Receiving calls on the English mobile phone

[polremy]

We have a tesco simcard in our mobile pay as you go phone.
We really only use it to text and receive text messages.
£10 usually lasts us all year.
Occasionally we receive phone calls on this mobile if perhaps we are away from our landline and someone needs to talk to us.
However, recently we have been called by what seems to be someone "selling something".
Typically they start off by saying that this is a courtesy call.
The call only lasts less than a minute each time before we realise that it isn't important and hang up but.........this costs us.
I know that one can see the number of the caller - 0440 something - but even though we don't recognise we think it just might be important so curiosity wins and we answer.
Any advice out there?
Bad enough having cold callers at odd times - but having to pay for the privilege is not good.

[mrob343]

We have a tesco simcard in our mobile pay as you go phone.
We really only use it to text and receive text messages.
£10 usually lasts us all year.
Occasionally we receive phone calls on this mobile if perhaps we are away from our landline and someone needs to talk to us.
However, recently we have been called by what seems to be someone "selling something".
Typically they start off by saying that this is a courtesy call.
The call only lasts less than a minute each time before we realise that it isn't important and hang up but.........this costs us.
I know that one can see the number of the caller - 0440 something - but even though we don't recognise we think it just might be important so curiosity wins and we answer.
Any advice out there?
Bad enough having cold callers at odd times - but having to pay for the privilege is not good.

Just let it go on to answer phone pol !
Do you get a discount on your fruit and veggies with a tesco sim card ??
Cheers

[polremy]

D'you know, I don't even know if it would go onto answer.
Next time I will just leave it and see what happens.

We were I think the very last people in the world to buy a mobile phone and do our very best never to use it.
The instinct when the phone actually rings is to run to find it (not always easy) and then to answer it as quickly as possible - in case it is something really important.
The system of charging us to pick up seems very unfair.

We got a Tesco simcard cos it doesn't seem to have any expiry time for using up the credit and the charges are less exorbitant than a lot of others.
We probably would get Clubcard points if we had a Clubcard!!

[montgolfiere]

'cold callers' would be 'first up against the wall' in my 'Utopia'!!!
the Skyman

[polremy]

Yep - preferably before they call our mobile from England.

Funny you should post today cos it happened again.
Checked the number and it was from Manchester of all places.
So, we phoned them and it turned out they were Beat That Quote - a price comparison website.
I had been trying to find out how much car insurance will be for us when we are back in England (much cheaper than over here) and, ever since then, I have been bombarded with e-mails for various kinds of insurance.
Obviously that wasn't enough for them so now they are trying our mobile phone. I guess they didn't call our French landline because of the cost.
Serves them right - our mobile is an English number but it will cost a bomb to phone us on it while we are in France.
Have unsubscribed now.

[carol sheridan]

May I use this thread to ask a question, please? I will be in France in July looking for a studio to buy, and I will have my Virgin mobile with me.
If my daughter wants to ring me, will she need to prefix my mobile number with 0044 or 0033? I hope my mobile works in France- my French mobile SIM card became invalid after six months in England, so I will have to go to an FT shop to get a new one -I think they charged me about €30 last time. My French mobile was quite expensive, and my English mobile is an old one my grandson gave me when he updated (as they do about once a year!).

[Sav]

If my daughter wants to ring me, will she need to prefix my mobile number with 0044 or 0033? I hope my mobile works in France- my French mobile SIM card became invalid after six months in England, so I will have to go to an FT shop to get a new one -I think they charged me about €30 last time.

Hi carol

Its +33
Get yourself a Vodaphone sim card & opt into the Vodaphone Passport.
You pay a £0.75 connection charge, plus your local rate.
http://campaigns.vodafone.co.uk/goingab ... 1&tariff=2

Cheers Sav

[Sav]

Hi all

Some changes to roaming rates

Quote: Under the new system, the maximum permitted charge for making a mobile call while in another EU state will be capped at 32p a minute and the rate for receiving calls at 12.5p a minute.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... imits.html

Cheers Sav

[Owens88]

Serves them right - our mobile is an English number but it will cost a bomb to phone us on it while we are in France.
Have unsubscribed now.

Anybody calling an English mobile from England pays UK rates no matter where the mobile is. The recipient pays the extras.

[polremy]

Serves them right - our mobile is an English number but it will cost a bomb to phone us on it while we are in France.
Have unsubscribed now.

Anybody calling an English mobile from England pays UK rates no matter where the mobile is. The recipient pays the extras.

Thanks.
I didn't know that.

[Pete F]

If my daughter wants to ring me, will she need to prefix my mobile number with 0044 or 0033? I hope my mobile works in France- ....

Hi carol

Its +33

Err, no. If it's a British phone it's 0044 7xxx xxx xxx. And, Carol, it will work if "roaming" is enabled. It almost always is these days, but you can check with Virgin.

All the best

Pete

[polremy]

If my daughter wants to ring me, will she need to prefix my mobile number with 0044 or 0033? I hope my mobile works in France- ....

Hi carol

Its +33

Err, no. If it's a British phone it's 0044 7xxx xxx xxx. And, Carol, it will work if "roaming" is enabled. It almost always is these days, but you can check with Virgin.

All the best

Pete

I would have thought that, if Carol buys a French simcard for her English mobile, she will have a French number, starting 0033.
But then, hey, I know next to nothing.
But I learn, Mr. Fawlty as Manuel would have said.

[Sav]

Err, no. If it's a British phone it's 0044 7xxx xxx xxx.

Hi Pete

Are we talking about a house phone
I have +33 connecting to french mobiles, from my english one

Cheers Sav

[carol sheridan]

Thank you , folks. I have a good mobile which I bought in France from FT but because I have had it in England for 15 months the SIM cars is invalid. This happened once before and they charged me about €30 for a new SIM at the FT shop, I would like to use that again once I am settled back in France. That will, of course, have a French mobile number just as it did before.
My grandson gave me his old Virgin mobile (pay as you go) for me to use whilst I was in England. This is the one I will have to use in France until I get my French mobile working again. I will try to work out if I can use it for roaming, but the instructions are long gone.
Before mobiles became common, I used to buy an international phone card from a tabac, for about €7.5. They used to last for about 100 hours and I used them from the Caribbean, Egypt, etc. If you can still get them in France, I think it might work out cheaper than using my English mobile. I will only be making short phone calls to set up appointments with estate agents,and to ring my hotels if I get lost!
I would like my daughter to be able to contact me, but I suppose I can give her the number of the two hotels I will be using, just in case of emergency.

[polremy]

Carol, I just bought a tesco simcard for our phone (an Orange one which I got unlocked by Orange).

The phone is now at least 8 years old!
It works fine here in France and the cost is not that prohibitive.
You can top it up using the phone itself, even if there is no credit on it.
Of course it means we have an 0044 number which French estate agents might not like phoning.

[Owens88]

Thank you , folks. I have a good mobile which I bought in France from FT but because I have had it in England for 15 months the SIM cars is invalid. This happened once before and they charged me about €30 for a new SIM at the FT shop, I would like to use that again once I am settled back in France. That will, of course, have a French mobile number just as it did before.
My grandson gave me his old Virgin mobile (pay as you go) for me to use whilst I was in England. This is the one I will have to use in France until I get my French mobile working again. I will try to work out if I can use it for roaming, but the instructions are long gone.
.

Hi Carol

The sim determines the prefix and who pays what. A UK sim means you pay a lot for incoming calls whilst in France .

The phone itself is only a limitation if:
a) It is 'locked to a particular provider (e.g. Orange). You can usually 'unlock' a phone legally for about £10
b) It has limitations on the 'band' it will use. Broadly speaking Orange, T-mobile (and therefore Virgin) use one and O2 Vodafone use another. There are localised exceptions and overlaps which tend not to matter now because mos phones are at least Dual-Band.

So. Your french phone (if you prefer it) could work with a virgin sim in the uk, subject to a) and b) above.


OUR Virgin sims work Ok in France. Whilst roaming abroad they pick up from whatever signal is strongest locally, however some providers may have more beneficial deals with Virgin than others for calls you make. Check on the Virgin site.


Good Hunting.

John


p.s.

I may know of some studios going at a forced sale price in a block you once visitted. Best discussed off-line

Note to mods. No pecuniary interest to me except that I wold welcome Carol as a neighbour !

[Owens88]

Serves them right - our mobile is an English number but it will cost a bomb to phone us on it while we are in France.
Have unsubscribed now.

Anybody calling an English mobile from England pays UK rates no matter where the mobile is. The recipient pays the extras.

Thanks.
I didn't know that.

S'ok. Many people don't.

The logic is that the caller pays against a predetemined tariff. If your phone is prefixed 0044 they cannot know where you are so--- from Britain they get charged UK rates.

[Karrie]

We have a sim card with the company 0044. It's a UK company that sell you a French Sim card. It's much cheaper because you have a French phone number. When you get to France you just take out your UK sim and pop in the French Sim. You can either buy a pay as you go but that has to be used every 6 months and if you spend more than 6 months out of France it becomes void. The better option is a monthly contract. Mine costs me £6.99 per month plus the cost of calls when I'm in France. I pay for it via my Uk account on a direct debit. It doesn't expire. I've never understood why more Brits who live between the two countries don't take this option. You can save a lot of money. The draw back is, I suppose that it only works in France, so if you pop over the border regularly you need to put you Uk Sim back in should you ned to make a call in Spain.

[bikeriderfrance]

hi there i sell uk vodofone sim cards with a uk number pay as you go, you just top up with a SFR coupon as in the UK,, they are 3 euros posted,, if you want one email me,, remember in france a top up of about 5 euros last about 3 weeks,, its the most expencive mobile costs in the EU,, and i must add, french mobile costs are against eu fair trade policy,, its a round robin fixed cost from all fournisuers,, geoff ps if you have a uk sim its 00 44.xx xx .to dial in.