cheap calls to mobiles

[antibt]

Through Telediscount it costs only 10p/pm.

[MegaTsunami]

so does www.call18866.com

[BexTech]

And only 2p/min at weekends

[antibt]

But you need a credit card and they can help themselves and you will never be able to cancel the card D/D.

[squidgy]

But you need a credit card and they can help themselves and you will never be able to cancel the card D/D.

Hmm - you're not very trusting are you? Is the company based in the UK? If it comes to it - you could always refuse to pay the credit card bill. I assume you're not paying your credit card bill by continuous authority transaction on another credit card.

[antibt]

Hi, people react according to their past experience.I was one of those unfortunates when I was with localtel.

[nomadicjon77]

Try www.pocketdialuk.com - No credit cards - reliable services as regulated by ICSTIS (Independent Committee for the Supervision of
Standards of Telephone Information Services). You can also call abroad from a mobile for as little as 1p/min with them!

[squidgy]

Here's a better idea. If you're at home, then use your mobile to send a text message telling your friend to go find a payphone, and call your fixed phone number, but then hang up straight away after the first ring so they get their money back. You then get the payphone's number by dialling 1471, then call it back.

Chances are you'll be able to do that for a lot less than 2p per minute. I suggest Tiscali or Equitalk - £4.99 per month gets you unlimited evening and weekend calls to UK geographic numbers, including payphones. Orange Text Saver gets you up to five texts to UK mobiles every day for a year, for £19.99

[squidgy]

but then hang up straight away after the first ring so they get their money back

Oh by the way - make sure that you don't have BT Answer 1571 on your line. Or if you do - then activate Call Waiting as well. There's always a chance that you'll be on another call when your mate calls from the payphone - and if you have 1571 but not call waiting, then he won't have a chance to hang up before losing his 20p. He might be quite miffed about traipsing out in the rain to talk to you if this happens too frequently, which means you're stuck with mobile termination rates again.

[silver]

assuming your friend has an inet connection (and you do also) then use an IP phone (something like netmeeting) - then the cost of the call is 'free' (well it's the same as your i'net connection cost).

There's some neat ones abt and the voice quality is as good or perhaps a little better than the phone (ok - there's generally a slight delay but you forget abt it once you are used to it).

Sil

[squidgy]

assuming your friend has an inet connection (and you do also) then use an IP phone (something like netmeeting) - then the cost of the call is 'free' (well it's the same as your i'net connection cost).

Good point - but so far, there's only one person I can think of who has fixed broadband internet access and a mobile phone but no fixed phone.

So I'm not sure how you hook it up with someone who has neither fixed phone nor fixed broadband at home - or who's away from home. I guess you could send them a text telling them to visit a cybercafe, or local library computer facility - and include your IP address or dynamic host name in the text message.

Perhaps that's a better way of doing it between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, when you don't get unmetered calls to public payphones - but when public libraries are also more likely to be open. Thanks for the suggestion silv.

[squidgy]

Actually silv's suggestion has given me an idea.

If you take your phone abroad - you normally have to pay to answer calls. But do you have to pay anything to receive text messages?

You see - I'm wondering if it's cheap and practical to use mobile phone text messages to set up cybercafe visits for travellers.

I bet people do this all the time and I've only just cottoned on to it.

[thefirs]

If you take your phone abroad - you normally have to pay to answer calls. But do you have to pay anything to receive text messages?

No it's free on the networks I use.

[squidgy]

I suspect that if you really want to make calls to mobiles as cheaply as possible, the best way is to get a mobile phone, unlock it, and get a pay as you go sim for each network. When you want to call a phone on a particular network, put the sim for that network in your phone before calling it.

This is probably the cheapest way of calling mobiles during weekdays but probably not the cheapest at the weekend. Will read up.

[squidgy]

Have just checked http://www.uswitch.com and http://www.magsys.co.uk - apparently Call 18866 are 10 per minute for all calls to mobiles during the week, and 2p per minute at the weekend! I can't find better than that, except for evening calls to Vodafone mobiles, which ought to be less than 7p per minute.

Call 18866 has 1p connection charge.

So I think the cheapest way to call mobiles is to sign up for Call 18866 - and wait until the weekend.

If you really can't wait until the weekend and think you're likely to talk for more than a few minutes each weekday, then unlock your mobile and get sims for Orange, Vodafone and O2.

• put the Orange SIM on the "Talk & Save" tariff
• put the Vodafone SIM on the "Smartstep" tariff
• put the O2 SIM on the "Talkalot" tariff
• don't bother getting a T-mobile SIM

Use the mobile phone with the relevant SIM if you think you're going to talk to Orange numbers or O2 numbers for more than 17 minutes in one day, or if you're going to talk to Vodafone numbers for more than 14 minutes in one day - otherwise, call from your home phone with the 18866 prefix.

It's never cheaper to call T-mobile numbers from a pre-pay mobile than from a BT fixed line.

[Danmancs]

On contract, Orange is £50 for 400 anytime any network minutes, which works out at 12.5p a min.

[BexTech]

T-Mobile 400 minutes any network:

£41 per month online - £46 offline.

[oldboy2000]

I use 18866 for all my calls on BT.....what a saving I am making. I know there are cheaper but you have to take into account all types of calls etc and 18866 seems to come out well.

[BexTech]

I use 18866 and Talk Talk, well I did until BT! decided to disconnect CPS to Talk Talk!!

Going to take 10 days for it to go back onto Talk Talk again, what a pain. So have to wait to make my free calls again.

[squidgy]

On contract, Orange is £50 for 400 anytime any network minutes, which works out at 12.5p a min.

That's a lot.

I've noticed that if you're talking to Virgin mobiles for more than ten minutes on a weekday, then it's cheaper to do it from a Virgin phone on "Flex tariff" than from your home phone on with 18866.

But it's still cheaper to wait until the weekend.

Not so sure about my idea of getting SIMs for all networks. Number porting means you can't tell what network a mobile number is on until you call it. T-mobile and 3 are the only networks that charge you the same for on- and off-network calls - though T-mobile is never cheaper than Call 18866. You need a separate phone for 3.

Still reading up ....

[squidgy]

It's never cheaper to call T-mobile numbers from a pre-pay mobile than from a BT fixed line.

I've changed my mind on that - if you make a lot of evening calls T-mobiles, then the "Mix-it" tariff is a good idea, £13.99 per month gets you 750 evening and weekend minutes to T-mobiles, plus 50 texts to any UK phone. That's equivalent 1.9p per minute - or less if you consider the texts to be worth something. Once you've used all 750 minutes up, any further evening calls to T-mobiles will be 5p per minute. There might be a minimum term, I'm not sure.

But don't use your Mix-it to call T-mobiles during the day, because it'll be 40p per minute. It would be cheaper to use a separate T-mobile SIM on pay-as-you-go tariff - but cheaper still to use Call 18866 from your BT home phone.

If you make lots of evening calls to O2 phones, then a Home 250 Bolt On for £4.99 a month isn't bad - 250 evening and weekend minutes to O2 phones, just under 2p per minute. Snag is - you have to use it from your home. They can trace the location you're using your mobile phone from - and if you take it out into the street, they'll charge you more. I don't think there's a minimum term, but I might be wrong. I think that once you've used your inclusive minutes up, you're charged at normal "talkalot" rates - but I might be wrong on that too.

If you make lots of evening calls to Vodafones, you're better off changing to "Smartplus" tariff - 5p per minute. You might find it's worth getting a 30 day voice pack, which gives you 20 minutes inclusive off-peak calls each day - that's 1.7p per minute until you've used them all up, and 5p per minute thereafter.

If you make lots of evening and daytime calls to Vodafones, it's best to have two separate Vodafone SIMs - one on "Smartstep" tariff, and one on "Smartplus" tariff with or without a 30 day pack. Use the Smartstep SIM for your daytime calls, and use the Smartplus SIM for your evening calls.

If you make lots of midweek calls to Orange phones or Virgin phones, then I can't see that you can do better than the Talk&Save and FlexTalk tariffs I've already suggested.

If you make lots of midweek calls to 3 phones - I think you have some very wealthy friends!

A lot of this information has been supplied by Carphone Warehouse.

[squidgy]

More about 3 ... personally I think that £15 a month is a lot to spend on mobile phone calls - but maybe you see it differently. With a £25 voucher, you get 500 minutes of calls to any network to use within a month of the date you activate it - that's 5p per minute. With a £35 voucher, you get 750 minutes - that's about 4.6p per minute.

Snag is, you can't use your existing phone. But if you make lots of calls to 3 or Orange or Virgin, then 3's off-network rate knocks spots off Orange's and Virgin's on-network rate. But T-mobile Mix-It, O2 Home 250 bolt-ons and Vodafone Smartplus with a 30 day pack still give off-peak on-network rates that often beat the 3 off-network rate.

I bet this will all be different in a month's time. Personally I'm just going to wait until the weekend and use Call 18866 from my home phone instead.

[Danmancs]

Squidgy,

What would be best in this scenario - I'm on Orange, I want to make calls to other orange phones and other mobile networks, but I want to do it from my mobile. I dont want to use the BT line because it's shared in my house and I want some privacy, I dont want to have more than one phone, although I'd consider getting another sim card to put in. Ideal solution is to dial an access number from my mobile.

Any suggestions?

Dan.

[squidgy]

Ideal solution is to dial an access number from my mobile.

Incredibly good idea - I never thought of that before.

If you only want to get one other SIM - then T-mobile pay-as-you-go is good. No call to any UK mobile phone is ever more than 30p per minute. The first 33 minutes of calls each month to any UK network are 30p per minute, the next 50 minutes are 20p per minute, and it's 10p per minute thereafter.

If you're on Orange Talk & Save, then it'll cost you 25p per minute for the first three minutes to call that access number, then 5p per minute thereafter. Off-network calls are 40p per minute. So it's not worth using an access number to talk for less than 3 minutes a day unless it charges less than 15p per minute - or 5p per minute if you have a T-mobile SIM.

According to Magenta Systems - "Easy Dial" has an 020 access number, and is 15p per minute to all UK mobile networks in the evening, and 6p per minute at the weekend. "Just Phone" has an 020 access number, and is 19p per minute to all UK mobile networks at all times.

So, using Easy Dial in the evening on Talk & Save would be 40p for the first 3 minutes, then 20p thereafter. At the weekend, it would be 31p for the first 3 minutes, then 11p thereafter.

A BT street payphone charges 19.4p per minute to call any UK mobile network at the weekend, if you pay with coins - though it's more expensive during the week. Calling a UK geographic number with coins costs 10.9p per minute at all times. If you use a credit card at a street payphone, the charge rates are much higher.

I don't know if it's possible to use a street payphone to call the Easy Dial 020 access number - but if it is, then evening calls to UK mobiles work out at 25.9p per minute, and weekend calls are 16.9p per minute.

Hmmm.

If you make calls on most days of the month, but don't want to worry about what network each number is on, then you're probably better off getting a T-mobile SIM and using it for all your calls to mobiles rather than try to faff about with 020 access numbers on Orange Talk & Save - though it's usually better to make calls to geographic numbers on Talk & Save.

Sorry that's a bit vague - but I've just hit upon another idea ...

[Danmancs]

Bear in mind also though, that Orange allows you to dial 0800 numbers for free, unlike other networks, so how does one-tel sound with a free access number, then 19p Peak, 14.5 off-peak, then 6p weekend?

[Danmancs]

actually less on some of their other packages...

[Danmancs]

actually depends who you are calling....

http://www.onetel.co.uk/index.php/ca...lk/view,mobile

[oldboy2000]

For the calls I make 18866 are the cheapest!
USA 1pmin..... Mobile 1pmin
Turkey 10p min.... Mobile 15pmin
UK 1p min.... Mobile 10p min.... Weekdays Sat & Sun 2pmin
Australia & New Zealand 1p min.

[squidgy]

Have just tried to find out about Easy Dial. Apparently Magenta Systems listing is wrong. It's not 6p per minute to call UK mobiles at the weekend. It's not even 15p per minute during the week. Apparently it's 19p per minute at all times. Oh well ... will read up a bit more.

[squidgy]

Bear in mind also though, that Orange allows you to dial 0800 numbers for free, unlike other networks

Really? Does that apply to the Talk&Save tariff too?