International & UK CallChecker discussion

Ian011

If you are located in the UK and call a UK-registered mobile phone that has been taken abroad...
- You pay the same rate that you always pay to call a UK mobile number. It is irrelevant to you whether the called mobile phone is located in the UK or abroad, the rate for you, the caller, does not change.
- When the mobile phone is taken outside of the UK, the call recipient pays roaming rates to receive the call, the rate varies depending on which country the phone is used in and generally increases the further away from the UK the phone is used.
You'll call the usual 07 mobile number. No special prefixes are required.
To call you back, he'll pay roaming rates - which I assume is expensive.

If your son gets a local SIM in the Falkland Islands, things change dramatically...
- He will not pay to receive calls.
- You, on the other hand, will have to pay international rates to call a mobile number registered in the Falklands. Without looking, I'll guess it is fairly expensive to call mobile numbers in the Falklands.
You'll dial a number starting +500 or 00 500.
To call you back, he'll pay international rates for a call to the UK - which I assume is expensive.

mopsymuffin

Do you & your son both have mobile phones? Depending on the type of mobile .... if it is an android phone then I suggest you both download Skype and or Viber which is free. You can then make calls & send messages for free on a WiFi connection. If you both have an iphone and or ipad you can make calls & send messages using Facetime for free on a WiFi connection. Also on both mobiles download Wattsapp & you can chat on message for free also using a WiFi connection.
If you don't have an android phone you can pick one up on Amazon fairly cheaply! Get a SIM free one & then order a free PAYGO SIM card from 3 on their 1 2 3 package.
I would also suggest your son also gets himself a cheap SIM free mobile & a local SIM from the Falklands just to use for local calls. This will be much cheaper for making calls & no cost for receiving local calls.
There are probably other good Apps you can use but these are the ones I use when travelling & they work very well.

browncat22

thanks for the replies...yes we have android phones...but the main problem is very limited wifi ..we had hoped to use whatsapp but so far not been able to get a good wifi connection.....will keep all the options in mind...£2.50 a min is a bit prohibitive

Grandgra

Hi
I used Martins most popular choice of direct dial codes to call my daughter in Australia which should be 3p a minute. BT have been Charing me the full price of 17p. I called to complain but wouldn't do anything they just said it was the company I had been dealing. Has anyone else had this problem.

scoobers

It's the MSE Call Checker that is incorrect, there is a warning at the top of the page but they really should remove the page if they are not in a position to provide the correct information.
BT will charge an access charge of of 10.24p/min in addition to the service charge of 3p/min.

Grandgra wrote: »

Hi
I used Martins most popular choice of direct dial codes to call my daughter in Australia which should be 3p a minute. BT have been Charing me the full price of 17p. I called to complain but wouldn't do anything they just said it was the company I had been dealing. Has anyone else had this problem.

Ian011

The service you are using must declare the Service Charge for their 084, 087 or 09 number in close proximity to the number wherever it is advertised or promoted. This has been in place since 1 July 2015. See http://www.ukcalling.info/industry

If that hasn't been done on their website, or differs from the costs shown at http://checkit.uboss.com/ then complain to ASA. There have been no adjudications for missing Service Charge details so presumably ASA has received zero such complaints.

terra_ferma

We've been asking MSE to update or remove the page for months, when I checked it came quite high on google searches, so I imagine it brings too much traffic to the site to be able to remove it. Or they don't have the capacity to make changes. Either way it's clear that the warning is not displayed prominently enough and people are still fooled by the prices displayed, MSE info has always been very reliable and people still trust it.

victor2

terra_ferma wrote: »

We've been asking MSE to update or remove the page for months, when I checked it came quite high on google searches, so I imagine it brings too much traffic to the site to be able to remove it. Or they don't have the capacity to make changes. Either way it's clear that the warning is not displayed prominently enough and people are still fooled by the prices displayed, MSE info has always been very reliable and people still trust it.

It's completely misleading what they show. The warning at the top says:

Warning. On 1 July Ofcom introduced regulations that changed the way consumers are charged to call 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers.
Please be aware this means some of the prices in the Callchecker won't be accurate for a short while until we've managed to update the data.

How long is a "short while"? They should have put the year against the date...
You are so right in saying that people trust MSE, and you can't blame them if they believe what they see at face value and then get hit with a substantially bigger bill.
It is unfortunately a sign of where MSE has been heading since Martin Lewis sold it. Business considerations come first.

Ian011

I corresponded with MSE in mid-April 2015 to warn that there were just ten weeks left before the new call charge system was due to come into effect. I was assured that it was being looked into.

The new system simplifies call pricing. Although it requires a rewrite of the system that generates the price checker pages, it should make the process of generating those pages simpler.

The Access Charge for each listed landline and mobile provider needs to be stored.
The Service Charge for each listed 084, 087 and 09 number range, e.g. 0844 477, needs to be stored.

Much of the other 'logic' remains the same - as do the details for direct-dialled calls from your landline or mobile and for Indirect Access providers such as 18185, etc.

Patr100

Like others I have complained here about the lack of update on the Call checker , especially after getting stung for unexpected charges compared with what the Checker indicated. As it stands, its highly misleading to leave it so visible, but why hasn't it been dealt with? MSE would be first to criticise misleading prices or information elsewhere, and why isnt there any official response on this thread for example? Where are the mods and admins? Pretty pathetic and disappointing.