Signing up for call1899/18866/18185

Lady_K

They should put a different date in it then usually I have the money in but I've had a lot of bills lately and just today I havent

misterjohn

I have tried to ring my mother-in-law in Cameroon using both 18185 and 18866. Although both sites claim that the charge is 4p per minute, they transfer you to sites which are considerably dearer.
So the earlier post from eagle is correct, I believe, and heinz is probably wrong.
I use a BT landline, as we don't have cable in this part of the world.
I think that these cheap numbers are OK for inland calls, and very good for weekend mobiles, but that their international service outside Europe is questionable.

Heinz

misterjohn wrote: »

I have tried to ring my mother-in-law in Cameroon using both 18185 and 18866. Although both sites claim that the charge is 4p per minute, they transfer you to sites which are considerably dearer.
So the earlier post from eagle is correct, I believe, and heinz is probably wrong.

I could well have been wrong about calling Cyprus mobiles but, as eagle never came back in response to my earlier post on this thread, I can't be sure.

In the case of calling Cameroon though, you are certainly right. I've never heard anything like that "It isn't possible to ring this number via 18185 at the moment. Please try again on the following number 0871 9992525" announcement on 18185 before.

0871 999 25 25 appears to be one of Budgetcom's (although their 20p/minute 0911 219 9199 number comes up on the MSE Callchecker when rates to Cameroon landlines are requested and, strangely, I can't even find a rate for calls to 0871 999 numbers on the BT Specialised Numbers Price List).

I'll report these posts to Callchecker Admin. If that announcement is a permanent feature, I agree the 4p rates shouldn't be appearing on the MSE International Callchecker.

Lady_K

Lady_K wrote: »

I recieved my invoice from 1899 today 1st june at 5 35am. It states on it that it will be taken out of my account on or just after 1st June. This is a bit late notice isnt it? My transactions on any day go out at 3am in the morning with my bank so sending me an email on 1st June at 5.35am is not going to cover that.

I didnt have the amount in this morning to cover the bill arent they supposed to give so many days notice? I hope this has not sent me overdrawn I wont know for a few days

How much notice should they give is it by law?

Just want to say that my balance went down today in my account from 1899 on the day they sent my invoice I'm really furious about it. It wasn't in this morning so I transfered the amount in just in case and it was taken out before the end of the day

misterjohn

Heinz wrote: »

I could well have been wrong about calling Cyprus mobiles but, as eagle never came back in response to my earlier post on this thread, I can't be sure.

In the case of calling Cameroon though, you are certainly right. I've never heard anything like that "It isn't possible to ring this number via 18185 at the moment. Please try again on the following number 0871 9992525" announcement on 18185 before.

0871 999 25 25 appears to be one of Budgetcom's (although their 20p/minute 0911 219 9199 number comes up on the MSE Callchecker when rates to Cameroon landlines are requested and, strangely, I can't even find a rate for calls to 0871 999 numbers on the BT Specialised Numbers Price List).

I'll report these posts to Callchecker Admin. If that announcement is a permanent feature, I agree the 4p rates shouldn't be appearing on the MSE International Callchecker.

Thank you for getting rid of the 4p rates which are come-ons at best, cons at worst.
However...

My wife, another user of this site , has tried to phone her mum using the numbers that are now listed as the cheapest ways to phone Cameroon. So far all of them, such as 0871 5514242, have redirected her to an 0911 number, or other numbers where the charge per minute is at least 15p.

I'm sure that this happens with other countries, and wonder whether this is a planned fiddle.

I've had no problem with 18185 calling mobiles in the UK, calling my sister in Spain for 1p per minute, or my sister-in-law in France. It strikes me that there is something dubious about some of these phone companies, and that they are promising things they cannot deliver.
I appreciate that MoneySavingExpert can't check all these companies' claims and call charges, but perhaps a note of caution about prospective savings needs to be provided, and some way of letting the administrator know when the web sites of these providers are telling porky pies. It's a bit late to find out that a promised 8p per minute is really 25p per minute, as happened in one case, when you do need to make an urgent call.

misterjohn

Ther are still companies pretending to offer calls at a lowish rate, according to the International call checker, and on their web sites.
But the reality is that they redirect you to more expensive numbers, having no doubt taken 10p or more of our money first.

I think that Ofcom should monitor these services.

Heinz

Yes, I agree that's devious.

Anyone coming across such a thing with a number in the Callcheckers, please post full details in the International and UK Callchecker Discussion Area thread so that Callchecker Admin can be told (they'll then try to modify the nightly 'trawl' to remove the offending entry).

aeuerby

Lady_K wrote: »

Just want to say that my balance went down today in my account from 1899 on the day they sent my invoice I'm really furious about it. It wasn't in this morning so I transfered the amount in just in case and it was taken out before the end of the day

I had the same thing with call18866 last year and it did send me overdrawn. I had no chance of covering the bill as it was taken out the same day the invoice was sent.

I changed to 1899 shortly after and as yet have not had the same problem but I also linked it to our business account which (nearly!) always has enough money in it to cover such short notice bills!

Lady_K

aeuerby wrote: »

I had the same thing with call18866 last year and it did send me overdrawn. I had no chance of covering the bill as it was taken out the same day the invoice was sent.

I changed to 1899 shortly after and as yet have not had the same problem but I also linked it to our business account which (nearly!) always has enough money in it to cover such short notice bills!

Even though I sent an email about it saying how angry I was that they put me in such a position they have never replied at all which is really bad. They cant even apologise, aknowledge thier error or make any attempt to alter the way they do things either

MothballsWallet

I tried signing up to 18185.co.uk using Firefox, and their site doesn't work.
After reading here, I tried Internet Explorer, and it worked a treat.
They really need to design their site so it will work with any browser, and not just the standard Microsoft fare.