Cost of Lebrara calls to Isle of Man from mainland UK

peter021072

The Lebrara T&C state for contracts with inclusive minutes state

UK minutes can be used to call UK landlines and mobile phone numbers beginning with 01, 02, 03 and 07 (excl. the Channel Islands and Isle of Man).

however on checking what calls do cost to the Isle of Man there's no information.  The Lebrara helpline appears to use a chatbox. When first asked the question, it tells me the cost of an add on which seems to be for calling from whilst in the Isle of Man. When specifically asked about calling from the UK to the Isle of Man prefix numbers 0162 landline and 0762 mobile, it implies these are inclusive minutes, which seems to contradict the T&C above.  Has anyone else use Lebrara for calling from the UK mainland into one of these Islands who can confirm this? 

peter021072

For information, in case anyone else who is considering buying a Lebrara package to phone the Isle of Man.

I managed to contact a real person from Lebrara who 'confirmed' with the chatbox that calls to both the above numbers would be included in the free minutes. This turned out to be half correct.

On phoning an Isle of Man number with a 0762 prefix, Lebrara (to their credit) issue a pre-message stating calls to that number are charged at a premium rate so mobiles AREN'T included in the free minutes, so I hung up. Then I dialled the Isle of Man 0162 landline prefix, and no such message was announced, so I continued with the call. On checking my account details later on, no extra charge was made, and the minutes were deducted as if they were a standard mainland call. So these landline calls ARE included in the Lebrara free minutes for my monthly package (3GB MSE Exclusive Monthly Plan).

Why this complication? Probably because the Isle of Man is not part of the UK nor of the EU, despite being part of the +44 numbering system, and they use Manx Telecom or Sure Isle of Man.

PHK

Mobile numbers in the IOM technically fall into the radiopaging category. The Channel Islands fall into the Mobile Services category. 

If you look at the Lebara Tariff page, part way down you’ll see a table for special numbers. Tapping  in the row for special numbers beginning 07 will open a list. Look down the list and you’ll see 07624 is 15p plus 39p a minute. 

07624 is Manx Telecom and Sure. 

peter021072

I've just attempted to call an Isle of Man landline on Lebara again, this time it refused my call without a top up, unlike my call in June 2024 which came out of inclusive minutes.  I asked Lebara to check my records to prove that they used to include these from the UK to a Isle of Man landline. Unfortunately, the phone records only go back 3 months.  Lebara, claim there has been no change to the terms, but did give me a £5 credit which will last 20 minutes.  It's very frustrating.

Edit 2, My phone log contains 3 calls to an Isle of Man Landline number 01624 ****** on the 29 June, 28 Aug and 27 Sep 2024, two of these were for more than 20 minutes. I've never bought a top up from Lebara and they have always been my sole mobile company whilst I've had this phone, so these will have been from the inclusive minutes.

I also enquired about this issue to Lebara's helpline back in June of last year and took a screenshot.  Admittedly, the response is slightly garbled but I think this confirms it. The file is labelled 27 June 2024. 

movedto03

Some of the rates are linked from here:
https://www.lebara.co.uk/en/rates.html
See the notes at the bottom of the page. 

Most phone providers have very poor quality information. It is often incomplete, and fails to list the applicable prefixes.

In some cases, it still includes prices for number ranges that ceased to exist years, or decades, ago.

Lebara's rates include pricing for numbers that have never existed.
 

peter021072

Thanks

The relevant bit seems to be here: 

• Calls from the UK to Jersey, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man will be charged at 25p per minute starting from 3rd March 2025

Unfortunately on their chat they insisted that nothing had changed, which is incorrect. It seems I will be using Whatsapp from now on!