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Originally Posted by 0700700
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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
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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.