kasg wrote on Jul 25
th, 2012 at 2:09pm:
The thing to be aware of with this is that you pay from the moment that the 0844 call is answered.
Take Bestminutes as an example. You dial 0844 861 59 59 and then when it answers the charging begins. At that point it requests the destination number. So if there is no answer on the destination number than there is still a charge (made by Virgin Media, in this case).
Virgin Media bill per whole minute, and the charge for each call is rounded up to the whole penny.
For example, you ring the 0844 number and when it answers you dial the destination number (which takes 10 seconds) and then you get ringing tone for 20 seconds, before the party answers. You speak for 3 minutes and 20 seconds and then hang up.
The duration of the billed call is therefore 3 minutes and 50 seconds, which costs 4min×5.1p/min=20.4p. Add the Connection Fee of 14.94p gives 35.34p which is rounded up and billed as 36p.