This page is for tips and services which users of this site might find interesting. But for one reason or other can not be added to the main list.

1. Calling 0871

At the moment the cheapest two ways to call 0871 for orange users is either using QUIP which charge 10p a minute. To get Orange access number a person call Steve Terry has. If email me I can rely the message to him to provide the number. (But I do not know it mysel, and it seems QUIP support does not know it. The other one is Onetel which at the moment does not charge for 0871. But do not talk endless on it since they can easily backcharge it.

2. Calling 0870

At the moment the best two ways to call 0870 off-peak is Orange Everyday 50. To avoid the high handset prices, connection charge, etc. to get Everyday 50 it is best to have it as Line 2. This gives you 50 minutes a day for only 30p a day, and any minutes over 50 minutes are charged at 1p a minute. Also with Line 2 there is no minimun term to it, hence can be connected one day and disconnected the next day. For peak time the best way is to use a card call Rhubarbcard which charge 3p a minute and can also be used from Orange mobile. Only problem with it is that can not use services which use # at the end cause Rhubarb system think it is for itself and hence disconnect the call with the call through service.

3. Dial 'n' Earn (Call Through with a difference)

There are two companies which offer this type of service. The first is telesave which if you call their 0870 access number, they will credit your account with 4p per minute during the daytime, 2p per minute during the evening, and 1p per minute during the weekend. Whilst calling their 0871 access number, they will credit your account with 6p per minute anytime of the day. This credit will be used to either reduce the current call charge, or for future call charges. The second is qxtelecom which if you call their 0870 access number they will reduce their charges by 1p. Telesave and qxtelecom sites will explain this in more detail

4. Callback services

This is a good way to reduce roaming charges. For example on Orange to recieve a call whilst roaming in USA is 55p and in Europe it is 30p. But to make an international call whilst roaming it will cost £1.10 from USA and 60p from Europe. To reduce this cost, you can use callback services. One example is Boomerang which charge 10p a minute to call your and the one you want to reach, uk mobile. Hence the total price would be only 55p + 10p = 65p a minute instead of £1.10

5. Unlock phone, and use local simcard

This is a way most people use to reduce their roaming charges. They get their handsets unlock (if live in UK here is a good company to use dvds2000). Or you can pay your network provider (Orange £20, One2one £35, Virgin require £35 credit on accout but it is not used. Whilst Vodafone / cellnet contract phones are generally unlock from beginning.) Once it is unlock in the country you are going to you buy a local pay as you go simcard. (or if long enough, can pass credit check, etc can even get a contract simcard.) Can get a few select networks / countries pay as you go simcards from Carphonewarehouse for £19.99. Now when people want to call you, they can call your mobile number direct and they pay the international leg and not you. Also generally calling from the local simcard is cheaper than using your roaming simcard. If you want to keep a UK number for the people to reach you, you can use service like YAC, which can follow you to certain countries to route their call to your number in that country.

6. Personal numbers

There are many types of personal numbers. One which might of be huge advantage is Call-Safe . With this service you can get an instant anonymous number from them. You choose how long you want the 0871 number to redirect to your landline number from one hour to one week. After which it will de-active it by itself (unless you de-active it earlier or increase the timespan later on.) This service cost nothing for you and only cost the caller the 0871 call rate. Other one is YAC which was mention in tip 5 above. Again no cost to you, just the caller pays similar rate to UK mobile rates and you can route your calls to other select countries (including mobiles.) If you want a cheaper way for your callers to call you there are two companies for that. The first is Flextel which for a charge of £10 connection fee will provide an 0870 number which can be routed to any landline. If want it cheaper still for the caller, Local-rate provide 0845 number which if you get less than 300 minutes a month worth of calls they charge £18, otherwise it is free and you will also earn a small kickback from the calls. Or other company which charge £25 connection fee but than no future charges (And if recieve calls during the day will earn small revenue) is free-0845.

7. Sending SMS

You can either send SMS by your usual method of using SMS service on your phone. Other way is to use WAP and send SMS that way. the URL to point your wap browser is www.shefon.com/wap/sms/freesms1.wml and it only work for UK mobiles only. the number has to go in the format of +447.... Also the people who recieve the SMS from this service can't reply directly to you, and unless you mention in the message it was you sending it, they wont know who sent it. Other method to send SMS is by using ICQ. On this method as long as you have ICQ number (do not need to download ICQ client can use icqlite) It is not 100% reilable but the advantage is that it can potentially work wordwide and the reciever can reply back to the ICQ user (sometimes for free as well.)