Using 18185 with Virgin Media

jonnyb1978

I am paying £15 a month for my broadband and am very happy with the service i have recieved. Our phone bill was coming in at £85 a quarter which has now been reduced through using 18185 but still paying £11 line rental with BT. Thats £26 a month plus calls

Virginmedia are offering a phone with unlimited weekend landline call (including line rental) and broadbrand for £20 a month.

Now if i have done my calculations correctly my 18185 calls are on average £3.80 a month (allowing for 0870 numbers i have made last month which was over £1.50). I should be paying about £23 (max) monthly for broadband and phone including line rental and calls.

Does this seem a good offer?
Anybody know if the 18185 service will work on Virginmedia??

utilitybroker

If Virgin Media are offering you a landline in a package, that will be their expensive cable telephone service.

Yes you can use 18185 on Virgin Media (Cable) via an 0808 freephone gateway number but a different tariff applies. See

http://www.18185.co.uk/mobilerates.php

what?_2-2

I just phoned virgin media, and they told me 0800 is free, but 0808 is charged like an 0845 number. Apparently they were told to do this by ofcom last august. So that makes it 5p per minute.
Anyone know about this?

Heinz

Welcome to the MSE forums what?

I think the Virgin Media CS person who gave that information just didn't know - so made up an answer instead of finding out.

080x and 0500 numbers are all 'freephone' numbers and no landline provider should charge for calls to any of them. See paragraph 2.19 HERE.

i) Freephone Numbers

2.20 Most Freephone numbers begin with the digits ‘080' followed by a further 8 digits. However, you will also see Freephone numbers beginning with ‘0800', followed by only 6 digits. Additionally, you will also see Freephone numbers beginning with ‘0500', followed by a further 6 digits, although the amount of these in use is decreasing. Many Freephone numbers continue to be displayed as 0800 xxxxxx(x), but Freephone numbers beginning with the digits ‘0808' also exist.
2.21 Calls to Freephone numbers are usually free to the caller. However, mobile companies may charge you for calling Freephone numbers - your mobile provider should provide an announcement stating that you will be charged for the call before the call is connected.
2.22 Freephone numbers are mainly used by businesses in advertisements. Businesses are charged by their telecoms provider for the cost of any calls to their Freephone number.

BexTech

jonnyb1978 wrote: »

I am paying £15 a month for my broadband and am very happy with the service i have recieved. Our phone bill was coming in at £85 a quarter which has now been reduced through using 18185 but still paying £11 line rental with BT. Thats £26 a month plus calls

Virginmedia are offering a phone with unlimited weekend landline call (including line rental) and broadbrand for £20 a month.

Now if i have done my calculations correctly my 18185 calls are on average £3.80 a month (allowing for 0870 numbers i have made last month which was over £1.50). I should be paying about £23 (max) monthly for broadband and phone including line rental and calls.

Does this seem a good offer?
Anybody know if the 18185 service will work on Virginmedia??

You will end up paying more for your calls on VirginMedia.

Virgin Media are the dearest provider around, you will also be prevented from using the 18185 access number and would have to switch to using their 0808 number, this means instead of 01 or 02 numbers costing you 5p for the entire call, you will be paying 1p/min + connection.

If you are happy with your broadband I'd stay how you are. Though look into adding Primus Saver 2 (no monthly fee) to get your evening and weekend calls to 01 and 02 numbers for free.

what?_2-2

thanks for that! ill read it then ring them back.

Yeah i know i'll pay more, but i have a wireless DSL router, so i'd have to buy a new ADSL router. If that works out cheaper i'm gonna switch. Still looking into that!

cheers for all the help.

hurrah

They have started blocking access numbers and they could block the 18185 0808 one.

Code: 0808 170
Type: Service
Use: Freephone Services
Operator: Connect Telecom UK
Tariff Band: No fee (inc VAT)
Service: Service

You must be brave switching to them.:D

BexTech

We have broadband and the old starter TV free with VirginMedia (had the offer of the free TV extended) but we dumped cable for phone service over 5 years ago when they became a rip-off.

Also dumped the BT line a while back now and use VoIP.

Virgin need to look at their phone service, but doubt they will do much, as they have said in the last few results they simply plan to try and force people to take the phone package and charge more for calls outside a package.

what?_2-2

No, i'm already with virgin, if buying a new router works out cheaper i'll switch back to bt.

I just spoke to them and they said that the people who's number it is set the price. So that's 3 different answers i've had in 3 calls.
Is there any other way i can find out how much it costs?
I just don't want to start using it, to find out i've been paying 5p a minute on calls that would have cost 3p.

billsavings

what? wrote: »

No, i'm already with virgin, if buying a new router works out cheaper i'll switch back to bt.

I just spoke to them and they said that the people who's number it is set the price. So that's 3 different answers i've had in 3 calls.
Is there any other way i can find out how much it costs?
I just don't want to start using it, to find out i've been paying 5p a minute on calls that would have cost 3p.

Trust me Freephone Numbers starting 0500/0800/0808 are FREE from UK Landlines.;)

BexTech

what? wrote: »

No, i'm already with virgin, if buying a new router works out cheaper i'll switch back to bt.

I just spoke to them and they said that the people who's number it is set the price. So that's 3 different answers i've had in 3 calls.
Is there any other way i can find out how much it costs?
I just don't want to start using it, to find out i've been paying 5p a minute on calls that would have cost 3p.

If it's an 0808 number then like 0800 and 0500 they will be free.