The Localphone Blog

Please Note: The following announcement only applies to customers billed in British Pounds or Euros. Users with USD accounts will be unaffected.

The recent changes in the UK’s VAT rate—from 17.5% to 15%, and back to 17.5% this year—highlighted a number of weaknesses with our current model, where VAT is reflected in our per-minute rates.

In an effort to be more open and flexible with our billing practices from April 1st we will be reducing all of our call, SMS, and Incoming Number rates for new and existing customers by 17.5%, and adding a 17.5% charge at checkout under the heading “taxes, surcharges, and fees”. All prices on the website will be shown inclusive or exclusive of VAT at your preference.

We will also be reducing your current balance to reflect this change, but it is important to stress that no customer will be worse off as a result.

Example

Bob has a balance of £10 and is currently paying 10p per minute for his calls. This means that he has 100 minutes of talk time remaining.

On April 1st we will reduce Bob’s balance by 17.5% to £8.51 (£10 / 1.175), but also our rate per minute will go down to 8.5p per minute. Bob will still have 100 minutes of talk time remaining.

When Bob places a £10 order in the future, VAT will be added and he will pay £11.75. We will, however, give the option of reducing the order to £8.51 of credit for which he will pay £10.

I hope this e-mail provides a full explanation and plenty of notice for the upcoming change. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions.

Thanks to the overwhelming response to our half price SMS promotion last month we’ve already managed to negotiate better rates with our suppliers. I’m pleased to announce that we’re passing these savings straight on to you!

Below are our new rates to countries that have been reduced:

These new rates are effective immediately and you don’t need to change a thing. I hope you’ll enjoy our new, even cheaper international SMS messaging.

It’s time for another big Localphone promotion. This time we’re offering calls to a whopping 43 countries for 1¢ / 0.5p / 0.8c or less throughout March.

This offer is available for all new and existing customers. For full details and a list of the countries involved please check the Localphone Promotions page.

Don’t forget you can even call for free by recommending Localphone to your friends and family with our Recommend-a-Friend scheme.

To keep up-to-date with this and all Localphone promotions you can follow @localphone on Twitter or become a fan of the Localphone Facebook Page.