While 'cheap and free calls' are advertised everywhere, when it comes to calling a mobile phone the price rockets; many people pay more than half their bill on calling mobiles. Yet there really is no need, without changing home phone line you can cut costs to just 6p a minute, any time.
Don't call mobiles from home phones unless you have to
Before looking at the cheapest providers, it's worth noting that while calling a mobile from a home phone during the day costs up to 18p/min, do it the other way round - in other words call a home phone from a mobile and it's either included in your free minutes or normally 10p/min or less (always check though!)
Therefore an easy start route is to make a pact with friends and family that when one of you calls a mobile from home, the other should immediately hang up and call back.
Plus if you have a mobile phone with 'cross network' minutes, in other words calling any mobile phone is included in your free minutes package; then using these minutes is of course cheaper than calling on the home phone.
Call from home for less, no hassle
The secret is to use an override number. These are provided by special companies, with cheap prices you can access simply by dialling a special number on your normal home phone; thus 'overriding' your normal provider. There are two types, those where you need to set up an account, and those where you don't.
The overall winner
Call a mobile using override provider 18185 and it charges just 6p/min during the day and 3.5p/min at weekends plus a 5p connection charge per call. To be able to access its cheap call rates you must first set up an account online, preferably by Direct Debit though you can use a credit card recurring payment. Once that's done, dial its short prefix number, unsurprisingly 18185, which connects you for free, then all calls you make will be billed each month at its rates. However if you can't be bothered setting up an account, you can still slash the cost (see below). A similar provider call1899, beats weekend calls slightly at 3p/min. It works in the same way and you can have accounts with both providers, so if you want the ultimate solution, use them together.
|
The Cost of Calling Mobiles | |||
|
Provider |
Daytime Weekday |
Daytime |
Evening |
|
BT |
12.5p/min |
12.5p/min |
7.5p/min |
|
TalkTalk |
12.5p/min |
12.5p/min |
7p/min |
|
18185 |
6p/min |
3.5p/min |
6p/min |
Get daily updated cheapest rates
While overall 18185 is cheapest, it is sometimes possible to undercut it for certain calls (e.g. daytime calls to mobiles). Better still, if it's beaten, it's usually by the type of override providers that don't need an account. Here you simply dial an access phone number, e.g. the cost of that access call is then billed to your home phone provider. Once you're connected to it, simply dial the mobile number you're calling at no further cost.The special access numbers are usually 0844 or 0845 numbers, where the cost of the call is at a fixed rate e.g. 6p/minute. Due to the way these numbers work, the override provider gets a cut of this revenue; which is why there's no further charge.
The advantage is you don't need an account, thus if the prices rise you can switch to the next cheapest, just by changing the number dialled. The problem is you're paying as soon as you dial the provider's system, so even if the person is engaged, you pay, plus if your landline isn't BT the price you pay can vary (it's rare, but it's worth being aware of).
These specialist no-account override providers can change prices every few weeks, sometimes they undercut 18185, sometimes they don't. To find the cheapest, use my specially designed UKCallChecker, a free tool which finds the cheapest price for calling mobile phones and is updated on a daily basis.An example of the UK CallChecker results
(this is a screenshot so don't rely on these, use the actual UKCallChecker to find the latest rates)
In the above example, 18185 is matched by DiscountDial which charges 6p/min at all times and the access number to dial is beneath it - all the ones in Green don't need an account to be set up and can be accessed instantly.
You shouldn't need to search everyday though, most providers will announce the call price at the beginning of the call, so if it's risen simply come back to the UKCallChecker to find the current cheapest.
Any new top rate providers will be included in the free weekly MoneySaving e-mail
What's the call quality like?
Override providers are no frills companies, there's no customer service and their capacity is limited. This means that sometimes you'll call and not be able to get through - that's the nature of the beast and the reason they're so cheap. If this happens, then just use the UKCallChecker to find the next cheapest provider.As for line quality, generally it isn't too bad, though it varies as providers underbuy line capacity to keep costs low and utilise the internet to route calls to make them cheaper. Bigger providers can't risk such problems, so they must overbuy capacity. However, for most non-business calls override providers should be fine, and they'll save you a fortune.
Cheaper calling mobiles from mobiles
The cheapest system is if you have free minutes to call any mobile phone included in your mobile package (read a full step by step guide: Mobile Phones Cost Cutting). Yet if you don't have cross-network minutes or have run out it's possible to use similar techniques to cut the call cost from mobiles too:Again 18185 works well here as it has special normal phone numbers (e.g. 020 8xxx xxxx) you can dial on your mobile phone, and then you pay it 10p/min daytimes and just 3p/min weekends to call mobile phones. Of course you have to pay to dial the normal number, but calling landlines is much cheaper than calling mobiles - so this should still work well. Plus, if you have them, inclusive minutes will cover this.
For example on one Orange Pay-As-You-Go tariff, calling landlines costs 20p/minute, whereas calling mobiles is 40p/min. Thus using 18185 the total cost of calling a mobile would be reduced from 40p/min to 10p during the day (on a 10 minute call a saving of around £3).
Alternatively there are a few simply dial providers which can be used from a mobile such as TopUpDiscount and CheapestChat. Here instead of dialling an access number followed by the number you're calling, you first top up your line with credit. Next simply dial an 09 (premium) number which costs say £1.50; your mobile is then charged up and you have £1.50 available to make calls. You then dial its access number for UK mobiles at the cheap rate.
Cutting the cost of calling mobiles is easy and quick, and the savings are huge, using 18185 alone could nearly halve your costs over BT, as the table below shows.
|
An average comparison of mobile calling costs for a family | |||
|
Provider |
Weekly Cost |
Annual Cost |
Saving |
|
BT |
£13 |
£676 |
- |
|
18185 (1) |
£6 |
£312 |
£364 |
|
Based on 5x15 min day & 3x15 eve calls (1) Includes a 5p connection charge per call | |||
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Calling Someone's Mobile? Halve the cost
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