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| | Nearly everybody rings abroad occasionally, some of us ring abroad
quite often! We used to think of International calls as being very expensive,
but for many destinations the price has dropped dramatically. It is now often cheaper to ring the United States than it is to ring a UK number. As a
general rule, BT is never the cheapest way to ring abroad; one generally has to
open an account at one of the resellers like Tiscali, Breathe and Swiftcall; or
use a gateways like Telediscount and Just-dial!
How gateways work!
 | With gateways you ring the an access number, typically 0845, 0844, 0870,
0906.....! You then get a quick message telling you to ring the full
international number for your desired call, perhaps followed by a hash #. You
are then connected to your desired number. |
| Gateways receive a small income from your phone company for connecting the
08-- or 09-- call. So you pay BT (or whoever) from the moment you get the
gateway not from when you reach (or fail to reach) your desired number! |
| Each gateway company has a number of different access numbers for varying
cost destinations. You will typically pay more (ie a different access number)
for Foreign mobiles than for land lines! |
How resellers work!
| You open an account at one of the resellers; either a credit account or by
pre-paying say £25 on a credit card. |
| Before you make a call, you dial a prefix like 1615 (Tiscali) or 1639 (Breathe) from your home phone (or dial an 0800 number and insert an A/C No
and pin code if ringing from another phone) |
| You then dial the international phone number. This call is then billed by
your reseller. Instead of paying BT, you are charged the much lower rate of
your reseller! Either they deduct the cost from your available pre-pay
credit or you pay their bill at the end of the month. It couldn't be
simpler! |
Pricing
Click here to check out the
best priced supplier to any Country!
Do note that some resellers charge by the second, whilst others charge by the
minute or half minute. Some also have a minimum call charge like BT at
4.2p plus vat per call. In some circumstances you will have to pay more than the quoted
rate, if for instance you are ringing a mobile in the foreign Country!
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