Has anyone any experience of using the companies which offer call charge savings against the PT tariff? The main advantage seems to be to get calls to the UK at any time of day for less than the PT rate. Does this work in practice? Any snags?

I would be interested to hear about the companies you mention, do you have any names or web addresses?

The one I was most interested in was World Brokers Telecom. They have a web site at www.world-brokers.com

Calls to UK are 11 centimos a minute plus IVA 24 hours a day which undercuts my PT weekend rate with family discount of 15%.

It all looks OK but to some extent it depends on how call costs are calculated and I wanted to see if anyone had experience of the system.

It is strange how serious enquiries which affect residents do not seem to attract much response whereas some of the frivilous stuff fills the pages. It makes you wonder how many of the people who post actually live here. Time for a residents corner perhaps?

Theres always the Property Owners Section !! Of course lots of people who post do not live in Carvoeiro needless to say they do make a valid contribution to the forum.

Oh come on Steve - you think we are stupid? Read through your first post – it does not sound genuine – and your second post confirms our suspicions. You are plugging www.world-brokers.com . Yes?

What a cynical lot. I can assure you that my first post was entirely genuine. I have no connection with any of the companies who offer reduced price calls. I am retired and am happy not to be involved with work.

I was trying to be helpful by responding to the enquiry posted in response to my message. I mentioned the one company I can remember. I picked up a card for another company at the St Vincent's fair last week but cannot now find it.

After having had a villa here since 1988 I moved out permanently about 18 months ago. Believe me it is very different being a permanent resident trying to pick one's way through the system than coming out for holiday breaks somewhat divorced from the realities of life here.

Many things here are much more expensive than in the UK and I am happy to pass on information which can help to keep costs down. I had assumed that other people would feel the same.

Steve, perhaps no one knows the answer to your query.…and would rather avoid the question…… The telecoms industry uses “confusion marketing” most effectively……..meaning: no body, including you, knows what anything costs anymore…..

Hi Steve
We have signed up with world-brokers just this week so of course don't know yet if we will find there's a saving on our phone bills, certainly on paper looks as if there should be.
We were also at the St Vincent's fair at the fatacil!

There is only one piece of advice I can give people who use these cheap "alternatives":

Keep all bills and original invoices, and I do mean all of them.

A few years back a similar company I believe called HLC went broke. Several months later the company handling the insolvence decided to write almost every client claiming that they had not paid some bills in the past and threatened to go to court if they did not pay up immediatly. Needless to say that a lot of the former HLC clients, who were scared and due to not having kept the invoices and reciepts could not proove them wrong, ended up paying.

I am not suggesting that every one of these companies is going to go broke, but it is better to be safe than sorry.

The latest edition of Euro News has an advert from Smart Call (www.smartcall.tv) which offers very cheap call rates using a prepayment system. The call charges are all by the second ie no first minute minimum charge and do not arise until the number called has answered.

Anyone have any experience of this one? It looks almost in the too good to be true category.