Mobile Phones

kingshir

I'm a dummy re this sort of thing so am sorry to use up your time but I just got to ask. I have a son in the forces who keeps in touch with family & friends by his mobile and his quarterly bills are big! Please can someone explain in little, simple words the best and cheapest way he can use his mobile (which is a contract one with [I think] vodaphone). Ta very much.

Edinburghlass_2

No dummies on here kingshir

However I am going to shift your post across to the Mobile Phone Board for more exposure and hopefully some helpfull answers.

andy88_2

Do you mean he's abroad a lot of the time?

MissG_2

Hi Kingshir,

Dont be silly everyone shares knowledge on here, thats what its all about!!

The best thing i can advise if you contact Vodafone with a general query and ask if there are any available value added services which will make his international calls cheaper. You may find he may have to pay a small monhtly charge for the privelidge but could save you quite a bit.

As an example O2 offer ITS (international traveller srevice) which can dramaticly reduce the cost of calls made/received whilst abroad.

Hope this helps

Regards

Kelly

kingshir

I'm sorry it has taken me so long to reply but I couldn't get logged on!!
I should have been more clear in my original message. No he isn't abroad he is generally here in England, but I keep seeing messages refering to saving money by using 1899 (or something like that) and I wondered what the company is and how it works. Thanks for responding btw.

andy88_2

If he's mostly in this country, can he ring mostly off-peak? You can get hundreds of minutes on any of the networks for fairly modest sums.

18866 and 1899 are similar to permanent calling card accounts, from a registered number. From mobiles, only Orange (contract) has free calls to the 08081 access number, then 1899 calls cost 3p to connect and free minutes. See the home phones board for more on these.

normski_2

Look at the Carphone Warehouse webiste. I'd suggest the NEC E616 £2.99 line rental for 12 months on Talk and text 600. If 600 minutes isn't enough then buy two!!

I presume he is just in his barracks when he calls and so dropped calls aren't an issue as the calls are with 3G.

It may be easier for you to receive the bills and reclaim the cashbacks as it may be difficult for your son to monitor the bills and send everything off at the right time.

System

Kingshir. Been there, done that, got the tee shirt. In other words "snap", I also have a daughter in the forces and yes, she too has learnt the hard way about phoning.

One thing about mobiles in the UK, from HER experience, one provider may work better than another, depending on the base. I don't know if it's all the electrical equipment or lack of masts, but on one base, BT mobile wouldn't operate,so she had a second phone (orange) and that worked perfectly, now on another base, things have reversed again. Even if he were to ask other servicemen of THEIR experiences, the siting of barracks can mean poor reception.

Something that you tend not to realise, is that on many service stations in UK, they have internet rooms, so that can help with emails etc.

When serving abroad, my daughter has a TRI band phone, which, depending on exactly where she is, will work fine. More often or not though, she will phone "caller collect" and I pay for the call.

Ref amount of free minutes. In my daughters particular case (and mine), and speaking about orange contracts. When are 1 yr contract was up, we rang orange 150 and requested to speak to "rententions dept", or "cancell contract dept". We said that the 120 cross network minutes for £15 per month wasn't sufficient but didn't really want to leave orange. We both had this increased to 240 mins for the same money. Each of us had a new upgrade phone (camera phone) and one months free use of that facility. Providing you don't get hooked on snapping away, that may be usefull, especially if he is abroad and you also have a camera phone.

Regarding 18866 & 1899, these companies that may well be associated with one another, primarily exist for "home phones", but can operate via mobiles, but I'm not able to guide you on this one. I do however, use both of these companies as providers, as well as talktalk, and my monthly telephone costs have reduced dramatically. There is much information on this elsewhere, but PM me if you think I can help more. Already I may have expanded too much.