So you want to ring somebody up! Well it can be quite expensive. On BT, during the normal working day it is now about 4p to ring more than 35 miles away, and even a local call costs between 3p and 4p per minute depending on tariff; there is also a minimum charge of 4.2p plus vat even if you put the phone down when you get the other party's answerphone. Well you can pay a lot less. In fact you should never pay more than 2p a minute, if you use the cheapest daytime supplier Smarttalk.

The price of calls varies according to the time of day, or day of the week of course! It really is a lot cheaper to call at the weekend, especially local calls. These drop to below a penny a minute, so that, even an hour or two of surfing is not too bad value; though there is considerable pressure for internet calls to be un-metered. Recently BT announced a new tariff which allows free access to certain internet providers, but most users say the the standing charges make this a mediocre deal.

One new entrant into the market Eurobell has abolished all differences between local, regional and national calls, and is pretty good value for weekday evenings at 1.14p per minute for all calls, and 0.85p for all weekend calls.

Call Tips

Other Suppliers (on the left)

The suppliers on the left appear to be the pick of the bunch in the UK. Each of them is particularly competitive to one or more destinations. You are free to open as many accounts as you want; in nearly every case all you have to do is dial a three or four digit code. You will definitely be charged by the reseller and not BT. Some of them will pass caller Id, others will make you stick in an account number and pin code!

Send email to questions at callforless.co.uk
Last modified: January 16, 2002

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