Micah Bunny’s Blog

Phone Call Costs

Ok, after my post the other week on phone call costs, I though I would post up a summary

Here are some pre-dial numbers for having cheaper UK mobile calls:

0844 428 0004 (4p/min)
0844 428 2525 (4p/min)
price comparison from:
http://niftylist.co.uk/calls/to/uk/mobile/

or for UK landlines:

0844 721 2525 (1p/min)
0844 861 2121 (1p/min)
0844 861 3838 (1p/min)
0844 721 0001 (1p/min)
from:
http://niftylist.co.uk/calls/to/uk/landline/

The Niftylist website is best viewed with CustomizeGoogle enabled in Firefox web browser.

Another Phone call cost comparison site which is worth checking out does not have adverts but is more garish.

Note: you get charged for time to answer even if not answered but at these prices compared with BT/Telewest/NTL etc. this not significant factor in decision to use over default with line supplier.

If you wish to verify rates and who supplies service use:
http://www.magsys.co.uk/telecom/codelook.asp

Also another aspect of using these pre-dial numbers is the follow through number actually called does not show on itemised bill.

Also you can view web and have you can access phoneline clear at same time you can get some minutes of landline calls hassle free from JaJah and Webcalldirect. I think it gets max trial minutes from number used rather than cookie which could drop or IP which could change via Tor ( http://tor.eff.org )

These can still be used after switch to The Phone Co-op as default service which I reccomend for reasons over immediate cost comparisions but is slightly cheaper than BT but still worth using these pre-dial access numbers to get the cheapest rates.
I reccomend The Phone Coop because it is a customer coop and so is more stable and can’t be taken over by another company which causes disruption. Also one can have share and influence the company policy through that as well as get a dividend. Also it is worth getting a Phone Coop account if you use Cable phone line to get fixed cost calls in evening.
For directory inquiries use 118114 which is cheaper than most of others.

Martin Lewis’s take on phone and broadband costs

Rip off ATMs and bank charges

BBC have a story today about rip off ATM charging. This comes after the goverment forced pensioners and those on benefit to get bank accoutns to receive dole in. There was a previous story on Scottish TV.
In our area the only ATMs that charge. One is in a location that used to be non-charging can they keep the bank symbols on it and only warning that it charged £1.75 was on screen in a blue thin font on a blue background. Often wehn people using told it charges people don’t use it, so in many case people go to use it unaware of charge. Obtaining money from these charges is deceiving people and in my view amounts to fraud.
Also a friend went into a shop and first asked if they accepted cards and they said they did then later at till they told him to go use charging machince in the store.

Also now with admin charges on bills people are encouraged to used direct debit but it is not as straight forward to set it up so fits in with weekly or fortnightly pay. I have a friend who has several time including last 2 months had bank charges to pay because out of sync direct debits with income. I would advise them to move to bank that has buffer zone (such as the HSBC) where it is preserved by not being able to dip into it with solo/eletron card or atm withdrawals but if direct debit attempted will be able to. But I doubt can switch bank with resulting bad credit rating due to previous uncovered direct debit attempts.

For basic accounts the co-operative bank has a lower charge than most, but still it is pretty unbearable to get one of these let alone several. HSBC may be not charge.
Someone elses advice on bank charges

First Post on my fresh blog

Ok, after reseting up a friend’s blog with wordpress I decided to set up a blog with it myself, so here it is. I am going to use it as much as a personal scratch pad as a way of communicating with others. A repository for notes and links.