Poland -> Uk Calling Card

[andy]

Przemek has gone to a lot of kind effort to post all this info - unfortunately this affiliate link doesn't match that quality.

The card that shows up cheapest on there has no tariff info at all for the supplements for calling from payphones and mobiles in Poland. Typical charges for these in other European countries range from 18.5p to 45.5p per minute, unless they have bothered to do anything about this since it was written on 12th April

A new feature, 'Mode 3 Operation', will be added in a few days which will dramatically reduce the global call charges. Details due soon.

there are hints that this Mode 3 is a callback service, even if triggered by freephone call - you'd think their few days could be less than 7 months.

edit - ok, apologies, I've found it - 26p per minute from a Polish mobile to UK landline with their cheaper eCallback

[0700700]

Originally Posted by andy

Przemek has gone to a lot of kind effort to post all this info - unfortunately this affiliate link doesn't match that quality.

The card that shows up cheapest on there has no tariff info at all for the supplements for calling from payphones and mobiles in Poland. Typical charges for these in other European countries range from 18.5p to 45.5p per minute, unless they have bothered to do anything about this since it was written on 12th April

there are hints that this Mode 3 is a callback service, even if triggered by freephone call - you'd think their few days could be less than 7 months.

edit - ok, apologies, I've found it - 26p per minute from a Polish mobile to UK landline with their cheaper eCallback

i really dont think i could help him anymore considering i am not from poland, but hey no problem :ranting2:



by the way check the best possible card

http://www.uk66.com/Merchant2/agent.mvc?SC...=GDY&P=MillE15T

Millennium ?15 card Access from :-

Surcharge (SC) if applicable ?cents/min

Country Access Number Access Type Landline Payphone* Mobile*
Access Access/SC Access/SC
Poland
00800-451-1328 Free Phone Yes ?? ??
00800-111-3440 Free Phone Yes, 6.4? ??, 6.4? ??, 6.4?
00800-321-1310 Free Phone Yes, 20? Yes, 20? Yes, 20?



check the link for clearer info

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by andy

Przemek has gone to a lot of kind effort to post all this info - unfortunately this affiliate link doesn't match that quality.

The card that shows up cheapest on there has no tariff info at all for the supplements for calling from payphones and mobiles in Poland. Typical charges for these in other European countries range from 18.5p to 45.5p per minute, unless they have bothered to do anything about this since it was written on 12th April

Thanks for you appreciated my work .
As to surcharges you mention IMHO we can distinguish two kinds of them when using calling cards:
1) Surcharge paid from the card's credit limit - applicable when a toll free access number instead of "regular" landline number is used
2) Surcharge paid "outside" the card's credit limit in order to call the access number.
Which surcharges do you mean?

Originally Posted by andy

edit - ok, apologies, I've found it - 26p per minute from a Polish mobile to UK landline with their cheaper eCallback

Is eCallback a Web/WAP triggering?
After all, it seems that it's better to use for such a call gt-sim instead - it'll be 26 again but eurocents

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by 0700700

i really dont think i could help him anymore considering i am not from poland, but hey no problem :ranting2:



by the way check the best possible card

http://www.uk66.com/Merchant2/agent.mvc?SC...=GDY&P=MillE15T

Millennium ?15 card Access from :-

OK, I checked.
http://www.uk66.com/callcalc.php says:

UK LOCAL 13.9 cent
UK NATIONAL 14.3 cent
UK SPECIAL 42.9 cent
UK-MOB O2, ORANGE 42.9 cent
UK-MOB T, VODAPHONE 42.9 cent
UK-OTHER MOBILES 50.0 cent

Now I apply today's exchange rate of selling euro cash in exchange office in Poland 1 EUR = 3,85 PLN.

All the access numbers you mentioned are 00800 what means that they are not free!
To access them from payphones you must buy a payphone card. The chepaest one costs 2,39 EUR and contains 15 "billing units" (15.6 cents/unit). Each "unit" is enough to make a 00800 call of any duration. Units in more expensive payphone cards cost 13 or 10.4 cents each. This means a surcharge of 10.4-15.6 per call.
If you want to access those numbers from a mobile phone, it's worse. I have no idea if they are available in any postpaid roaming. Even if they are (possibly in Orange and Plus), national roaming rates would apply - I don't dare how high they are .
In case of prepaid SIMs, 00800 numbers are available only from Orange prepaids at 20.8 cents/min and this would be a "local" yet REAL surcharge to the above call rates!

OTOH, if you buy a Heyah SIM for 5.20 EUR, you'll get 3.90 EUR credit and the rate for UK (and all Europe) landlines and mobiles 44.2 cents/min. If you join HeyahKlub as described in the Heyah section of PPGSM (cost 1.6 cents), you'll get 10% more on each top up what decreases the _real_ rate for UK/Eur calls to 40.1 cents/min.
Those Heyah rates are pretty high for UK landlines yet they are quite good for UK mobiles. My conclusion is that if you want to call UK mobiles it doesn't make any sense to use international calling cards (and Polish too) and have mess with access rumbers and PINs since you can make regular calls from Heyah at practically the same or even better rates.
If you want to call mainly UK (and not only) landlines, calling cards are worth considering.
But warning! All international (i.e. not issued in Poland) calling cards as well as services like CBW/Enlinea or Country Direct collect calls use AFAIK 00800 as their toll "free" access numbers in Poland. And if you want access those numbers from a mobile phone, you must buy an Orange prepaid SIM and add 20.8 cents/min to the listed rates of the 00800 service you are using.

[andy]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

As to surcharges you mention IMHO we can distinguish two kinds of them when using calling cards:
1) Surcharge paid from the card's credit limit - applicable when a toll free access number instead of "regular" landline number is used
2) Surcharge paid "outside" the card's credit limit in order to call the access number.
Which surcharges do you mean?

Sorry, I had a problem replying earlier ...

I think I meant surcharges within the card credit - they didn't seem to have been specified on those pages.

It is often difficult to find detailed tariff information for calling cards - in one case it needed 3 emails enquiries to get mobile and callbox surcharges. In another a new calling card raised some tariffs by factors of up to 20 times (ie 1.5p to 27p) only 6 weeks after being recommended on another forum.

I think the callback may have been via an 0800 number, although this wasn't very clear. To tell the truth, I wasn't too interested; my main point was that it wasn't all that cheap. I think you've amplified this now in your later post.

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by andy

Sorry, I had a problem replying earlier ...

I think I meant surcharges within the card credit - they didn't seem to have been specified on those pages.

It is often difficult to find detailed tariff information for calling cards - in one case it needed 3 emails enquiries to get mobile and callbox surcharges. In another a new calling card raised some tariffs by factors of up to 20 times (ie 1.5p to 27p) only 6 weeks after being recommended on another forum.

I think the callback may have been via an 0800 number, although this wasn't very clear. To tell the truth, I wasn't too interested; my main point was that it wasn't all that cheap. I think you've amplified this now in your later post.

Maybe I would like too much from telecom companies, namely so that they would specify exact extra costs of reaching foreign access numbers.

But not all the companies follow that way.
E.g. Polish Telecom provides the list of access numbers for Poland Direct collect call service with remarks of unavailability or necessity of using a coin/card when using payphones.
I remember also discontinued VisaPhone service, where restrictions and/or extra costs of reaching access numbers were described in rather detailed way.

[snaimon]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Not very good as for calls to landlines, but not bad for mobiles.

http://www.enjoyprepaid.com/enjoyprepaid/j...&to_country=289

They now have a LOCAL # with the following EZplan rates:

to UK 4.7 us cents
to UK cell 28 us cents
5 cents toll free surcharge

Local access # is:

POLAND (+4 Warshaw 470-1222

Not aware of your exchange rate but these rates do beat the rates I first reported some time ago. I would advise that rates and local accesses are subject to change. Their original rate to Liechtenstein cells was like 12 cents. Now it has jumped to 70 cents.

In the US you can arrange for PINless dialing. That does not work on any of the local access or overseas toll free #s.

If you sign up for $50, they will give you $10 free. I was skeptical the first time and failed to take advantage of that offer -- that was about 2 years ago. No sure how much someone in Poland would use this kind of service.

BUT.... If you can tolerate not being able to track your calls online or otherwise and trust them, I would do it. I have spent nearly $40 of my first $50 and am generally pleased with them. They have recently added lots of US local access #s bringing the domestic rate down to 1.9 cents per minute. The local access rate to Germany is 2.5 cents and 2.4 cents from Germany to US. No connect fee, no maintenance fee, no taxes. In my experience a good rate. The USA to German cell rate of 28 cents is, however, nothing to bragg about but it is typical of rates I have seen. My other standard LD card, Onesuite, has a rate of 26 cents per minute.


Stan

[Przemolog]

Originally Posted by snaimon

http://www.enjoyprepaid.com/enjoyprepaid/j...&to_country=289

They now have a LOCAL # with the following EZplan rates:

to UK 4.7 us cents
to UK cell 28 us cents
5 cents toll free surcharge

Local access # is:

POLAND (+4 Warshaw 470-1222

Good rates - I don't know any local calling card here that can bit them .

OT - "Warshaw" - what a horrible spelling is that? Is this the German name for Warszawa - "Warschau" spelled according to English phonetic rules ?

And as to the number itself. From mobiles it's (+4 22 470 1222 (+48 may be skipped) and from landlines it's 0 22 470 1222.

Originally Posted by snaimon

Not aware of your exchange rate but these rates do beat the rates I first reported some time ago. I would advise that rates and local accesses are subject to change.

It's basically a very good idea to provide a landline access number in Poland since it can be accessed from any phone (unlike 00800 or 0800 numbers).

As to costs of accessing the landline number. The current exchange rate is about 1 zloty = 30 US cents.

From Polish prepaid SIMs rates to landline numbers vary from 7.5 cents to 24 cents with 1/1 debiting.

From public payphones it's all more complicated.

The real cost depends on the payphone card nominal.

Cards are loaded with billing units of constant monetary value.
The unit on the 60-unit card is worth 12 cents, on the 30 unit - 15 cents and on the 15 unit - 18 cents. Each call costs the multiple of the value of units - the debiting is made in "money" intervals, not time intervals.

If the call is a local one i.e. within the same "numbering zone" (e.g from Warsaw to a 022 number), the the units are "consumed" each 2 min 13.3 secs.

If the call is a long distance one between the zones (e.g. from Gdansk - zone 58 to a 022 number), then the units are "consumed" each 49.18 secs.

So the real cost of the call is a fee per unit multiplied by the number of the time intervals (the multiple of 12, 15 or 18 cents).

The same rules apply also to all other calls (but the intervals for which one unit is enough may be different, of course )

00800 numbers and some share cost number (0801 1, 0801 2) are charged one unit per call.

Payphone cards should be sold at "recommended retail prices" 24, 15 or 9 zlotys. However those prices are guaranteed only at post offices and Polish Telecom shops. Some small retailers like newsagents often add 8-15% to the prices above.

Originally Posted by snaimon

Their original rate to Liechtenstein cells was like 12 cents. Now it has jumped to 70 cents.

70 cents from Poland? There are better deals even with direct dialing from local prepaid SIMs .