About a year ago I opted for BT Option 3 which started off at £25 a month. It very quickly went up to £30 a month and recently has gone up to £48 a month. This is mainly because it does not cover calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers. I find this a bit of a con as most businesses use 0845 numbers and I don't think this number should be treated as a premium rate number.
I started on Option 3 to save money as my phone bills were around £100 a quarter. They are now nearly £150.
I am now going back to Option 1 but I have to wait till next month until I get my quarterly statement otherwise I have to pay off the whole outstanding bill.
Has anyone else had this problem and which did you find to be the cheapest option?

Try http://www.saynoto0870.com/ for alternative numbers to 0845 and 0870 numbers just type in the name of the company or the number and it will display either a strandard number including 020 numbers and freephone numbers.

Hope this helps.

BIGDOGUK

Thanks a lot, Big Dog.
Very interesting website and good forum as well.

Ur welcome. Glad your enjoying using DS.

BIGDOGUK

I've always avoided using 0845 and 0870 numbers, because of their higher costs, and have been using the SayNoTo0870 site for a few years, to find the alternative number.

Also for most people (granted not all) inclusive calls packages where you pay a high cost (such as BT option 3) aren't usually worth the money, especially when you can use 1899 and call 01 and 02 numbers for 3pence each, was much better a while ago as you could make calls for 1pence each.

Primus (Planet Talk) offer for no fee, free eving and weekend calls (to 01 and 02 numbers), use them and then 1899 for daytime calls. See thread free evening and weekend calls.

I have been using the Saynoto website and it is really great. I wish I had known about all these websites before and saved myself a fortune.
Thanks to Big Dog and BexTech for your replies. I shall be taking on board all your ideas and will be recommending DS to my friends.

Yeah, that Option 3 was a rip-off. Perhaps suitable for people who call local numbers a lot more than me but felt we were paying for "extras" that we just couldn't justify. Reverted to option 1 and haven't looked back- our last bill was only £24!

I would suggest that you go back to the cheapest option with BT.

Then sign up with an indirect operator or operators. 1899, 18866, 18185, One-tel, sun-dial, tiscali, eurobell, barclaycard, superline...the list is quite endless.

Once your signed up for no annual fee, or anything expensive like that, for the operators that offer something that you want then purchase an indirect dialler box that you can program by yourself.

Go for an indirect box that lets you select by time of day and day of week the indirect code you wish to insert before your dialled number. You can purchase such a box for <£20.

Finally with respect to 0870/0871/0845 type profit share numbers look at www.saynoto0870.co.uk for a geographic equivalent.

Try Telewest.

Talk unlimited offers you free unlimited calls to local and national geographical numbers for £25 per month including line rental.

Talk Weekends offers you free calls to geographical numbers at the weekends and 3p per minute to landlines at weekdays and 2p per minute at weeknights. This package cost 50p per month plus line rental: £10.

Soon Telewest will be launching Smart Talk a service which already offered by Cable and Wireless. It offers inclusive minutes for calls to 0845,0870,mobiles and 01 and 02 numbers for monthly fixed fee.

Telewest for phone service is a no-no, way way to expensive, you are better off with a BT line.

So, really this thread is not "Beware BT Option 3" but rather "Beware 0870 Numbers"?

Or perhaps, "read the small print in contracts to find out what calls are included"?

I take your point, Timboy, but I still feel that BT should have made it much clearer that many of my everyday calls would not be included in this wonderful all-inclusive deal.

I thought all my calls would be free except for premium rate numbers and was not aware (until it was too late) that 0845 and 0870 numbers etc came under this category.

I was originally told by BT to ignore my statements as my direct debits would cover my phone calls then out of the blue I got a letter from BT saying that my payments were going up by £18 a month to cover my calls.

I accept that I should have checked the small print more carefully but I do not remember reading or being told that 0845 and 0870 numbers would be charged as "extras" and I'm sure many other people like me have been caught out in the same way.
Last edited by ladyeleanor : 30-01-2006 at 22:21

How much clearer can BT make it?


Source: bt.com

I've already admitted to being partly at fault. What penance do you want? Tar and feathers? All I'm saying is I didn't realise that it was going to end up costing me a lot more money - £18 a month! I only took up Option 3 in the first place to save money.

Thanks to all the people who have made helpful comments. I'll leave it for now as I don't want to turn this thread into a nitpicking argument.

I can honestly say that I have only ever had about 10 people say that they were not advised 0845/0870 etc were not covered.

The spiel we give out re Opt 3 is pretty lengthy advising that it is only calls beginning 01/02 lasting up to an hour, customers need to have up and redial after an hour, calls to the Channel Islands and geographic dial up number are not included etc etc.

That isn't to say, of course, that you were advised of all of this.

Your all moaning about expensive calls to 0870 when they are no more than 8p per minute whilst I bet everyone here owns a mobile phone!

You all don't realise that the mobile networks are making fools out of you. They charge something like 15p to 30p per minute just to call a landline and up to 50p per minute to call a freephone number.

And all the pay monthly bundle packages that give you inclusive minutes are also a rip off. An advertisement advertising a mobile phone offering 200 minutes per month and 200 texts plus unlimited wap at £45 per month, who in the right mind is going to do that when they already have a home phone,80,000 phone boxes around them and other bills to pay on top such as council tax,TV,utilities ect.....

The same mobile networks do not charge such high amounts over in Europe and the US even with VAT added. These companies are having a right laugh at britain.

Also, how comes everyone complains about 0845 and 0870 numbers when calling mobiles is double the amount sometimes tripple!

I don't use my mobile to call unless it is absolutely necessary.

People don't like paying 8p/min for an 0870 number when they can either call an 01 or 02 number for zero pence, or the savvy amongst us at 3p for the whole call at most.

A 20 minute call to 0870 at 8p/min = £1.60/
A 20 minute call to 01 or 02 using 1899 = £0.03.
A 20 minute call to 01 or 02 with an inclusive calls package = £0.00.

I just have a PAYG mobile now, as contract are a rip-off, I have contract before as my companies paid for them, I now use mobile for emergencies, extremely urgent quick call whilst out, or for people to call me if they can't wait until I get home.

I don't pay for line rental or monthly charge for my phone service nor do I pay for calls to 01 and 02 numbers, so why should I be penalised because some company has decided to make money out of my call to them?

m419, you mention people paying over the odds for mobiles, yet you are with Telewest for the phone service, so you are paying over the odds for that (unless you work for TW).

A long time ago when New labour came to power, they looked at their spending plans and decided they needed more money. After they had introduced as many stealth taxes as they possibly could and fleeced the pension funds, they looked around for another source of ready money. I know said prudent Gordon, "let's sell some things!" Now most things had already been sold by the naughty Tories who had guarded the bags of money before, so Gordon had to look down the back of the sofa.

Then he had a brainwave, "I know let's sell something that no-one really owns, frequencies!"
And so Gordon and his New Labour friends made lots of money selling mobile phone frequencies to the nasty mobile phone companies (who had been making far too much money), for billions and billions of pounds.

"Sorted", said Gordon as he sat down for a cup of tea in No 11, feeling very proud of himself. But then his new latest model Vodaphone mobile phone, on a free anytime, anyplace, anywhere contract rang.
"Hello Big Gordy here"
It was the mobile phone companies on the phone and it was payback time!

Having agreed to give the government a huge amount of money, the mobile phone companies now insisted on having things their own way, without any government interference.
So whilst OffCom is happy to look at charging for the right to broadcast tv and radio, and the cost of calling mobiles from a home phone, when did they last criticise the mobile phone companies for keeping their prices so incredibly high, when most other countries have seen a gradual but continuing decrease in those charges.

Of course it could just be a coincidence!

Oftel put its foot down on Orange,Vodafone and T-Mobile termination rates and took them to court, the rates dropped by a few pence per minute! Still expensive and I think the new regulator should do something more.

O2 was not included because BT reduced the termination rates when it owned the Cellnet company back in 2000.

Meanwhile Virgin Group also complained that mobile networks should pass on some of the termination rate to virtual network companies and Virgin and T-Mobile had a dispute about this for months.

Also in 2005, BT Mobile had a dispute with T-Mobile its former partner network. BT wanted T-Mobile to charge BT landline customers less termination rates so that calls to T-mobile phones would be cheaper on BT and tried to compete against other companies. This failed and T-Mobile was not prepared to lower the termination rate. Then BT grouped up with Vodafone and launched BT Fusion.

nice timboy was having a wee giggle myself , and it is still only 25.50 by direct debit per month , i suspect all your chargeable calls have made bt have to readjust your mpp

BT must be laughing all the way to the bank. First they get people to sign up to pay an extortionate price for so called FREE calls, and then they persuade most companies to sign up to 0870 numbers so that those people with FREE calls have to pay premium rate charges to call them. I refuse to call 0870 numbers - if I can't find an area number, the company looses my business.

I definitely remember being told about the 01/02 calls and redialling after an hour etc. This was made clear by the BT advisor.Whether or not I was advised about the 0845 and 0870 is another matter. Possibly they did. The point is that I do not remember it being mentioned so it was not made clear enough. Until recently I thought 0845 and 0870 numbers were charged at local rate which I assumed was cheap. I had no idea how much the rates were and was therefore unaware of the significance.

If the BT advisor had told me clearly that as well as my monthly payment, I would also be paying 4p and 8p per minute for 0845 and 0870 calls on top of this I think I would remember and I know I would have changed my mind about Option 3.

Maybe you should have changed your mind about calling these rip-oof numbers.

Couldn't agree more, poppasmurf. Until you sign up to these all-inclusive deals you do not realise just how many exceptions there are or just how many companies now use 0845 and 0870 numbers.