At the moment 1899 seem to be the best bet for calls to 01/02. Just 3p connection.(Nil pence a min).

If however they call mobiles 18185 would be worth adding.

www.planet-talk.co.uk (now part of Primus) have a CPS tariff that has no monthly rental with free evening and weekend calls.  I suggest this in conjunction with 1899 is the best bet as dialling 1899 in the week will still override the Primus CPS service.

bigjohn wrote on Dec 2^nd, 2005 at 10:25am:


Quite right Big John.  Well done on spotting my deliberate mistake.  So its even better value for 0870 than I said it was.  I still can't figure out how 18185 can afford these prices when they still surely have to pay the TCP a rate of more than 4p per minute?   It must be a loss leader for them (as with say cheap supermarket baked beans etc)

tobywinn wrote on Dec 2^nd, 2005 at 11:25am:


I think one would need a lot of established business contacts in the telecoms industry to set such a thing up and also there are minimum fees to BT to pay for having a prefix access on a code like 1899 etc.

If you look at how much of someone's time it would take to set this up and run it I suspect that you will find that the economies of scale at somewhere like Finarea are pretty massive.

I can't really understand Finarea not yet having launched their own flat rate all 01/02 phone calls product yet since they seem to offer almost every other kind of telecoms product going.

Of course with making 18866 Finarea are only playing the same game as banks and building societies that have an account with a great interest rate and then suddenly cut it................

farci wrote on Dec 4^th, 2005 at 5:03am:


Its Primus Planet Talk's Saver Option 2 which you can find here on the www.uswitch.com home phones website area:- www.uswitch.com/directory/home-phone/provider-742-primus-planet-talk.html

Unfortunately since the website manager for Planet Talk Primus is clearly a total imbecile who has no idea what customers are looking for you cannot find details of this product or its rates on their own website.  However if you go to www.uswitch.com select Home Phone then select your Postcode and then tell them you make 4 calls a day all at the Evening and Weekend and that they are National Calls (also that you don't make mobile or international calls) then the Primus Planet Talk option will be listed as will Just-Dial Saver.  The main snag with Just-Dial is that it is part of Onetel/Centrica and so up for sale.  Chances are Tele2 or TalkTalk will buy it and you will lose the free weekday evening calls.  So Primus Planet Talk seems a better long term bet.  You will also see a listing for a TalkTalk line rental deal but this is a con as you don't get the cash back until after your first full year and have to remember to claim it.  Also TalkTalk will bar you from using services like 1899 and 18185 because you switch your whole line rental to them, which allows them to impose such bars.  Also TalkTalk don't provide free Caller Display so if you need this their line rental is actually more expensive than BT's.

Planet Talk Primus might sell a lot more of this product if their own website actually marketed it properly.

Actually I just checked www.just-dial.com and I see they are doing calls to uk mobiles for 1p per minute in the evening and 0.75p per minute at the weekend (as well as free evening and weekend 01/02 calls) so perhaps this is a better bet and at least their own website is selling the service.  If they are eventually taken over by another company (when Centrical sells them) I suppose whoever takes them over would be foolish to start charging a more expensive tariff if they want to keep these customers.  But there again many companies do often act foolishly in commercial terms.

See www.just-dial.com/pages/plans_saver_lite.asp

I notice that if I actually pick a mobile phone company with Just-Dial they show a much higher rate than 1p and 0.75p per minute in the evening and at the weekend!  Something wrong somewhere and no phone number to call to challenge them on any of this.  I wonder what happens if one phones Onetel, who are owned by the same company, to ask the question?

farci wrote on Dec 4^th, 2005 at 5:03am:


Here is the link for Primus Saver 2.You can now sign up over phone using 0800,rather then put commission into U-Switches pockets.
http://www.planet-talk.co.uk/SaverProducts.aspx?source=saver

Unless you call mobiles a lot e&w ,i would steer clear of JDS. As their Customer Service is bad.Often being discussed on MSE site!!!

NGN.

I have read a number of complaints about them the main one is not replying to E-Mails,then theirs problems in signing up,and some people have been charged for free calls.To get a flavour of the situation read this thread  http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=112157&page=2&pp=10

Its a shame cos their offpeak/weekend  mobile calls capped charging package  is excellent.