The Localphone Blog

India has always been one of Localphone’s most popular calling destinations, and to say thank-you for your continued loyalty we’re going to be offering all calls to Indian landlines and mobiles at just 1p / 1.5¢ / 1.2c per minute for the rest of May.

Compared to our standard rates that’s a massive saving of up to 32%!

There has never been a better time to recommend Localphone to your friends and family. For example if they top-up just $15 you’ll earn enough for 100 minutes of talk time to any landline or mobile in India, and you’ll keep on earning more for any orders they place in the first 90 days of their account! For full details see our recommend-a-friend page.

For full details of this promotion please see our cheap calls to India page.

I hope you’ll enjoy this new low rate for your calls in May. Please take a moment to become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and let us know any suggests or feedback you have for the site or service.

Last month we reduced the cost of international SMS messaging to 30 countries, and now we’re ready for another round of savings.

Below are our new per-SMS rates to countries you have SMS’d or called. These new rates are effective immediately and you don’t have to change a thing:

To keep up to date with the latest Localphone news don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and become a fan of our Facebook page.

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.