Need to save Money on my Home Telephone!

EN4CER

Please help me save some money on my internet and phone bill?

I am with Zen internet, paying £26 PM for 50GB download @ 8MB speeds. (Great service and fast), but expensive.

I use BT for phone.. Phone is only used for about an hour each evening and one or two at the weekend for local calls. We pay about £30-35PM.

Please could you guys recommend me an internet and phone provider that would give me a similar level of service, but for far less money?

maybe, I could get TV thrown in for free?

PS I don't have Sky or Cable.

Thanks for all or any help.

Thank you.

Win

Heinz

EN4CER wrote: »

Please help me save some money on my internet and phone bill?

I use BT for phone.. Phone is only used for about an hour each evening and one or two at the weekend for local calls. We pay about £30-35PM.

Unless you're calling mobiles or premium rate numbers, £16.10* to £21.10* per month for calls is a very high amount. I'd not expect to pay anything at all for calls to 01, 02 or 03 numbers.

*Using 18185, you could make between 322 to 422 calls for that amount.

You don't say which BT calls plan you're on but, even if you're on the lowest (the Unlimited Weekend plan), you can make 'free' calls of up to an hour each to 01/02/03/0845/0870 numbers on Saturdays and Sundays and, by agreeing to a 12 month contract, you could change to the Unlimited Evening & Weekend calls plan for no addtional cost and extend your 'free' calls window to include weekday evenings (7pm to 7am) too.

BTW, there's no such thing as a local call now. That changed in July 2004 when BT lumped all geographical numbers (except Jersey and Guernsey) into a single charge band.

Jackonary

Heinz wrote: »

Unless you're calling mobiles or premium rate numbers, £16.10* to £21.10* per month for calls is a very high amount. I'd not expect to pay anything at all for calls to 01, 02 or 03 numbers.

*Using 18185, you could make between 322 to 422 calls for that amount.

You don't say which BT calls plan you're on but, even if you're on the lowest (the Unlimited Weekend plan), you can make 'free' calls of up to an hour each to 01/02/03/0845/0870 numbers on Saturdays and Sundays and, by agreeing to a 12 month contract, you could change to the Unlimited Evening & Weekend calls plan for no addtional cost and extend your 'free' calls window to include weekday evenings (7pm to 7am) too.

BTW, there's no such thing as a local call now. That changed in July 2004 when BT lumped all geographical numbers (except Jersey and Guernsey) into a single charge band.

Hi

I pay BT GBP45 per month. For that I get Unlimited Weekend/Evening calls and International Freedom. On top of that Ipay AOL GBP11 per month for wifi.

I am happy with the service as I do not have any problems for the last 10 years. As I have recently retired, I am wondering if I should switch to a cheaper provider. The thing that is worrying me is that I am a technophobe and if there are problems as a result of the switch, I will be like this :eek:

My question is, is my current package way too expensive. If it is marginally expensive, I will live with it. If not, I guess I will have to try and put up with the :eek: and attempt a switch.

Thank you for any thoughts in advance.

Jackonary

viv0147

There are a few things you could do (1) use Skype for family and friends (2) use the service saynoto0870 as recommended by Martin just google it and that will reduce the cost of your phone calls.

Jackonary

viv0147 wrote: »

There are a few things you could do (1) use Skype for family and friends (2) use the service saynoto0870 as recommended by Martin just google it and that will reduce the cost of your phone calls.

Thank you Viv.

My International Freedom is just to call my elderly mother of 94. She does not have a PC and would not even know what to do with it. So Skype is out of the question for her.

I will have a look at the saynoto0870 thingy you mentioned. My BT package does include 0845 and 0870 though.

Jackonary

Heinz

Jackonary wrote: »

I pay BT GBP45 per month. For that I get Unlimited Weekend/Evening calls and International Freedom. On top of that Ipay AOL GBP11 per month for wifi.

I am happy with the service as I do not have any problems for the last 10 years. As I have recently retired, I am wondering if I should switch to a cheaper provider.

My question is, is my current package way too expensive. If it is marginally expensive, I will live with it. If not, I guess I will have to try and put up with the :eek: and attempt a switch.

Line rental is £13.90/month and International Freedom is £5/month so you must be paying more than £26/month for calls. That's excessive in my book particularly as you have inclusive evening and weekend 01/02/03/0845 and 0870 calls.

You do use 18185 to make your non-inclusive 01/0/203 calls for a flat rate of 5p each regardless of duration, don't you?

Which country does your mother live in? You can call many overseas destinations for 1p/minute from a BT line via 18185 so, if it's one of those countries, the £5 you're currently paying BT would cover the cost of calling her for more than 8 hours via them.

Jackonary

Heinz wrote: »

Line rental is £13.90/month and International Freedom is £5/month so you must be paying more than £26/month for calls. That's excessive in my book particularly as you have inclusive evening and weekend 01/02/03/0845 and 0870 calls.

You do use 18185 to make your non-inclusive 01/0/203 calls for a flat rate of 5p each regardless of duration, don't you?

Which country does your mother live in? You can call many overseas destinations for 1p/minute from a BT line via 18185 so, if it's one of those countries, the £5 you're currently paying BT would cover the cost of calling her for more than 8 hours via them.

Hi Heinz

Thank you for your advice.

My line rental including the package seem to be GBP16.70 per month. My mother live in Singapore. What do I have to do with this 18185 thingy? Sorry...I have not heard of it before. I will go and investigate.

Jackonary

Heinz

Calls to Singapore via 18185 are 1p/minute (4p connection for each call).

http://18185.co.uk/index2.php

Sign up online and specify your method of payment (DD recommended to avoid giving continuous payment authority on your debit or credit card).

https://myaccount.finarea.ch/114/createuser/CreateUser.aspx

Neil49

Heinz has pointed you in the right direction with 18185.

You aren't making full use of Martin's web site! If you click on the tab for Utilities/Phones there is a section entitled 'International Call Checker' which assists you in providing rates for calls abroad.

There are differing types of service, with the 'Simply Dial' ones charging the cost straight to your BT bill. This is obviously quick and easy but you will see that the connection charge is typically 12.5p whereas services requiring an account (such as 18185) charge less.

I have used 0844 calls in the past and found them very good but, as you will see, they charge a higher connection rate because of being a Simply Dial service.



Click on different ones to see what they provide.

Jackonary

Hi Heinz & Neil 49

Many thanks for both your advice.

I am not forum savvy, but am stepping on it now that I am retired and have more time.

Jackonary