All About Dollars and Cents
1800 and 1300 numbers cost a lot less than most people think. From as little as $15 per month, which includes call credits, you can get a 1300 or 1800 number for your business.
Both 1800 and 1300 numbers are virtual numbers that must be routed to an answering point, which can be either a landline or a mobile number. The numbers can only be used for inbound calls which means you can only receive calls and not make any calls out. So the charges for 1300 and 1800 numbers only relate to inbound calls and vary slightly between the prefixes.
Business 1300 has plans starting from $15 per month, which is the monthly access fee. This is the minimum that you will pay per month. All of the plans have included calls built into them and the $45 monthly plan includes $45 worth of calls. Provided that your business generates $45 worth of inbound calls, this plan has an effective monthly access fee of $0.
Depending on the call origin (local, national or mobile) and where the 1300/1800 number is routed to (landline or mobile number), each inbound call is charged at the applicable rate. Similar to mobile and landline plans, the call rates reduce with a higher monthly commitment i.e. $15, $30 or $45 per month.
Call origin is dependent on the area in which the answering point (the landline number nominated to accept all calls to the 1300/1800 number) resides. If the 1300/1800 number is routed to an Australian mobile, there is only one rate applicable to all calls, regardless of origin.
If the number is routed to an Australian landline, there are three types of call origin and all rates are charged in per second increments:
Local Calls – rate applicable to all calls made to the 1300/1800 number from a local landline. Call rates can be as low as 5c per minute.
National Calls – rate applicable to all calls made to the 1300/1800 number from a landline number outside the local area. Call charges can be as low as 5c per minute.
Mobile Calls – rate applicable to all calls made to the 1300/1800 number from any Australian mobile. Mobile call rates can be as low as 10c per minute.
Based on a recent analysis of Business 1300 call records, the average length of an inbound call is 156 seconds or just over 2.5 minutes. So depending on the plan, calls to the 1300/1800 number can on average cost as little as 12.5 cents.
Considering the benefits, 1300 and 1800 numbers cost relatively little and come with many free features and functions. Features such as Auto Attendant, Promotional Messages, Voice 2 Email, Time Based and Geo Routing Options make them a powerful business tool that should easily fit into any business budget.