 are owned by the same company (a big giveaway is the fact that the websites use near-identical designs). Telestunt, Telediscount, Telesavers, CheapestCalls and BudgetCom are also all owned by the same company*.

This is one reason why something instinctively makes me feel that there's something a little dodgy with this company. I think one reason they have so many brands is that they hope someone will decide that (say) Telesavers has the cheapest access numbers for calling country X, and then stick with Telesavers for a different international call when in fact (say) using the Telestunt number would have been cheaper.

I can see that maybe the "just call" numbers do make a tiny profit for the company - even at 1p per minute to call abroad, but I really can't see how they can possibly make a profit offering UK calls for 1p per call (18866) and some international calls for 3p/call (1899).


*The company they are owned by is:

Finarea SA

Address:
Viale Carlo Cattaneo 1
Lugano
Switzerland
6900

taken from Nominet's WHOIS search on their domain names.

Edinburghlass_2

Well I have been using 18866 since Martin first mentioned them back in October 2003 and have found nothing dodgy about them. Yes, the website has no bells and whistles and there is no expensive call centre BUT they do provide a very cheap telephone service and have saved me a fortune over time

student100

edinburghlass wrote:

Well I have been using 18866 since Martin first mentioned them back in October 2003 and have found nothing dodgy about them. Yes, the website has no bells and whistles and there is no expensive call centre BUT they do provide a very cheap telephone service and have saved me a fortune over time

Mmm yeah I know. It's just that aside from the positive comments from people who use them everything else about them looks like a scam!

I suppose the thing is, HOW on earth do they make their money? It's not coming from the calls (at 1p for an unlimited call I'd be very surprised if 1p can cover their costs of connecting the call, and it certainly won't cover billing charges etc. too) So how can they afford to provide the service if there's nothing dodgy going on?

Smartasss

Why are you concerned?

They have provided the free service for 6 months, and were they to collapse tomorrow no customers would lose out! (Unlike other companies selling cashback items!)

Just enjoy it.

student100

Smartasss wrote:

Why are you concerned?

They have provided the free service for 6 months, and were they to collapse tomorrow no customers would lose out! (Unlike other companies selling cashback items!)

Just enjoy it.

Dunno, for a start I wouldn't feel very safe giving credit card details and a continuous payment authority to a company with no way of contacting them apart from online should anything go wrong. (Don't you think a telephone company should have a phone number?)
As a general rule I'd like to know as much about a company as they know about me, so if they need my address then I'd like to have theirs, etc.

And their data protection clauses in the T&Cs don't seem especially great.

At the moment I can't use them anyway (don't have a landline) but next year when I move into a place that does I will seriously consider using them (provided they've not gone belly-up by then )

I have used Telestunt etc as there is no subscription etc. involved.