chalktalk wrote on Aug 9
th, 2009 at 4:23pm:
My phone company changed 0870 call charges to be the same as standard national calls from 1st August - I just presumed that's what everyone was doing. This makes 0870 free on some tariffs.
My phone company - The Phone Co-op - don't charge a connection fee either on chargeable calls either.
I've never really thought of the Phone Co-op as price competitive (I'm with them for ethical reasons). Given what my mobile company are trying to charge for 08xx calls, I might investigate The Phone Co-op's mobile tariffs, too.
A quick glance (although Heinz might be able to shed more light on it) suggests yes it is very competitive.
In some cases, local and national calls cost different rates, but not much more than a penny a minute during the day separates them where they do. Calls to 03 numbers are aligned with local rates and 0870 with national rates. The rip-off call set-up fee or connection charge is no where to be seen and calls are billed to the nearest second rather than the nearest minute with BT, Virgin Media, Talk Talk and others.
There may be other differences. BT and others have gone down the road of whole minute billing, connection charges, rounding an individual call charge up to the next whole penny (before VAT is added) to distort the actual cost of calls, thereby making it look as if calls are lower than they actually are.
From 1 October BT's daytime call rate (where they are not inclusive) will be 5.25 pence per minute plus 9.05 pence call set-up. That's 14.95 pence minimum charge, (with the call charge rounded to the next penny and then VAT added). The BT minimum charge used to be 5 pence with none of this call set-up rubbish.
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Say No to 0870 Day: Sat 1 Aug - Questions and info (Read 46,265 times)
