www.discountdial.co.uk now charge 4p a minute to call mobiles from landline. Its gone from 1p to 4p in two stages in last few days.

Standard strategy, I'm afraid, 'suck you in then begin price rises'.
I agree the rises have been more rapid than usual though (even though it was a low base to start from).  Will only be using during 'peak' times!

bigjohn wrote on Feb 10^th, 2006 at 3:41pm:

www.discountdial.co.uk now charge 4p a minute to call mobiles from landline. Its gone from 1p to 4p in two stages in last few days.

And they have the temerity to brand it a Discount!  :-/

But is this actually still the cheapest rate available?

In my view, it's a toss-up between:
- DiscountDial - with a 5p min BT charge even if there is no answer or no connection, and
- 18185 - with no charge if there is no answer, but 4p connection + 5p/min if there is an answer.
And, of course, with mobiles, there is a high chance of an answer even if it's only the Voice Mail!

Giving up on discountdial - no notification of price increase and the contact number changes (from 0844 462 2323 to 0844 428 9090).
I found I was dialling and then being told it was the wrong number, very confusing.  This is now the 3rd different number to call in as many weeks!
There has to be a better way!

omy wrote on Feb 13^th, 2006 at 8:12am:

I found I was dialling and then being told it was the wrong number, very confusing.

And presumably you were charged 5p by BT to ring the wrong number before being told it was the wrong number!  :(
But we always knew that the very low charges couldn't last - and that Finarea usually start with low rates and then increase them without notice.
(Altho' to be fair to them, I'm not sure how they could notify you before you dialled the number, except by e-mail (which they seem not to use) and web-site (which they have done).)

soon be going up again I think

Hey Big John,  What's with the Ex ?    I'm sure you'll 've explained all somewhere else, but    
I'm tooo darn lazy to search for it.   Give it to us Agairn, Please !