mobile free zone

itsfja

Hello all,
I have just been hit by a £400 telephone bill generated by my daughter in six weeks. The credit limit was automatically raised by BT and they informed me of the new DD of £272 per month.

I immediately asked for a total outgoing call bar whilst I found out what was going on. On discovering the source, I asked for all outgoing calls to mobiles to be barred, this apparantly cannot be done so I have kept the total block.

My question is;

Is it possible to have a provider that can be called on the BT line with all outgoing calls barred (0800 still works for example) that is prepared to implement a mobile telephone call bar?

Is this really too much to ask of a teleco?

All answers gratefully received.

Regards.

bbb_uk

Welcome.

You can bar mobile calls from BT.

If you take a look here and scroll down and click on the link "Guide to Calling Features" (or click here), you will see that it mentions you can also block calls to mobiles and for more information ring 0800 789 456.

Alternatively, if you purchase the v4 Orchid Dialler from Orchid Electronics, it costs a one off fee of about £15 and can be setup to block certain calls like international, mobiles, premium rate, 0845/0870, etc. It can also be used to route calls to cheaper providers like Call18866.co.uk / Call1899.co.uk, and more. In fact it can be setup to block mobiles but allow calls to a certain number range like your own and/or your daughters mobiles. For example, say your mobile was 07111 00 00 00 then you can allow it call numbers beginning 07111 00.... It can easily be overridden by dialling 121 or even setup your own override code (within reason).

Call barring will cost about £1.75 which equates to £21 per year but the orchid dialler is a one off fee and you can even set it up yourself.

Have you thought about changing from BT anyway and using other providers like TalkTalk/OneTel in conjunction with Call18866/Call1899, etc. If you read various other posts here, you will find a bit more information on these companies.

The Orchid Dialler is recommended by MoneySavingExpert Martin and if you look here for little more info (inc a 20% discount if you order online).

Heinz

bbb_uk wrote:

The Orchid Dialler is recommended by MoneySavingExpert Martin and if you look here for little more info (inc a 20% discount if you order online).

But, if you go the Orchid route, make sure there are no other sockets available for her to plug a £3.99 phone into and make sure the Orchid cannot just be unplugged for the same purpose!

bbb_uk

Heinz wrote:

But, if you go the Orchid route, make sure there are no other sockets available for her to plug a £3.99 phone into and make sure the Orchid cannot just be unplugged for the same purpose!

Good point but if your daughter isn't made aware of the fact its the dialler box thats blocking the calls I doubt she'll try and bypass it, or alternatively, if it can be hidden so she is not even aware anything has been fitted. Just say BT have blocked the calls.

If you have more than one telephone point though, you would need to buy another dialler though in which case it could be cheaper (in the shorter term) to have BT block it.

itsfja

bbb_uk wrote:

Welcome.

You can bar mobile calls from BT.

Thanks but the only reference for barring mobiles I can find also takes out International, National and Premium rate calls.

As luck would have it the telephones that I use are the Ranger 400 DECT handsets which have the orchid dialer V4 built in. I'm not too sure how much further this takes us unless the likes of 18866/Call1899 are dialable when outgoing calls are blocked. I think I need an 0800 provider.

Regards.

itsfja

itsfja wrote:

I think I need an 0800 provider.

Regards.

Ah - boxed. I can call 1899 via 0808 1 708 708.


Regards.

bbb_uk

itsfja wrote:

Thanks but the only reference for barring mobiles I can find also takes out International, National and Premium rate calls.

It does say they can block mobiles and for more info ring 0800 789 456. I have a friend that has mobiles blocked so I know they do it.

The links I provided were working yesterday they don't appear to work now. This appears to be a BT trick and my session with them is recorded and then timed out after a while which stops me from posting links because after a certain period these links 'expire' so to speak!

itsfja

bbb_uk wrote:

It does say they can block mobiles and for more info ring 0800 789 456.

I rang the number, it is just an explanation of calling services that can be found on here which essentially states;
Call Barring lets you stop calls being made to mobile, international, premium rate and national numbers.

Regards.