Dial Now 'Collect Call'

[mobaholic]

I have just received an email from Dial Now advertising a new feature to their service.

"New Feature!
 Collect Call
 The service of Dialnow was already very accessible, but now we have added an extra feature which will
 make the accessibility even better. This new feature is called "DialNow Collect Call" and will give you the
 opportunity to let your friends and family call you using your credits.

 With DialNow Collect Call you can decide who may use your account and therefore your credits to call
 you. Those persons can only call your number with this feature and you can start or stop this feature at
 any time.

 How does it work?
 In your DialNow account you can find the Collect Call option in the menu on the left.

 Step 1: Generate a Collect Call PINcode
 Step 2: Enter your own telephonenumber
 Step 3: Anyone who calls one of the available Collect Call access numbers and enters your PINcode will
 be connected to your telephonenumber.

 If you want to end this service, simply generate a new Collect Call PINcode or remove you own telephone
 number.

 We hope you will enjoy this new feature.

 Kind regards,

 DialNow"

Anyone tried this yet ?       

[andy]

Your news is the first I've heard of it, but I can confirm it's shown in the account

The generated PIN is different from the account PIN, and can be changed, and the access numbers are different as well, so it looks sensible and secure.

My account is actually based abroad, but a test call via and to a UK number rang fine - not answered, not charged

Useful idea for some people

edit - when I deactivated the number, the displayed PIN rolled over to a new one

[delaro]

that's interesting idea.. is it to use someone else's credit within uk or cross border as well??

[andy]

that's interesting idea.. is it to use someone else's credit within uk or cross border as well??

It's not to use someone else's credit. It's to set up call forwarding for other people to reach you at your own cost.

One example of how it could be useful: you're on holiday for a couple of weeks and get a local SIM there. Safe in the knowledge that you are much more of a phone nerd than friends and family, and you've seen their eyes glaze over when trying to explain a couple of cheap calls methods, you set up your DialNow account to allow forwarding to that foreign local SIM. They just call the London number, enter the PIN you told them about in a brief text message or however, and your German/Maltese/Egyptian/wherever-you-are phone rings.

In similar vein, you can help people abroad to call you here, provided they are in a country with a DialNow access number (the list is now 47 countries), and you forward the account to your landline or mobile here as preferred

[andy]

Of course if even that sounds a bit complicated, you could get your own dedicated number to forward from a choice of other providers. For foreign numbers, Localphone is worth a look as the monthly number rental is pretty good.

[delaro]

thanks very much andy for clarifying it