...and it supposedly gives you money off. Any good?

I've heard a bit about them over the years, but having had my last landline phone bill I think I ought to start looking into them. I don't call internationally, but I do call mobiles every so often. Most calls I make are UK geographic outside my local call area.

But how do they work? I know that dialling the prefix routes your call via some other provider, but does the cost go onto your BT bill or do you get a separate bill? And do you have to sign up, or can you just start using them?

This is an area in which I have absolutely no knowledge, as you might be able to tell! Any help--and any good numbers to use--would be appreciated. Thanks!

They've saved me a fortune over recent years.

There has been no difference in the cost of 'local' or 'long distance' UK calls to standard (01/02) numbers since July 2004 when BT took the lead and standardised the cost (calls to your neighbour or to the most-distant parts of the UK have cost the same since then). With free evening and weekend geographical (01/02) calls of up to an hour being easily available nowadays (from BT, their Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan offers those), most people save on their weekday daytime calls using one of the override (prefix) calls providers and pay just 5p for such calls, regardless of duration.

I mainly use/recommend www.18185.co.uk at the moment but www.call1899.co.uk and www.call18866.co.uk offer similar savings. They are the same company really but call costs vary according to destintion/type.

Please see my various suggestions in my MSE post "6-steps to cost reduction for BT residential landline subscribers"

There are a number of websites where these numbers are collated. These list UK and calling abroad numbers.

I find that this one is is updated regularly.

www.niftylist.co.uk

To be sure - go the website of the company in the list. Charges are usually added to the BT bill - so you don't need an account - Just start using them. Be aware that there will be a minimum call charge which BT levies. (same as any other call from BT).

I have saved a fortune to calls abroad (although quality can be variable)

MilnrowLad

Sorry, forgot to answer the question about payment.

You need an account (sign up and provide payment information - credit/debit card or direct debit - online) to use 1899, 18866 and 18185.

You can check your calls online within a few minutes and they send you an email invoice every month or 2 months depending on how much you owe.

Using any of the prefixes means BT doesn't even see the calls - so charges don't appear on your BT bill.