Call costs: Comparison table

This is the amount charged to the caller per minute for calls to the various number schemes shown. 'Personal' numbers have traditionally been premium rate although 0870 is charged at BT National rates, a lot lower than most other schemes.

People calling you will be charged at standard National rate which is currently 6.73p per minute peak, 3.36p per minute evening and 1.70p per minute weekend rate exclusive of VAT. Feel free to check this with your telecom provider. Calls from most mobile phones will also qualify to call these numbers as part of their inclusive calls, otherwise at normal National rate (depending on the type of service used, check first). If you want to give out your 'real' number for local calls then do so - it's cheaper to do that than use the national number.

This is not restricted to business lines, feel free to register your residential number(s) - your callers will not be penalised at up to 50p a minute (as some 'personal number' schemes are !) - they'll simply pay the national rate to call you and you'll be making money! You simply give out the new 0870 number, put it on your business cards, stationary and everything. This also gives your company a professional non-geographic number!

However, please note that you cannot take an 0870 number for non-geographical numbers (like existing 07000, 07020, 07050, 07092 etc. personal numbers), International lines or mobile phones, it must be a fixed line with a true local number as originally allocated to your phone line by BT, Cable etc. The service is NOT available in the Channel Isles nor to Manx Telecom customers, sorry.

Cost to set up your 0870 number(s)

We provide the numbers free of charge, with the exception of 'gold' numbers which are charged on an individual basis by the telco. See the Gold Numbers page for further details. There is no charge for connection or ongoing line rental. As this is a direct service there is no installation fee, we do not need to visit premises nor conduct a survey. As long as a suitable landline with a 01 or 02 prefix (not Channel Isles or Manx telecom customers, sorry) is stated as the destination we can connect 0870 services to this. We reserve the right to refuse connection where insufficient information has been given on the order form.

Where a paper order has been sent by fax or post we require that return postage costs are met before an order will be processed, for this purpose a suitable SASE is requested. All regular communication is by e-mail and orders without a contact e-mail address will not be accepted.

Amounts paid on a per minute basis for calls made to your 0870 number

We operate a sliding scale payment depending on the number of minutes logged against your 0870 number in any given accounting month. An accounting month is usually from the 1st of each calendar month.

• Peak Rate
  The first 5,000 minutes will be paid at 1.20p per minute
  From 5001 to 20,000 minutes the payment will be 1.35p per minute
  For 20,001+ minutes we will pay a higher rate
• Off-peak (Evening)
  All minutes will be paid at 0.50p per minute
• Weekend
  All minutes will be paid at 0.10p per minute
  

Admin fees

Where a number fails to record any usage at all in an accounting month an electronic invoice for a £5 admin fee will be sent by email. The first two months after connection are exempt from this calculation to allow the customer to circulate their number. We only run an invoice cycle at 6 month intervals.

Where a customer changes the destination number after one change has already been made in the preceeding 12 month period an admin fee of £5 is payable. The first change of destination number will be made free of charge.

Any fees that become payable will be invoiced via email to the customer. Should the invoice remain unpaid we may send a paper copy by post to the customer address. Failure to pay may result in disconnection of the service and further administration costs being invoiced. Where sufficient accumulated revenue is available such costs will be deducted directly from the account balance.

Reports of usage figures etc. may be charged for on an individual basis. We do not provide reports as standard nor is there an on-line facility for checking an account. Customers are able to request their current balance by email.