Three overcharging me for international calls

sgbenaim

Three have charged me a very large amount for some international calls to a landline in Israel because they have charged me as if it is a “special number” so they charge £ 2.75 a minute instead of 19p.

What can I do about it? If they insist it was a special number, how can I prove otherwise, especially given that the person I speak to will likely have no idea which numbers are “special” in a small overseas market.

unforeseen

Is it one listed at http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL/,/?New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=CaseDoc,Case=obj(31080)

Frozen_up_north

Overseas calls of any kind are potentially very expensive, other than to a UK mobile roaming overseas.

While calling an overseas landline is sometimes unavoidable, the “free” alternatives of email, FaceTime, Skype to Skype, WhatsApp, etc. all avoid getting ripped off. If you really need to call Israel on landline numbers, it might be better value to use one of the discount companies. For example, I used to use 1899.com who charge 2p per min to a landline in Israel.

We have friends in Spain and Australia and generally manage to communicate at zero cost.

sgbenaim

unforeseen said:

Is it one listed at http://support.three.co.uk/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBISAPI.DLL/,/?New,Kb=Mobile,Ts=Mobile,T=CaseDoc,Case=obj(31080)

No, it’s not listed there, so they shouldn’t be charging it at the higher rate.

Thank you!

jnm21

@sgbenaim rebtel seem to offer unlimited calls to a specific country from £4/mth - they are on both topcashback.co.uk & Quidco with £4 minimum (equiv. to 1st month free).  They also offer 1 week free, but you may miss out on the cashback if you go that route (1 week free in the hand vs 1 month free possibility - you need to make the call).