By Alex Lane on Fri, 2nd March 2012
The good
- Low-cost broadband and phone
- Pre-paid no-contract landlines
- Eco Saver ‘green’ phone offer
- Broadband optimisation service
The bad
- No broadband-only tariff
- No pre-paid broadband
- No broadband-plus-anytime calls option
The Primus Saver service is provided by New Call Telecom, a new, young and dynamic telecoms company which is owned and managed by an experienced team of UK communications specialists.
It’s target is the market for low-cost phone packages and bundled broadband-and-phone deals. It offers two of the cheapest broadband bundles around, with a typical 20Mbps ADSL2+ service and a choice of 20GB or unlimited monthly downloads. Primus Saver also offers special technical call-outs for broadband installation or to speed up your connection by tidying up your home phone wiring.
Its landline-only deals are inclusive of line rental and are among the most affordable for either weekend-and-evening calls or anytime calls. It’s also possible to combine your phone service with an unusual service that sees Primus Saver donate to The Tree Council for planting new trees.
It’s standout offers are in pre-pay landlines, where you can pay for your line rental and calls up to a year in advance, on rates that are highly competitive with monthly contracts.
New Call Telecom says it has a strong focus on UK operations and will be enhancing the Primus Saver services further with great features and the fantastic call rates which saw it achieve its position as one of the best value services in the UK.
Our rating: 
3
User rating: 
3
As a telephone operator first, Primus Saver doesn’t offer a broadband-only deal, but then it would be hard to undercut its own prices.
Its broadband packages are all ADSL2+ where available, going up to 24Mbps, with no connection fees and a free wireless router (plus £4.95 postage), line rental is included, with free evening and weekend UK landline calls and free UK customer service calls. The minimum contract is for 18 months.
The eponymous Primus Saver package has a 20GB monthly allowance for £15.78/month, while Primus Max gives you unlimited downloads for £21.78/month, subject to a fair use policy. Exceeding the Saver allowance is charged at £2.00 per GB.
If you’re not comfortable setting it up yourself, you can book an installation visit for £79. The tech will install your router, set up your wireless home network and Primus Saver email account. They will also carry out a speed test and improvements on your line, including small internal wiring changes that will ensure your line achieves its fastest potential speed. The engineer will take you through any improvements or suggestions whilst on site, gaining permission from you at all stages in the process.
If you’re not happy with your broadband speed and want to make sure it’s as fast as possible, you can have a Broadband Speed Optimisation visit. A tech guy can visit your home and carry out a wide range of line tests, wireless router checks and improvements on your broadband connection. This may includes small internal wiring changes, such as unused extension socket disconnection, that will help increase the chances of your line achieving its fastest potential broadband speed. They can also add telephone extensions around your home at £30 each.
Cheap phone calls are the bread-and-butter of Primus Saver, with very aggressive packages including line rental, and the chance to do some good for the environment as you talk.
The Home Phone Saver deal gives you line rental and free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines (01, 02 and 03 numbers), for £8.99/month on an 18-month contract. Home Phone Max gives free UK landline calls at any time for £15.98/month on an 18-month contract. Both packages include voicemail.
The Primus Saver and Primus Max broadband packages also both come with free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines (01, 02 and 03 numbers).
If you want to do some good for the world, Primus’s Eco Saver packages combine the benefit of low cost phone calls with help for the environment. Primus will make a donation to The Tree Council for every new customer who joins, to help mitigate the changing climate by investing in the planting of trees and hedges throughout the UK. The packages are the same as Saver and Max, but Eco Saver costs £9.69/month and Eco Max costs £15.68/month.
Free calls on inclusive packages can be up to 90 minutes each. Daytime UK landline rates are 7.4p/minute, UK mobiles cost 12p/min at weekends, 14p/min evenings and 16p/min daytime, while 0845 and 0870 numbers cost a flat rate of 6p/min. There’s also a 12.9p connection fee for each chargeable call outside your free deal.
Extra call features - call barring, call divert, call waiting, caller display, ring back, and three-way calling - cost £2.50/month. Anonymous caller reject costs £3.50/month.
If you need a new line or a BT line reactivating to get a Primus Saver service, that costs £59.
Pre-pay deals
An alternative way to get cheap line rental and control your costs is with short-contract pre-payment deals.
The Prepaid Saver Basic is a three-month contract where you pay £30 in advance for line rental (equivalent to £10/month), with calls UK landline calls costing 1p/min at weekends, 3p/min evenings and 7.4p/min daytime. A £35 payment (£11.67/month) adds free evening and weekend calls, and £40 (£13.33/month) gives you anytime calls. Other calls are charged as with Primus’s 18-month contracts.
Prepaid Saver Value covers six months in advance, on the same terms as the Basic deals at £56 (£9.33/month), £66 (£11/month) and £76 (£12.67/month) respectively.
Prepaid Saver Plus costs £99 in advance for a year’s line rental (£8.25/month) and Prepaid Saver Extra covers a year’s line rental and anytime UK calls for £150 (£12.50/month).
Primus Saver User Reviews
