UK's Cheapest Home Phone Calls Provider/MoneySavingExpert.com Discussion

Daisy

On the uswitch site, it says that for Just Dial, calls to mobile phones are capped at 20p for 20mins at evenings and 15p for 20mins at weekends making it 1p/min or less to call a mobile. Is this the cheapest?

Heinz

David_Mee wrote:

Daytime calls seems to be the biggest saving now - whats BT charging those at?

From a residential line on BT Together Option 1 (most of us), they charge 3p per minute to any other UK 01 or 02 number (minimum charge of 5p). So a 1899, 18185 or 18866 call is always cheaper.

joemack

I have sent 18866 an e.mail to say that I and a lot more people will cancel now they have increased there charges for the second time in 6 months, I think we all should do this.

grannybev

I use these numbers to get cheap phone calls to my daughters in the UK and to parents and sisters in Canada. I usually call at the weekends, and in order to get around the time difference, the calls to Canada are in the late afternoon/early evening. Over the last couple of months, I have quite often found it impossible to get through, as immediately on dialling the special number, I get an engaged tone. In other words, these numbers have reached capacity at the weekends. I have tried contacting them by e-mail, but all I seem to get is a promise to put me on their mailing list for the newsletter. Is it possible that you could get them some feedback, letting them know that they are losing business by not having sufficient capacity at the weekends?

I first heard you on Talksport Radio in Autumn of 2004 and have found your advice about these phone lines particularly useful, also the advice about switching to 0% interest credit cards.

Heinz

grannybev wrote:

I use these numbers to get cheap phone calls to my daughters in the UK and to parents and sisters in Canada. I usually call at the weekends, and in order to get around the time difference, the calls to Canada are in the late afternoon/early evening. Over the last couple of months, I have quite often found it impossible to get through, as immediately on dialling the special number, I get an engaged tone. In other words, these numbers have reached capacity at the weekends. I have tried contacting them by e-mail, but all I seem to get is a promise to put me on their mailing list for the newsletter. Is it possible that you could get them some feedback, letting them know that they are losing business by not having sufficient capacity at the weekends?

You don't say whether you're using a BT or cable landline but, assuming the former, a check of the MSE Callchecker shows that 1899 charge 1p/minute to Canada at the moment and 18866 charge 2p/minute so both are beaten by 18185 (http://www.18185.co.uk/index2.php). Their price to Canada is ½p/minute.

OTOH, there are a good few dial through firms offering 1p/minute to Canada too:

Ratebuster 1p/min (08447202020)
Budgetcom 1p/min (08448612612)
DialAround 1p/min (08448617474)
Dialwise 1p/min (08448615050)
Abroadtel 1p/min (08447210001)
Bestminutes 1p/min (08448615959)
Phonebird 1p/min (08447212473)
DiscountDial 1p/min (08448616464)

NWOIHTS

Hi all

THis is my first time on the forums. I have been recieving the moneysaving email for quite a while. So hello everyone!

I have a query about obtaining a phone account, personal number and fax number in a shared house. It looks like y'all know a bit about these things! Here is the present situation:

House is BT with business broadband connection. I share the house with someone and am presently going about setting up a PC and fax machine and want my own phone number as well.

So what is the best way of going about setting this up with BT because I don't have a clue. I don't want to ask BT because they will probably just try to sell me the dearest and most confusing package.

Sorry for breaking into any discussions.

Regards

Andrew

Mikeyorks

grannybev wrote:

I use these numbers to get cheap phone calls to my daughters in the UK and to parents and sisters in Canada. I usually call at the weekends, and in order to get around the time difference, the calls to Canada are in the late afternoon/early evening. Over the last couple of months, I have quite often found it impossible to get through, as immediately on dialling the special number, I get an engaged tone. In other words, these numbers have reached capacity at the weekends. I have tried contacting them by e-mail, but all I seem to get is a promise to put me on their mailing list for the newsletter. Is it possible that you could get them some feedback, letting them know that they are losing business by not having sufficient capacity at the weekends?

I first heard you on Talksport Radio in Autumn of 2004 and have found your advice about these phone lines particularly useful, also the advice about switching to 0% interest credit cards.

Experienced the same for each of the past 3 Sunday evenings when calling UK landlines / mobiles. And the 'fault' is hard, not intermittent. Have reported as a fault on each occasion - but no response from 18866 to indicate whether this is transient or otherwise. Usually back to normal after 2200hrs - but lousy service whilst it persists.
Just beginning to look around for a viable alternative - so not pleased 1899 appears similar!

Heinz

Mikeyorks wrote:

Experienced the same for each of the past 3 Sunday evenings when calling UK landlines / mobiles. And the 'fault' is hard, not intermittent. Have reported as a fault on each occasion - but no response from 18866 to indicate whether this is transient or otherwise. Usually back to normal after 2200hrs - but lousy service whilst it persists.
Just beginning to look around for a viable alternative - so not pleased 1899 appears similar!

Can't you sign up to for a CPS which'll give you free weekend and evening UK 01/02 calls?

Sebastian

MumofThree wrote:

Just thought that you would like to know that as from today, with no e-mail to it's customers, Call1899 has raised it's rates for those of us using a non-BT line. Calls to UK landlines via the freephone number are no longer free but 0.5p a minute. Haven't had time to work out the impact of this but it is obviously going to cost significantly more than before when all you were paying for UK landline calls was the 3p connection charge.

I've been with TalkTalk for the last month or so (51p saved already! :snow_laug ) and use the 1899 prefix, mostly for evening calls, but also for some daytime calls. I still get the cheerful "Zero pence per minute!" price watch message at the start of each call, so is this price rise just for certain calls?

Heinz

Sebastian wrote:

I've been with TalkTalk for the last month or so (51p saved already! :snow_laug ) and use the 1899 prefix, mostly for evening calls, but also for some daytime calls. I still get the cheerful "Zero pence per minute!" price watch message at the start of each call, so is this price rise just for certain calls?

If you're dialling from a BT line using the 1899 prefix, there's been no price rise.

The price rise only applies to those on cable landlines who have to access 1899's system via the 08081 708 708 freephone number.