Set up charge

darwinian

Hallo, this is my first post so I hope I'm doing it right.
Does anyone know of a phone company that doesn't charge a set up fee? I've just seen it on my mum's bill. BT charge 15p as soon as the line is connected unless it's a call made during her 'free calls'. She hardly ever uses the free calls, in fact she doesn't often use the phone. Do any companies just charge minute by minute for calls that are made without having to have one of their 'packages', which seem to cost my mum a lot of money. Her calls last quarter were £38, £19 of that was set up fees!

macman

Calls to what numbers? For £7 a month she could be on an Anytime package that would give her inclusive calls to UK landlines 24/7 (up to one hour). So a straight saving of £68 pa. BT is of course expensive-most providers charge about £5.50 for Anytime.
She cannot 'hardly ever use the phone' if she is spending £38 a quarter on top of her existing inclusive (not free) calls.

jrawle

This is the phone companies' business model these days. They want you to pay for a package of inclusive calls, then charge you through the nose for calls made outside of that time. They also want to fleece people who make short calls, or who get through to an answering service (the main reason I hate voicemail) with their call setup fee.

I recommend your mother uses a service such as 18185, where calls cost 5p at any time. BT may eventually block such services, but for the moment it's worth using. You don't tell us her age, but as you are dealing with her affairs I guess she's an older person, so the question is whether she will remember to dial 18185 before making a call.

Ian01

Under Ofcom's "simplifying non-geographic numbers" proposals, the connection fee currently levied on 084, 087 and 09 calls made from landlines will be scrapped. Calls to these numbers will instead have a minimum call fee (probably the same as a one minute call).

Whether Ofcom will extend this thinking at a later date, such that it also covers calls made to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, is open to conjecture.

jhp

The Phone Coop http://www.thephone.coop/home/phone-only/#/call_tariffs

have the Caller Plus Tariff
.
No monthly charge.
Per-second billing.
No connection fee.
Low minimum charge of 1.2p.

Ian01

That's an interesting tariff. It has a different price for local 01/02 calls and for national 01/02 calls. I haven't seen that arrangement elsewhere since about 2004.

Additionally, 03 numbers are charged at the same rate as a call to a local 01/02 number. If a distant business has an 03 number as well as a normal 01/02 number, it is cheaper to call the 03 number.