Home phone stuff - a summary, with thanks to all those that have given me advice

sallen2

Some things you can do to save money, and have some fun ! – why ? "because you can" and its free.


Read the articles and forums on https://www.moneysavingexpert.com

Stay with BT for line rental, but make sure you are on the basic, lowest cost package. You could rent the wires off other companies, but BT are the only line provider that have to let you use other call providers (such as 18866) preventing some of the options below.

Check out TalkTalk and OneTel etc for free offers of their packages, such as evening and weekend calls. These are “carrier pre select” providers (CPS) where all calls are charged to them, unless you choose otherwise for a particular call. Don’t pay for a CPS provider though if there aren’t any deals to get it for free on a trial, eg for a year.

Get an incentive payment by being referred to these, either from a friend or sites like https://www.greasypalm.co.uk

Sign up for both https://www.call1899.co.uk and https://www.call18866.co.uk. Currently, the former is cheaper for mobiles and the latter for landlines. Use these for landlines when you aren’t getting free calls with CPS. You can also access these services from your mobile if you are paying high rates to call other networks.

Use a call checker for calls to abroad. There is one on moneysavingexpert. Expect to pay 1p per minute for Spain, USA etc using a “dial through” number, where you dial a 084 number (paying your call provider the p/min) and then dial again when you hear the message. These calls may well be cheaper with BT, so if you have a CPS, then force the call back onto BT by using 1280. You can use a dial through for calls to mobiles, typically at 10p/min.

Now think about using your pc to make Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls. You can use a built in microphone and speakers, but its better with a headset, a VoIP handset or even a bluetooth earpiece. Download Firefly (third party version) from https://www.virbiage.com (there are other “softphones”, eg 1899 have their own but its not as flexible, and some others are more complicated than Firefly). This works great with broadband, not so sure if you have dial-up.

VoIP handsets connect by USB and some have keys and an LCD display linked to the Firefly directory. You can get a VoIP connection on your router but I don’t have any experience of that.

With Firelfy, you can make calls which are charged to your 1899 or 18866 account, currently without the 2 or 3p connection charge (so that landline calls are completely free at any time of day). The number that shows as Calling Line Identity (CLI) on the receiving phone can be chosen by you from any of the numbers you have listed on your 1899 / 18866 account (even if its not yours – think about this !).

You can get yourself (for free, none of this is about paying out) a landline number with any geographic prefix from https://www.sipgate.co.uk. Calls to these numbers are answered on your pc, or if you aren’t online go to a voice mail recorder which emails you the message as a .wav file to play on your pc in windows media player etc.

And finally, get back at those who make you use 084 and 087 (non geographic numbers) to contact them. Get one for yourself which is diverted to your home phone from https://www.contactnumbers.com. Why ? because insurance companies, banks, etc then pay up to 8 p/min and you get 2.5 p/min of that ! That’s better than “free”

ps I’m not qualified to give financial advice, but thanks again to all those that have given me advice on this great site

Edinburghlass_2

Nice post sallen, thank you!

Nothing much to add except please try and go through the MSE links to greasypalm, onetel etc as these links give a small contribution to MSE which enables Martin to keep MSE ad-free, fun the forums and donate money to charity on an annual basis.

bbb_uk

I agree great post but don't forget to visit the excellent site SayNoTo0870 for those trying to search for the geographical number (those beginning 01 & 02) of these companies (banks, etc) that use 0845/0870 numbers.

If necessary, you are able to submit any geographical numbers you find for a company that uses one of these 0870 numbers.

Thanks to this post, I'm seriously thinking of getting a 0871 number and giving it to only those companies who themselves operate 0870/0871 numbers.

Thanks again!