18185 Reviews 26

Very hand service, but ´old/low’ tech and could do with a revamp to bring it into the 21st century.
I use it quite regularly for international calls to landline and mobile numbers.
It would be great however if there was a 18185 app, - or some other way that meant that you could directly use numbers already stored in your phone’s contacts.
As it is you have to always manually key in the phone number you want to call, even if that number is already stored in your phone’s contacts.

I was happy using the 18185 service for many years to contact friends all over the world but in the last few months BT has changed my telephone line to voice recognition connecting through the internet and I now have problems accessing the service which is most disappointing.

Been using it for years to ring family in Germany and Australia - cheaper than ringing UK!! - never had an issue and bills were correct.Thank you!!

I have been trying to resolve a problem with the change from credit card to direct debit payment. Although my bank tells me the DD is set up and fine (and I have checked the details are correct - on the website). Connect Telecom as it is now called has been unable to obtain payment from my bank. I have visited my bank and have emailed 'Connect Telecom' -as this is the only way that they allow communication - three times over a period of time - every time they cannot extract payment they cut me off - the problem seems to be 'unsolvable' and is driving me insane - can anyone help me please

Great savings over many years

We've had years of cheap 18185 calls on our land line, avoiding the ISP's high charges. When we moved to an ISP that blocked the number it was still worth using 18185's 0808 number from our landline.

For the last two years we haven't made outgoing calls on our landline but still used 18185 a bit to phone home from our mobiles.

Now we're using mobiles a lot more with better PAYG rates and are ditching the landline and broadband for a 4G router I unsubscribed.

Slight hiccup... unsubscribing blocks access to your account and I was emailed a final bill for just over £1 but when I checked my bank the direct debit was gone. It turns out banks must remove direct debits if not used for 24 months and I had no way to pay. I explained this in a message to 18185 .... got a prompt reply saying I could ignore the bill.

Highly recommended. In about a decade with 18185 there were maybe just five occasions when the service was too busy to connect.

So far I'm deeply underwhelmed. Based on a review from 2020 I decided to sign up my parent's BT landline. That was now three days ago and despite sending in 3 tickets on problems making repeated attempts to call from the nominated BT landline to a UK and an overseas mobile number, failing every time, I've heard nothing back. Conacting the company is now via a not very obvious to find ticketing system and the FAQ is next to useless. I get the feeling this is an extremely threadbare organisation that isn't sufficiently well manned to provide useful website information nor timely response to technical issues with its service. So, unless something radically changes in the next 24 hours I'll be cancelling the service.

I have used 18185 for many years, and not had the slightest problem. The call charges are so low, I have never bothered to shop around. Invoicing is acceptably straightforward, although the website feels a little dated now. I have never needed to use Customer Service.

Been a customer since Aug 2013. Very happy with the service as it compliments my ADSL Broadband and phone service where I only get included weekend calls. Mainly use for UK calls where they are currently 1.7p/min to landlines plus 4p connection setup charge. A small fraction of the 15p/min plus 23p setup charge that Plusnet would charge me. And no I don't want to buy an included call bundle as mostly use my mobile these days.

Excellent service, which I use to call France and Canada with absolutely no problems. I have the overseas landline numbers on my Panasonic (Plusnet line) with 18185 preceding them and it works perfectly every time.

Have been using the service for a couple of years now, purely for calls abroad to landlines and mobiles, no problems with calls or billing.

I have set up this service for my wife to ring her mother in Spain for 2p per minute! I have had no problems with the service, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone whose landline call provider does NOT offer a cheaper deal on an overseas destination desired by the client.
Works very well with Plusnet ( a BT company) as well as BT.
Great!!!

Doesn't work on a Vodafone landline even though it says it will. Customer service and fault reporting service are nonexistent.

very poor customer service - have trouble dialing into the 18185 network and was asking for advice. Delayed response which was also very unhelpful. No further contact after that.
Will cancel my membership/ contract.

Unable to call due to 'limit' from my phone but no mention of any limits anywhere. Am paying by direct debit. Called the Customer Services number only to be told they no longer handle queries for 18185. My query is not listed on their FAQs nor is there is there any direct way to contact them by phone or e-mail. One size does not fit all so no matter how many menus you go through regarding what the issue is, if you can't see an answer to your query you just need to ask a human being! Very frustrating, bordering on dodgy when I read people's reviews about billing issues. In all honesty I am a hairsbreadth away from cancelling altogether. Appalling customer service.

Their prices have gone up - so they are not as cheap as they used to be. also call quality for international calls isn't that great. Seems that once you are on the phone for a certain period of time, say 15 mins or more the call quality drops. so you have to redial - including connection fee :(

I have been with 18185 for many years but do not use very often now, mainly for feoreign calls when needed. This week i received an email stating that the small amout for the invoice sent to me a few days ago has been refused payment by my bank and their bank cannot tell them why. Can I please re-instate my bank details, as I may have changed my bank. I have not changed my bank, been with them for years. When I go into my account, all my past invoice history has disappeared, leaving the current invoice showing only. I went to my bank details to check the last few amounts of my bank account, nothing shows, just blank boxes for me to enter my account details. I sent an email to the address as advised for account queries, it has been returned (failed). Very upset about all of this and very cautious about giving my bank details. Wondering if 18185 has had an IT problem and has lost customer details or that the company is closing. Hoping very much uindeed someone has an answer.

Unable to settle small amount owed even after changing my bank card details 3 days ago. No email address can be found on their site despite their mentioning 'email us'.
infoAT18185.co.uk doesn't work.

I have been a member since 2012 and been totally satisfied. The system does everything that you want it to do, including notifying you when your credit card runs out. I have all my regular numbers, both mobile & landline listed with the prefix in our Panasonic handsfree phones so no hassle to use. The useful thing is that when people phone us their number still shows up as the caller. I highly recommend 18185.

Mainly subscribed for dialling BT uk landline with prefix 084 and 087 ('service' ), but to my disappointment, found 18185 does not save me any £ as their rates are identical to BT for same prefix numbers:
BT 084 - 10p/m; 18185 - 10p/m + BT connection fee
BT 087 - 13p/m; 18185 - 13p/m + BT connection fee
So for such and similar 'service' prefixes, 18185 is unattractive