Now that we've managed to whittle down most of our 0845/70 numbers, there are always some that we have to use, until we get the Geographic number to replace them that is.
Best Friend and Friends & Family discounts help to reduce the rate, but WHO's the cheapest overall ?  :o

...... and if there's a discount or handouts for suggesting a friend, why not let us all in on it. ;)

Onetel give you £2 for suggesting a friend (when they take up the service)

Check out my links page.

As far as I can tell, the cheapest company during the day is 18866.

0870 are 7p/min and 0845 are 3p/min

Daniel

Daniel so is this really the best we can do for competition compared to the BT 0870 NTS rate of 7.8p minute with a 5p minimum?  Are you sure you have checked out every provider listed at http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/ for 0870 NTS weekday daytime call prices?  I think you will find a couple at just under 7p per minute but the rest of those companies' call rates are not good so that's why they aren't really worth bothering with.

How can you call this any kind of competion compared to www.1899.com at 0.5p minutes (5p connection) or call18866.com at 1p per minute (1p connection) for all normal geographic numbers?  As far as I am aware these are in fact two different call price packages with the same swiss telecoms firm?

Surely the 0870 provider doesn't get 7p per minute from BT for taking the call?  They only get 2 or 3p per minute.  So where is the rest of the money going?  Or do www.call18866.co.uk and www.1899.com just earn more profit on routing these calls than they take on geographic numbers.

The mystery here needs delving into considerably further in my opinion

wrote on May 14^th, 2004 at 6:49am:

As far as I can tell, the cheapest company during the day is 18866.  0870 are 7p/min and 0845 are 3p/min

Information taken from Residential Telco comparison list, thanks to NonGeoMan for the link to Magenta Systems site. After studying the list, BT Off peak & Weekend 0845 rates & the Weekend 0870 are cheaper. The Xfone 0870 Day & Off peak rates seem to be the cheapest. 018866 & 1899 anytime rates (above)+connection charge makes them expensive.

BT 0845	Normal	F&F 10%	BF 20%	BT 0870	Normal	F&F 10%	BF 20%
Weekend	1p	.9p	.8p	Weekend	1.5p	n/a	n/a
Off Peak	1p	.9p	.8p	Off Peak	3.8p	n/a	n/a
Standard	3p	2.7p	2.4p	Standard	7.5p	n/a	n/a

Xfone 0845	Normal	Xfone 0870	Normal
Weekend	1.3p	Weekend	3.4p
Off Peak	1.3p	Off Peak	3.4p
Standard	3p	Standard	6p

Many like Telecom Plus and Tiscali dont show any rates because they just pass it through the same as BT, but without the discounts. (although Tiscali does give 3% call discount).

0870 calls: I found a few Telcos cheaper but they either had restrictions or additional charges.

Rates reflect 1st July BT changes. F&F discounts are not applicable to 0870 numbers, contrary to info given to me, but try finding it on the BT site - it's not easy  :-/  Thanks to AP below for pointing out the error.

Interesting post, DaveM, but I would rather see our energies spent in educating people to the fact that these 0870 (and to some extent 0845) should now be classified as 'premium numbers' as they are much more expensive than using 'geographic' numbers with a 'cheap carrier'.
At 7p/min to be put 'on hold' does not take long to run up enormous bills.  
But more power to your elbow researching the cheapest of an expensive lot!

If you are on Sky, and subscribe to their SkyTalk Service then they also represent good costs.

I'm on the 40 package, as I use the phone a lot.

They've just reduced it to £13.99 per month.

Min 5P connection, Free up to an hour at all times and all of the UK.

08 numbers are about to be reduced as well.  Not sure what to just yet.

Their calls to mobiles are less than anyone else and you get extra of the top two numbers.

Just thought you might be interested.

http://www1.sky.com/products/skytalk/tariff%20guide.pdf

wrote on May 22^nd, 2004 at 7:39pm:

Well I looked hard at the Telcos list and it looks like the rates charged on BT (option 1) is cheapest ! 0845 charges   Normal   F&F 10%   BF 20%     0870 charges   Normal   F&F 10%   BF 20% Weekend   1p    .9p   .8p     ............   1.49p    1.34p   1.19p Cheap   1p    .9p   .8p     ............   3.75p    3.37p     3p Standard   3p   2.7p   2.4p     ............   7.51p    6.76p   6.01p 018866 and 1899 at 3p through the day + connection charge, makes them much more expensive.

Please note that you cannot include an 0870 (or 0844) number as a Friends and Family number, though 0845 is OK.

Eleven years later, we now have the required clarity to be able to simply and easily compare providers.

This is achieved by looking at the Access Charge declared by each landline and mobile provider.

Previously, comparing prices was not so easy. There were also factors behind the scenes that skewed the pricing. The NTS Retail Condition, imposed by Ofcom solely on BT, ensured that almost all of what the caller paid BT for the call was passed on and paid to the benefit of the called party and their telecoms provider. The rule ensured that BT made zero margin on call origination to 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers, and BT therefore usually had the lowest price. Now that the rule has been scrapped, BT's Access Charge is 9.58p per minute, similar to other landline providers.

This is, however, all academic as the vast majority of retailers, traders, passenger transport companies, banks, insurance companies, government departments and other public services including local authorities and most of the NHS no longer uses 084 or 087 numbers. Many have swapped to 03 numbers.