Cheapest Home Phones Call Price Article 12 September 2004 at 6:23PM edited 30 November -1 at 12:00AM in Phones & TV 102 replies 8.7K views

MSE_Martin

To discuss the following article Cheapest Home Call Providers please click reply

gt94sss2

I just wanted to highlight one part of the article..

However, during September TalkTalk has a special ‘no monthly fee’ offer on its free evenings & weekends service, making it the top pick. Then you’d dial the prefixes for daytime landline calls, international calls, and all calls to mobiles, but use TalkTalk direct for the others.

As its very easy to miss - since its more than halfway down the article.

Also regular readers of this forum will know that if you join TalkTalk and referred by an existing customer you both get £10 - however, those just coming here following the link in the article won't. know about this.

As such, if anyone wants to join TalkTalk and would like to be referred, please see the link in my signature for details or just send me a PM

Also, if your friends/family are on TalkTalk as well you can call each other free all the time (not as big as a saving as it was with 18866 at only 1p/call but its something!)

Regards
Sunil
PS Of course, you can continue to use 18866/1899 as well to benefit from the best of both worlds

pjohnson

I use call18866 with TalkTalk 2 as described in Martins' article and to help with this I have purchased a V4 dialler from Orchid Electronics. See the topic "Auto prefix dialler" for information. Some of the Orchid telephones also have the V4 dialler software inbuilt.
Regards
Peter

allthatmularky

Have to agree with Sunil that the TalkTalk reference is 'hidden' in the text. Would have thought that the TalkTalk & 18866/1899 combination would have been 'screaming' from the article.
Martin - just an observation - I think you're probably far better qualified than I on writing articles.
Just one final observation - could we not use an email address and get the referrals of £10 for charity ? No disrespect to Sunil and others who spend time helping others in this forum, but it would be good, to 'contribute' to say the folks involved in the Russian disaster.

gt94sss2

Have to agree with Sunil that the TalkTalk reference is 'hidden' in the text. Would have thought that the TalkTalk & 18866/1899 combination would have been 'screaming' from the article.

Yes, especially as its a £82 saving over what you would pay BT (including the £10 referral payment) for a year of this tariff

Just one final observation - could we not use an email address and get the referrals of £10 for charity ? No disrespect to Sunil and others who spend time helping others in this forum, but it would be good, to 'contribute' to say the folks involved in the Russian disaster.

If you read the thread in my signature, giving details of the referral scheme that I posted - while I obviously hope I will get any referrals - you will see that lisyloo offers to give here £10 to the boards nominated charities (unfortunately I can't afford doing this myself!)

I don't know anyone offering to do anything similar for the recent events in Russia though

Regards
Sunil

MSE_Martin

There are reasons for the way the article has been written. Most of those who will use a combination will have followed the forum notes.

The article has been written for some longevity - after this month the Talk Talk option disappears. Also it's important people understand how 18866 operates. The article is already 1400 words long which is 600 more than i would like ideally.

Hence the Talk Talk reference is in there, but deliberately in an advanced note. For most first timers the concept of grabbing hold of 18866 etc is the priority. So now you know my thinking

martin

Kimbo

18866 appear to have just put up their rates for calls from cable customers - now 0.5p/min to landlines - calls to mobiles have also gone up. Talk about short-lived!!!!

MSE_Martin

Quite correct they have

I've just amended my article

Whilst NTL or Telewest users can access the services, they need to dial a full freephone number not just a prefix, and prices can differ e.g. call18866 charges 0.5p/min to call landlines this way.

They say its because running the freephone numbers is more expensive. It has put details about it on its site. See here

Call1899 doesn't seem to have done the same yet. However it doesn't mean it won't. There are no notes on its website, however if cable users of 1899 can check and report back here, that'd be great.

martin

jpieter

It looks just like non BT residential customers are being used to fund the other users. I am an NTL user and I am very annoyed with NTL for putting a levy on.
Does anyone know of another Supplier that does not charge? I know that 1899 charge nothing for their calls ,but how long before they have to put the price up?

gt94sss2

This is not NTL putting a levy on as such... just that it is more expensive to operate a 0800 number than a prefix.

Its just a shame that cable companies are not forced to alow prefixes like BT is.

Of course, the easy solution is move your line to BT  ;)

Regards
Sunil

jpieter

I have now signed up with 1899 and I am again enjoying free phone calls,but for how long???