Ways with the phone

Costly 'support' calls? Cure it all here - Good deal bad deal

Holding on for ages after being dragged through the interminable alternatives is no joke at the best of times. Usually under pressure to solve problems, and then having to sort out garbled instructions is not everyone's choice of wasting the odd hour or so.

To top it off you then discover that the seemingly low cost 0845 & 0870 are premium rate calls.

Go to  Saynoto0870  to see standard cost replacements for them. There's often a little known alternative to numbers starting with 01 and 02. Usually reserved for calls from overseas customers.

Thank Daniel for this when you get there. He has a petition on the site seeking to have someone do something about it - finishing April 2007.

 More details from petition creator

Many organizations hide behind 0870 / 0845 numbers which are charged at up to 8p/min (earning revenue for the organization while the customer is kept on hold) - whereas most people could use the real geographic UK phone number to contact the organization much more economically, since a number of phone providers now charge 0p/minute for calls at any time of day - and just a small flat rate connection charge of around 5p for calls up to an hour.

Skype. Doesn't everyone know about Skype by now? It's one of those too good to be true things but it turns out to be a truly a good deal. It really has left more money in my pocket. Link to Skype