| One notorious company behind a dozen or so | | | | fee |
| websites offering so-called cheap international call | | | | - bestminutes same as above |
| services is Finarea SA. They have a registered | | | | - discountdial same as above |
| company in Switzerland, but surprisingly they operate | | | | - dialaround same as above |
| from Austria, which one can only assume is for tax | | | | - telestunt same as above |
| reasons. | | | | The biggest perpetrators are services operating like |
| All their websites have one thing in common, they are | | | | topupdiscount and topupnow. |
| charging a variation of hidden feessuch as a topup fee | | | | - topupdiscount cheekily charges a connection fee and |
| of £1.50 plus 3.5% for credit card fees, and let´s not | | | | a topup fee. |
| forget connectionfees of 5p for every phone call. | | | | - topupnow uses the same practices as topupdiscount |
| The average topup of a consumer is typically £5. On | | | | Whoever uses any of these two companies is getting |
| some of their websites Finarea SA advertise a very | | | | a very bad deal indeed. |
| low price of only £0,05 per call to some international | | | | You can check out the rates on their websites. |
| destinations. | | | | Apart from Finarea SA and their actually very |
| But if one takes into account all the additional hidden | | | | expensive so-called cheap phone call services are |
| fees the price per call rises dramatically. | | | | other companies like Storytelecom, Rebtel and |
| Let´s assume you want to purchase £5 of credit | | | | Just-dial. |
| because you would like to take advantage of the 0,05 | | | | Storytelecom offers a number of telephony services |
| p/min call that was promised to you and make 50 calls | | | | with a variation of hidden fees. |
| to an international destination lasting 10 minutes each. | | | | -Storytelecom´s calling card forces the user to |
| As you now know you might have to pay 6.80 | | | | purchase a card worth £5, £10 or £50. |
| (that´s to receive 5 pounds in credit costing | | | | The £5 card expires after only 30 day, the £10 |
| £1.50 in topup fee and a credit card fee of 3,15%) to | | | | after 60 days and the £50 after 180 days. |
| make 50 phone calls lasting 10 minutes. | | | | - Storytelecom´s mobile service charges not only a |
| But the scam continues. You will need to pay a | | | | connection fee, but also a disconnection fee of |
| connection fee of 5p for every phone call made. After | | | | between 1p and 20p. This approach is unique in it´s |
| 10 phone calls you will have already paid 50p in | | | | cheek. |
| connection fees and after 50 phone calls you will have | | | | - Storytelecom´s Dial-Now service does not show |
| paid an incredible £2.50 just in connection fees. | | | | any revealing hidden fees in their terms and conditions. |
| Do you realise that you are now paying 10p/min per | | | | - Rebtel is a company which promotes itself as a jolly |
| phone call and that´s without considering the topup | | | | brand akin to Ben&Jerry´s ice cream, but |
| fee of £1,50 and the credit card fee of £0.30 | | | | unfortunately my regular calls to Spain were charged |
| You have now only made 25 phone calls, but you | | | | at far higher rates than advertised on their site as |
| have paid much more than 10p, in actual facts you | | | | soon as BT closed down the number provided by |
| have paid 17p per call using this model. | | | | Rebtel. |
| Not all services charge both a topup fee and a | | | | - just-dial explain on their website that any unused call |
| connecton fee. | | | | credit which has not been used for 90 (ninety)days or |
| _________________ | | | | more will expire |
| Let´s break down as many of Finarea SA websites | | | | - dialtosave calls from mobile service - a connection |
| offers as I could find. | | | | fee of 9.05p is charged and a connection charge |
| - telediscount charges connection fees of 5p, meaning | | | | equal to the rate per minute for the relevant destination |
| after making 40 calls you will have already paid £2 | | | | is charged on each call.unused credit expires after 90 |
| - phonecheap charges also between 5p and 10p | | | | days. |
| connection fee | | | | Is it a sign of our times that most companies expect |
| - telesavers charges between 5p and 10p connection | | | | their customers to read the fine print? |