Free - yes FREE - telephone calls!

[21stcenturygirl]

Thanks to JanH recommending them, I registered for 18866 . I am now getting free calls, yes free, calls to any landline, anytime (only pay 1p connection fee).
It was really quick and easy to register (unlike some of the others, eg. Alpha, OneTel, TalkTalk). Now I just dial 18866 before my calls and get free calls.

[BettyFord]

No stupidgirl as 0845 etc nos are charged at a higher rate

[stupidgirl]

Are you there 21cgirl???

I've just been thinking about this. Does this mean you could do pay as you go internet for nothing?

Now I'm typing it it seems really silly, but well, worth looking silly if it would save me £15 a month....

[karen99]

yes, willow2, you have to pay your line rental to bt or ntl or whoever..

We already get evening and weekends free with our current CPS provider so thanks to janh's post we're now saving on daytime local/national calls too! We pay line rental to BT quarterly. Still keeping the CPS just incase this service goes down at all..

Thanks for the info girls!

[willow2]

Am presuming you still have to pay line rental to BT or whoever you have your phone with... or am I being really dim?

[JanH]

Oh, links don't work?

www.call18866.co.uk/rates.php

Good luck this time!

[blossom2]

sorry JanH

still crap internet provider ... need the whole address as in www.xxxx.com or something ...

really sorry about this.

many thanks again

[JanH]

Here you go, blossom - 1p a min to Oz!

[blossom2]

HI JanH

can you post the actual website. my internet provider is crap and i can't seem to access if from just the link you've provided.

have a good friend in Australia i haven't spoken to in years.

many thanks

[21stcenturygirl]

Just checked my current bill and it is the pricely sum of 15p, we've been using it solidly for the past 2 days (average call duration 30 minutes!). Thanks again JanH

[JanH]

You're very welcome, sophable!

[21stcenturygirl]

Thanks CD for posting the link and JanH for giving me more info about the 0870/0845 numbers. Didn't know that! A 20 mins call to US for 22p wow - that's cheaper than calling my dh for 1 minute on his 3G phone. I was using BT to call him but at 22p a minute but will go through 18866 instead.
Thanks again JanH for saving me loads of money!

[Heathcliffscathy]

janh, you've saved me a shit load of money on calls to my sister abroad using this: thank you very very much

[JanH]

I don't know how reassuring this will be, Flossam, but here is a chunk of last month's bill. (Have removed numbers obv!) This is before the free calls kicked in and UK mobile calls were 10p, not 12p.

With the free calls, any call costs 1p, whether it's 1 second or 2 hours. With BT, all tiny calls (ie a few seconds) cost a lot more than 1p each. Their evening calls are 6p even if you just get 1 second of an answerphone message, aren't they? And the daytime ones would be 3p. (And if you talked for 10 minutes on BT that would be 30p, not 1p.)

03-08-2004 12:52:01 UK mob 0:01:00 £0.11
17-08-2004 10:53:19 UK mob 0:00:46 £0.09
03-08-2004 15:40:03 UK mob 0:04:53 £0.50
18-08-2004 13:26:27 UK mob 0:02:59 £0.31
03-08-2004 17:49:59 UK mob 0:00:44 £0.08
18-08-2004 14:31:51 UK mob 0:02:25 £0.25
05-08-2004 21:17:26 US landline 0:00:45 £0.02
18-08-2004 16:33:40 US landline 0:03:38 £0.05
05-08-2004 21:19:08 US landline 0:20:47 £0.22
18-08-2004 16:37:40 US landline 0:07:01 £0.08
06-08-2004 11:23:40 France landline 0:04:53 £0.06
18-08-2004 17:50:23 UK mob 0:01:37 £0.17
06-08-2004 12:05:34 France mob 0:03:04 £0.47
20-08-2004 18:48:24 US landline 0:07:27 £0.08
06-08-2004 20:09:28 UK mob 0:06:06 £0.62
24-08-2004 09:26:51 UK mob 0:08:11 £0.83
07-08-2004 10:16:04 UK mob 0:01:15 £0.03
24-08-2004 15:22:35 UK mob 0:00:16 £0.04
08-08-2004 16:20:20 UK mob 0:01:04 £0.03
25-08-2004 12:46:57 UK landline 0:00:38 £0.01
09-08-2004 10:55:00 UK mob 0:05:05 £0.52
25-08-2004 12:47:58 UK landline 0:00:37 £0.01
09-08-2004 11:09:57 UK mob 0:00:37 £0.07
25-08-2004 13:11:02 UK landline 0:02:06 £0.02

OMG, I have turned into a 18866 evangelist

[JanH]

What really really gets me is that you can call a MOBILE in AMERICA ANY TIME for less than a UK one at the cheapest rate!!!

[JanH]

tamum, I'm not using 18866 for 0845 and 0870 calls - they are cheaper with BT - I have 18866 in the phone's memory for all the others but not for those. (I got caught out with that on Onetel agaes ago so look out for it now!)

[JanH]

Flossam, I've been with 18866 for over 3 months now - the free national calls (well 1p connection) only started last week, until then I was sticking with BT for evening at 6p per hour but using 18866 for daytime calls at 0.5p per minute instead of BT's 3p. We have also been making quite a lot of international calls. Anyway the bills are really sensible so far!

Re mobile rates - BT have just changed theirs. See here ; theirs have gone down a bit - T Mobile and Vodafone are now quite a bit cheaper during the evening than 18866, O2 and Orange slightly cheaper, but 18866 are still cheaper at the weekend and all day.

18866 were 10p a min until the free calls started - swings and roundabouts!

[Flossam]

Would like to sign up but keep hearing my mother's words 'you get what you pay for' Has anyone else had bills etc for calling just in this country?

[bonniej]

I signed up for this after seeing JanH's recommendation as my sis has moved to Bahamas and it would have cost us a fortune to keep in touch. With this it's only 9p per minute plus 1p connection which means we can talk for ages (well, quite a long time anyway!) cheaply. They just take the bill out every month from your credit card but you can view your bill any time online. Was really enjoying long chats with my sister until Hurricane Frances came along. Haven't been able to get in touch since then

[CountessDracula]

Here it is

I signed up too at JanH's recommendation. Am reserving judgement until I see the first bill! It does seem like a really good deal.

One thing I don't know, is 12p a min cheaper than BT for peak calls to mobiles?

[tamum]

That link has just got an extra http bit in, easy to correct. They seem to charge a lot for 0870 and 0845 numbers though which is worth remembering.

[OldieMum]

The link doesn't work. could you try again, please?

[Flossam]

The link isn't working at the moment!

[21stcenturygirl]

Bump - come on mumsnetters save yourself some serious dosh!