How international call billing works

Two calls of the same length can cost very different amounts depending on how they're billed. These are the things that decide the price of an international call.

1. The rate per minute

Each destination country has its own rate. It's the headline price, but not the whole story.

2. The billing step

Few calls last a whole number of minutes, so providers round up. How far they round matters:

• Per minute: a call of 2 minutes 5 seconds is charged as 3 minutes.
• Per second: charged as exactly 2 minutes 5 seconds.
• In 6-second steps (how DanaTel bills): rounded up to the next 6 seconds, so 2 minutes 5 seconds is charged as 2 minutes 6 seconds, or 2.1 minutes.

3. Connection fees and minimum charges

Some providers add a fixed charge to each call, or charge a minimum length. With DanaTel, a country's connection fee (if it has one) is shown next to its rate, and it's only charged on calls that are answered and last more than 10 seconds.

4. Calls that don't connect

Check whether you pay for unanswered or very short calls. With DanaTel, unanswered and busy calls are free, and so are calls of 10 seconds or less.

A worked example

Say a country costs 30p a minute plus a 10p connection fee, and you talk for 7 minutes 40 seconds. In 6-second steps that's 7.7 minutes: 7.7 × 30p = £2.31, plus 10p, so £2.41. Billed per whole minute, the same call would be 8 minutes: £2.40 plus 10p, £2.50.

These prices are only an example. See DanaTel's current rates.

5. How you pay

Prepaid credit means you can't run up a bill: you top up first and calls stop when the credit runs out. DanaTel has no subscription or monthly fee; you top up £5, £10 or £20 by card and the dialer shows the cost so far during each call.