www.topupnow.co.uk    

www.topupnow.co.uk  

Another new member of the 1899/18866 family. Its a pay as you go service for use from a landline,you top up by dialling a premium no,access is by a freephone number.

The intl rates apart from the free destinations,dont look that great.however Uk mobile,and personal number(Landline) calls only 9pa min.(Connection charge of 5p applies to all calls).

Free destinations(apart from 5p connection) are
Bangladesh,Bulgaria,Germany,Poland,South Africa,and Zimbabwe.


~ Thread title changed by Dave

dang, Id love to use something like that, but you have to call a premium rate (£1.50per minute) unfortunatly those numbers are barred on my line (thankfully)

But I notice there are no free UK calls, which would be very useful for a topup service..

oh well, nearly what I wanted.. look like im stuck with 1899 for now (oh and whos complaining?)

Thanks big john for this though, will pass it on as usual :)

Old wine in a new bottle.This seems to me a justdial company which is famous for all the hidden charges.For mobile users the charge of dialling 090 number ranges from 1.50 gbp to 3.50 gbp.Totally a useless service created to loot the customers.One even can't say that this service belongs to the category of 1899.com or 1866.com.They are far better and no hidden charges.Even from other landline service providers the service charge will be in range from 1.50 to 2.00gbp like telewest,Ntl,bulldog,etc.The one has to waste the time by dialling this number and then after top-up one has to again dial the number.Topupnow is a filmsy idea in my view.  >:(

wrote on Sep 2^nd, 2005 at 10:45pm:

Old wine in a new bottle.This seems to me a justdial company which is famous for all the hidden charges.For mobile users the charge of dialling 090 number ranges from 1.50 gbp to 3.50 gbp.Totally a useless service created to loot the customers.One even can't say that this service belongs to the category of 1899.com or 1866.com.They are far better and no hidden charges.Even from other landline service providers the service charge will be in range from 1.50 to 2.00gbp like telewest,Ntl,bulldog,etc.The one has to waste the time by dialling this number and then after top-up one has to again dial the number.Topupnow is a filmsy idea in my view.  >:(

Might i suggest you read my op, and the companies website  before posting incorrect information as you have done!!!

1.The company has nothing to do with JustDial Who are part of Onetel who are owned by Centrica.As i originally pointed out in my op. It is part of the Finerea  1899/1866 family based in Switzerland,that brings us many cheap phone calls.

2.Its a service that is used from a landline(as i said in my op).It nots intended to be used from a mobile.After you top it up at home from your landline, at the appropriate premium rate which with Bt would be £1.50. You then get £1.50p credit which you can use for calls or connection charges.You then dial a freephone to make the outgoing calls.The connection fee and call costs if any are taken off your balance.

3.Unlike Justdial you do not dial a call through access number and start paying straight away,whether you are connected or not.With this service its free to call the access number from your landline,and you only pay if you get through.

4.Lets say you dialled one of the free countries from your homephone .eg South Africa.It would cost just 5p to speak as long as you like.That means you could speak to South Africa or another free country 300 times for just £1.50p.Hardly a rip off.

5.Also it offers you calls to a large range of Uk and Intl destinations.(Not something that Justdial does).You can ring UK Mobiles for 9p a minute not bad eh.

Dear Big John
Thanks for reply and clarifications. I didn’t meant that you have provided the wrong information. It is the company website which doesn’t warn the users about that mobile rates may be different .Some new or ignorant mobile users may hit by the heavy bills  if they use this service. Being a student I always use the mobile phone to call international destinations as well as the UK landlines.Also do you have any information regarding the Orange charges for 0800 numbers. I heard that 0800 is free and we can use it in the same way as we use it from BT. ::)

Hi aapharm.

You cannot use it from a mobile.If you have a look at the FAQ page it tells you this.

You can only use it from the landline you used to dial the 09 number to credit your account in the first place.It works by recognising your number.

0800/0808/0500 numbers can be dialled from Orange Contract Phones only free of charge.(Only those with Orange Tariffs not ones where they match other networks).Orange are quick at spotting  those ones that connect to a cheap call service,and charge to ring these numbers.

Hope this is of some help.

I see TopUpNow is still in service. I guess it's probably as reliable as the other Finarea services.

It works without registration — you simply call the 09 premium number from the phone you wish to 'credit'. Then you call a freephone access number to dial a destination.

The only thing is that they haven't caught on to the fact that VAT went up to 20% four years ago, as the price to ring the 09 number is still given as £1.50 per call, rather than £1.531 per call (this being from a BT landline).

They'll need to catch on to declaring the call costs in terms of Service Charge and Access Charge some time in the next 110 days.

With calls to 080 numbers becoming free from mobile phones in July, they could potentially have a much larger customer base.