Slash your mobile bills

It’s easy to guarantee a mobile calls at home phone prices, just invest in a ten-mile long cable. Alternatively, it’s possible to sneakily bypass mobile phone network’s systems using special override services. This will cut mobile call costs to 2.5p a minute to UK landlines and 3p to the USA, slashing your bill by 75%.

Override providers that allow cheap overseas calls to be made from home phones are commonplace. They work by providing freephone numbers to access their networks, thus ‘overriding’ the usual home phone provider. The mobile networks kibosh this working on their phones, however there are a limited number of override providers who work round the system. The choice depends on the mobile network you use.

Orange Contract Customers
Dial a freephone number on an Orange contract phone, and providing it’s on an Orange tariff calls to freephone numbers are free. Therefore dial the override number and there’s no charge for connecting to their network, only the override provider’s charge for the actual call.

Unsurprisingly, Orange isn’t fond of these providers snaffling their revenues, so it hits back. This starts a cat and mouse game. Orange’s prime weapon is adding a charge to specific freephone numbers, so when they’re called, the dulcet female tones that characterise such voices say “ All calls to this calling card service are now at a standard rate.” Yet the override providers then slap back at Orange by issuing a new freephone access number that is still free – and all customers need do is call the main switchboard to be told this new number. The cycle normally takes about 10 weeks.

The whole thing is a legal grey area, override providers aren’t breaking any rules by issuing freephone numbers, and Orange may legitimately block them to protect it’s investment. There is a chance calling a override may breach your mobile contract, it’s worth checking, but in truth their usual reaction is to target numbers not customers.

The bureaucracy involved means few override providers find it worth the effort. The current cheapest and easiest system is operated by One-Tel. It’s freephone override number means calls via it on an Orange mobile are 2.5p a minute to UK landlines at all times (plus a 3p connection fee) and to call mobile’s it’s 20p peak, 15p off-peak and 8p at weekends. Call overseas on the mobile and it’s cheap too, just 3p a minute to the USA. One further tip, set the override number on the mobiles speed dial to make it easier to use.

Other Network’s Customers
Other networks charge for calls to freephones, usually at the same rate as normal calls to landlines. This means savings are only possible on calls to mobiles and overseas. As there’s no cat and mouse game here, there’s a wider range of providers as well as One-Tel, though it is still the cheapest for many calls. Planet Talk operates via a normal land line number, it’s roughly similar tariffs to One-Tel, but it’s calls to mobiles is 17p at all times, making it cheaper than One-Tel during the day.

Regardless of the mobile network, the possible savings are huge. Using Orange’s Everyday 50 tariff to make just over two hours a week of mixed calls and a ten minute call to Australia would cost �30.75 a week, that’s �1,600 a year. Use One-Tel for all calls except to UK landlines off-peak and Orange Mobiles and it’d cost just "8 a week, �415 a year, an enormous saving of �1,185. With O2, BT Cellnet of old, the same calls cost �29.80 a month, but make calls to mobiles and overseas on One-Tel and Planet Talk overrides numbers and this bill is cut by 40% to �18 a month, saving �610 a year, making it definitely worthwhile calling your friends to tell them about it.