who to rent from?

homealone_2

i have trawled through site with various opinions but am still at a loss. all i know is that out of a £113.90 telephone bill all i spent in calls was £52.89, £17.89 of these calls were to 0870/0845 etc which i know i need to also sort out. but there must be a straightforward answer to cutting this ridiculous double the bill charge that BT do regularly. so who should i rent from??? i use 18866 to cut down cost of calls to mobiles and take advantage of their 0p calls. i have a mobile that allows 200 free mins amonth which i barely touch

Edinburghlass_2

£52 is an awful lot of calls to be routing through BT in a quarter? First of all for the 0845 and 0870 calls try to find an alternative number by checking out saynoto0870 by looking at their site (sponsored and supported by Martin).

I pay BT £10.50 a month for my line rental paying by dd and that is usually all apart from the odd 0870 number as BT is at present the cheapest to use. I am with TalkTalk Option1+ for free evening and weekend UK calls for a year and my average bill to them in a month is 5p! Read Martin's thread here about Onetel who are offering a similar package with a £20 call credit which would be useful for those 0870/0845 numbers that you have to dial.

I use 18866 for all my daytime calls at 1p a time and that bill averages out at perhaps £2 a month.

Are you paying a package to BT or are you on the basic line rental option?

chalktalk

If you have 200 any network minutes on your mobile, then use PREDIAL.COM to make normal landline calls:

Simply call 07792316447 from your mobile before all landline calls and 0845 calls.

This will EARN "points" while you call. You can use these points to call the same 07792 number from your mobile and call 0870 numbers!

Simple, sorted and free.

07792316447 is recognised as an Orange mobile.

homealone_2

i am on BT together option 1 at the moment, this is the breakdown of my calls, this may help give a better picture

70 daytime calls £4.92
61 evening & weekend £2.80
21 to a mobile £4.95
1 premium rate 0.04p
38 national rate calls £17.51
42 lo-call £8.47
15 call return fees 0.76p ????? no idea what that is
18 other calls £13.36 ????? again no idea

customer option charge £13.83
package fees £6.38
BT together option 1- the hour plan ??? £26.80

not sure if this makes anything any clearer/

Edinburghlass_2

It doesn't make it very clear I'm afraid as there are lots of things on there I don't understand, however 70 daytime calls would be 70p on 18866, same with the evening and w/end calls they would be 61p.

I assume the 38 National rate calls at £17.51 are in fact 0870 numbers so you would have to make an effort to find the geographical numbers for those, same with the lo-calls numbers I presume they are 0845 numbers.

Call return is hitting 3 after dialing 1471 to find that someone has phoned you and you then returning the call.

Is your internet connection through BT, are you on dial up with them and going over your limit or using through the day?

andy88_2

If the tariff on your mobile is for cross-network calls then use that for the calls to mobiles. Or if you really do hardly use it then think of switching it to payg, and use 1899 for calls from home to mobiles.

homealone_2

sorry i have only just seen replies. in answer to your questions. i have a payg mobile which gives me free texts and i have a contract that gives me 200 minutes, always have tons carried over as i rarely use it for fear of going over my allowance. i do use 18866 for all daytime calls )not sure if oh or kids are doing the same) and i always use for mobiles calls too. my internet is broadband. i really do need to do something obviously need to pass on the 18866 rule to the rest of the house. but i cannot afford another bt bill like this??

Paul_Varjak

homealone wrote:

70 daytime calls £4.92

If you used 18866 for these it would have cost 70p (but £1.40p from 23/02/2005)

homealone wrote:

61 evening & weekend £2.80

If you also signed up with One-tel you could reduce this to 0p!

homealone wrote:

21 to a mobile £4.95

Does you mobile gives cross network minutes? If so, you could do this for 0p!

homealone wrote:

1 premium rate 0.04p

Get a bar put on Premium Rate numbers - BT do it for free!

homealone wrote:

38 national rate calls £17.51

Try to find the alternative geographical numbers. If you did this calls would have cost 38p via 18866.

homealone wrote:

42 lo-call £8.47

Again, try to find geographical codes. If you did this calls would have cost 38p via 18866.

homealone wrote:

15 call return fees 0.76p ????? no idea what that is

Do no press '3' when using 1471 - saving 76p!

homealone wrote:

18 other calls £13.36 ?????

Can't help

homealone wrote:

customer option charge £13.83
package fees £6.38
BT together option 1- the hour plan ??? £26.80

As we don't have BT in Hull I don't know what these are. But, in general, you should just pay for line rental at £10.50p/month

Giev that you have family who do not remeber to dial 18866, I suggest you get the Orchid dialler that everyone (including Martin) raves on about. You can also program it to use One-Tel at evening/weekends

bbb_uk

You mention your not sure if your kids are doing the same and dialling 18866 before calls!

Have you thought about getting a LCR (Least Cost Routing) Dialler from Orchid Electronics, http://www.orchid-electronics.com. That is, assuming you haven't already got one. MSE Martin recommends them, see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com...ad.html?t=15502.

The v4 dialler is a programmable auto-dialler that can be setup to route different type of calls (geographical, mobile, 0845, 0870, etc) to different carriers and depending on time of day (daytime, evening, or weekend). It can be complicated to setup but if you ask Orchid they'll do it all for you for a one-off fee of £2.

Below is our setup for routing calls:

01* (geographical) Daytime via Call18866
01* (geographical) Evening/W'end via CPS

0845* (non-geographical) via BT

087* (0870 & 0871 – non-geographical) Daytime via Call1899
087* (0870 & 0871 – non-geographical) Evening/W'end via CPS

07* (mobile numbers) Daytime via Call1899
07* (mobile numbers) Evening/W'end via CPS

09* (premium rate numbers) via CPS

Directory Enquiries (118 111) via CPS

Our CPS (Carrier Pre-Selection) is OneTel as they're offering free evening&weekend geographical calls with no monthly fee(#) for 12 months, along with £20 call credit and free calls to Directory Enquiries 118 111.

(#) You are in fact charged the monthly fee but then you get a credit for the same amount back each month - effectively making it free. You have to sign up before end of this month (March) though.

As mentioned before, the above is what we use but you mention you have 200 xnet anytime mins mobile contract so in that case I'd use that for expensive calls (like mobiles) until you think you are getting close to the 200mins and then start using one of the above mentioned telephone carriers.

Edinburghlass_2

Have to assume that the £26.80 is BT Line Rental for one quarter with VAT added at the end.

Also presume the other charges are the broadband fees?

Best suggestion is go and sign up to BT online and check what packages you are signed up for on there and check the prices.