leaving eircom but hanging onto flatrate?

shoegirl

Hi all:

I am considering leaving Eircom for voice calls as they are just too expensive. I've tried using options bronze but the minimum call rate is too much and its ended up saving me very little. I'd save more by simply switching to another provider.

However, I use eircom flatrate 25 and I'm quite happy with it. I do not want to change provider as I've had huge problems with other providers in the past with regard to poor connections and dropped lines, and thats whats important to me. The flatrate number is a 1893 number.

Is it possible for me to have the best of both worlds - i.e. to switch to another provider but maintain my flatrate 25 account via eircom? Or will these be charged to my new provider? I have been unable to find out via any of the various websites (many are highly uninformative, only perlico seems to indicate that i would still be charged by eircom for flatrate calls and a few other call types).

By the way who is a good provider? UTV, Chorus, Cinergi and Perlico all gave good rates but I like the fact that EsatBT treat Friday night as the weekend. But I've a history of rotten service from iol and later Esat Fusion and I don't trust their internet service.

If its any use I make few or no international calls (one or two landline calls to the UK or US ever few months, not more than 2 euro on the bill), a large number of national calls, few or no local calls and a small number of mobile calls. Most of my calls are evening and weekends.

theciscokid

well try the esat package. €25 a month for unlimited local and national calls..

everyone seems to be happy 'bout their bb offering, maybe the flat rate is good too

shoegirl

The trouble with 25 a month is that its way more than I would spend. I would normally spend between €8 and €15 a month on calls - on eircom bronze this has ended up with me paying €12.70 without having spent the whole lot on at least 3 occasions. In two occasions this was offset by savings on call answering etc. However, I'd prefer a flat discount without a minimum spend, and the Esat BT offering does ask for a minimum spend of €25 euro.

mike65

Try utvip lite, 10 euro a month, all calls thru UTV, usually cheaper than eircom rates.

http://www.utvip.com/lite.asp?loc=ie

Mike.

shoegirl

I've done my homework and found some good rates:

1. Euphony: €5 per month for local calls at slightly less and a 50% discount on evening national calls (this makes up a huge amount of my calls), also the first 10 minutes of all local and national evening and weekend calls free up to 1500 for each call type - not a bad deal and the mobile rates are very favourable.

2. Perlico: no minimum charge, 3c per minute for off peak national evening calls, not quite so cheap for mobiles but cheaper international rates (eg Baharain for 50c, a very good discount)

3. Cinergi Telecom - good rates but slightly more than perlico and website too confusing

4. Zefone - had a good deal - 9.99 per month for 500/800 freevarious local or national evening or weekend calls. Again I found it a bit confusing.

At first glance EsatBT have the best off peak national evening rates - which tempted me until I realised that you need a minimum spend of 25 a month - I've never spent that so no point.

Vartec - complete rip off for local calls. National calls more expensive for evening and weekend rates. Excellent international rates tho.

DirectDialTelecom - lots of blurb on their site about how cheap they are but no rate card! Forget it.

AccessTelecome - "website arriving February 2004" - no information!

Blue Square - apparently have a cork office but no information available

DirectDialTelecom - again no rates on their website, but plenty of blurb

OLO - good rates, but showed its rates without including VAT, which is misleading and probably illegal

Breaking down the good guys, I found the following:

Zefone - good rates but website somewhat confusing, also it advertised that you now have a "single bill" - which may be misleading. The alternative to the eircom options for modest spenders like myself was good but I'm uneasy about a company that advertises "single billing" at a time its not officially available

Perlico - very nice overall package with no minimum spend but whilst reading the small print discovered that if you pay by credit card they preauthorise your card for €150! As my credit card is often maxed out I decided this might not be a good idea, and the pdf files for direct debit wouldn't download.

Euphony - this was the package I liked best, however, I was unable to sign up online and it advised me to contact my "euphony consultant". Eh? I see a freephone number however, so I will probably give them a ring as soon as I find out if I can keep my eircom flatrate. However, I might just change over to another provider if not, but as far as I see, 1983 calls are charged to eircom. Please tell me if I'm wrong?

spongebob

Euphony are a pyramid sales opertaion but they do deliver the rates they say they will. They also give good rates for small scale users such as yourself, many carriers only offer good rates over €50 spend.

There are only 3 FRIACO carriers , ESAT Eircom and UTV, you must take one of them for 1893 anyway .

They will try to make YOU sell it on as well. You can ignore them .

You will find a pimp. <sorry, cough>

You will find a consultant if you search back a year or two on Boards.

M

Johnny Versace

As far as I know Euphony are in liquidation.

There is no problem keeping your flatrate account if you move phone provider, but you'll need to add the code 13666 before the 1893 access number.

shoegirl

Well unless Euphony have gone into liquidation since 5pm Friday, they seem to be operating.

I called them on Friday and they are sending me out all the requisite forms. Indeed their rates are excellent, and you're right about selling on the service (probably saves them advertising revenue). I'll see what they're like and report back.

The big problems I found when searching for a new provider was that:

a) about half of the providers I looked at didn't tell me their exact rates
b) many of them did not tell me their terms and conditions
c) some of them (eg EsatBT) seemed to have excellent rates but had a minimum spend which was quite excessive for a small user like me (who averages 6-20 euro per month on calls - not much really).

PS thatnks for the info on eircom, I did find the 13666 number and fathered that this would ensure that charges would remain on the eircom bill.

I wonder what will happen come March when it becomes possible to rent a phone from somebody other than eircom? Will it theoretically be possible to rent from another provider but still use, for example, eircom's internet or broadband service? This would be an interesting case indeed. I presume this is something comreg will have to examine when the proposals come through.