Calling Mobiles Cheaply

You can halve the cost of calling mobile phones without even changing provider. While phone companies advertise free calls, the small print notes this doesn’t include calling mobiles; even though it's often the bulk of the bill. Beat this trap simply by dialling a prefix code which cuts the cost to 6p/min weekdays and 5p/min weekends, saving you £100s.

• Cheap landline to mobile calls
• Best Buys: The overall winner (BT & Virgin)
• Best Buys: Cheapest for each call
• Cheap mobile to mobile calls
• The Size of the Saving
• Discuss/Other Articles

There's an easier way to batter down the cost...

Easy tips to begin

Before looking at how to call for less, there are a couple of practical points to speedily reduce your bill.

• It's cheaper to use a mobile than a landline...

  Do you have a mobile that includes 'cross network' minutes, ie your free minutes package includes calls to any mobile network? If so providing you've got some left, then don't use your home phone, instead use your mobile to get the calls for free.

  You could also use this logic to say when at home make all calls from your free minutes. Yet remember you pay a monthly fee to get those minutes, and thus you want to get the best value for them. Thus, if you're getting close to your allowance, landline calls are cheap from home phones anyway, so leave your free minutes to be used for the more costly calls to mobiles.

• It's cheaper to receive than to give...

  There's a simple stat everyone should be aware of...

  Calling a mobile from home... costs up to 12p/min
  Calling home from a mobile.... is often free

  If someone calls a landline from a mobile and they have a free minutes package, the call will be included. Even if not, it's usually cheaper than calling a mobile from home (though do check your tariff). So why not 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?

Cheap, no hassle, landline to mobile calls

This is all about taking advantage of specialist cheap override phone companies. These allow you to massively cut the cost of calls, without changing phone line, and without setting up an account.

How override providers work.

There are a few types of override provider, so-called as you 'override' your home phone provider so you pay their charges rather than its. They all work a slightly different way; but the process is usually something like this.

• Step 1: Dial their access numbers. This means they give you a special phone number to call from your home phone, which then connects you to their network.

• Step 2: Once connected dial the number you're calling. Now simply dial the mobile number you want to call through their network.

The overall winner

If you want a one stop shop for calls at any time of the day or week, then the winner is override provider 18185. To use it you set up an account online and arrange to pay by Direct Debit. Get access to the service by dialling its freephone access code, no prizes for guessing that it's 18185. You're then billed for the calls at the end of each month. The cost depends on what your landline is...

• Call costs on 18185 from a BT landine.

  It charges just 6p/min during the day and 7p/min at weekends plus a 5p connection charge per call. If you have a BT line but get it via another call provider e.g. TalkTalk, sometimes it blocks access to these types of prefix numbers. If that impacts you, you can still save via the cheapest call by call section below.

• Call cost on 18185 from a Virgin/cable landline.

  Here you can't dial 18185, instead you must dial a normal landline number at slightly increased prices. Again 18185 comes up trumps here costing 10p/min weekdays and 4p/min weekends a massive saving over Virgin. However you can do it even cheaper using the system below.

Cheapest for each call

The special, easy to use, free UK CallChecker tool provides a daily updated list of the cheapest way to call mobiles... its best to use if...

• You want the ultimate solution.

  It's possible to finesse even greater savings by using different call providers for different call types e.g. one for calling during the day and a different one for calling at weekends. This obviously takes more time, but will save you more.

• You can't dial 18185 via your home phone.

  Some telecoms companies block access to 18185, if that's the case you need to use the second type of override provider. With these you access the service via a special type of phone number which can be dialled from any phone. This access number is at a fixed tariff (e.g. 0844 123456 costing 6p/min) and billed via your home phone company, that's then all you pay, there's no bill (i.e., the call costs 6p/min). The override company then gets a cut of your phone provider's call revenue.

  The only problem is you're paying as soon as you dial the provider's system, so even if the person is engaged, you pay - but this is small compared to the saving. Plus if your landline isn't BT the price you pay can vary (it's rare, but it's worth noting).

To find the current cheapest use the
UKCallChecker

An example of the results
(this is a screenshot so don't rely on these, use the actual CallChecker to find the latest rates)

In the above example, 18185 is matched by a few other providers - 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.

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 (see the Cheap Mobiles guide for getting the best deal). 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:

Use an override provider

Again 18185 wins here as it has special normal phone numbers (e.g. 020 8xxx xxxx) you can dial on your mobile phone (don't use the 0844 type as they cost a lot more from mobiles). It then charges 10p/min daytimes and just 4p/min weekends to call mobile phones.

However it's important to note you will pay the initial access call and sometimes this will defeat any saving, so it's important to check. Yet in many cases a saving is possible, plus, if you have inclusive minutes to landlines only it's a good route.

An example of how you could save...

For example if a Pay-As-You-Go tariff costs 5p/min for landlines and 20p for mobiles at the weekend, then when using 1899 the total cost of calling a mobile would be reduced from 20p/min to 10p/min (5p for access call 5p for 18185 charge). On a 10 minute call that's a saving of £1. Always check the cost of your access call first though.

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.