Lebara hidden charges

Poita

After being on a high tariff phone contract with EE for few years, I realised that my phone was paid off and I also do most of my calls and internet use on my phone via my home internet as I'm working from home.
So I decided to get the cheapest phone contract possible. 
This seemed to be a Lebara month by month sim only contract where I pay £4.99pm and get unlimited minutes to UK mobiles and land lines, unlimited texts and 3gb of internet data (as well as 100 minutes international calls).
I thought this was pretty good until I tried to make a call to a landline the other day and the service refused to put me through unless I paid money into a 'top up'. 
I called Lebara and was told that if I call a shop or an office or some other business or government agency, the 'unlimited minutes to land lines' does not apply and I have to buy top up and be charged 25p per minute to talk. 
This was mentioned nowhere in their promotion. Though I'm sure it was embedded in some micro text in their T&C somewhere. 
Needless to say, I will be switching to a different service at the end of this month's billing cycle; especially as I just spent an entire hour on hold with my HSBC business account number (only to get cut off when they did pick up). Fortunately the Lebara charges only seem to work with some offices etc and not all. 

Now I think about it, when he explained that I would be charged for calling offices and businesses etc he specifically used 'Universal Credit' as an example. 
This makes me think that they have noticed that there has been a great increase in people calling the UC office and likely many of them being on hold burning through Lebarra bandwidth and they have decided to charge those most vulnerable people. 
At most generous, this could be seen as a difficult spot Lebara found themselves in and needed to find a way to make their low prices viable. At worst it could be seen as a predatory hidden charge. 

getmore4less

What number prefix was it?

Not that small print. 

https://mobile.lebara.com/gb/en/rates

UK landline calls are those made to area codes 01, 02 and 03, excluding the Channel Islands and Isle of Man along with personal (business) mobile numbers 070.

Poita

Yeah that rates listings is clear. Only, that's not the one that was shown for my contract. 
It just said, 'calls within the UK unlimited minutes'. It didn't mention any exceptions. 

getmore4less

HSBC business customer service is an 03 so should be included.

molerat

Universal Credit is an 0800 number so included. Exactly what prefix did you dial ?

Poita

I didn't dial UC. That was just the number he gave as an example. 
I don't remember the number exactly. I'm trying to buy a 125cc bike but they are practically sold out all over the UK so I called several places

eDicky

Poita said:

I don't remember the number exactly.

Try looking in your call log then. Some businesses still use non-geographic phone numbers beginning with 08, such as 0870 (although there's now usually an 03 alternative) - if you called such a number it would not be included in your unlimited UK minutes, as would be the case with any network that you might switch to.

robbo87

Poita,  Your  "£4.99pm and get unlimited minutes to UK mobiles and land lines, unlimited texts and 3gb of internet data (as well as 100 minutes international calls)." sounds very very similar to the 'MSE Lebara 3GB' which i got in May'21. 

I've also had errors which have turned out to be billing system problems.

Supposedly this was £2.50pm for 3m then £5pm. In practice they took the 1st months money, didn't create the ac properly and dropped the connection after 30d as it was - in their billing system -  payg requiring 'topup'.. The only way back from paying the sort of call etc charges you mention was by contributing an extra £5 to (re)activate the MSE a/c. I was promised by CUS that they would equalise by not billing the next month. Not so. They now say they are only able to bill full rate and can't 'refund' until the mis-billing has occurred. At least that's the current story from Lebara CUS. No doubt it will change again next time I call and speak with someone else.

Suggest the OP call lebara 5588 and make sure lebara actually have registered the ac properly. 

jnm21

I have several (3) family members actively on Lebara for some time & have no problems to report (I have also used them from time to time, as has my wife).

That said it is a shame that some have issues.  If you have proof of the promise to give a free month after the £5 2nd month, if they refuse to honour it, try a credit card charge back?