Avoid paying premium rates for 08*** numbers

Many organizations hide behind 0870 / 0845 numbers which are charged at up to 8p/min (earning revenue for the organization while the customer is kept on hold) - whereas most people could use the real geographic UK phone number to contact the organization much more economically, since a number of phone providers now charge 0p/minute for calls at any time of day - and just a small flat rate connection charge of around 5p for calls up to an hour.

It's been posted before, and besides, premium rate numbers begin 09 not 08.

Depends on your definition of the phrase premium rate really.

I've always considered it means something for which you have to pay a premium (i.e. a higher-than-normal rate) so, using BT's standard residential pricing as 'the norm', any call which costs more than the cost of a ordinary UK phone call (3p per minute on a weekday), must be premium rate.

Therefore, calls to 055, 056, 07, 084, 087 and 09 numbers are premium rate and it is up to the caller to decide whether the additional service justifies the premium payable - e.g. is it worth paying a premium of an additional 3p per minute to call a mobile?
Last edited by Heinz : 13-03-2007 at 14:39

Anyone can edit wikipedia though to put in what they want.

Besides, this is what it says.

0870 and 0845 may cost more to call than a 01/02 number, but let's remember at one point they were set equally, and that call packages such as the "flat rate, unlimited 01/02 calls" and the fact that in other ways, telecoms companies have made calling 01/02 numbers more favourable, but this does not make them premium rate.

I pay more to call non-Orange mobile numbers on my phone, and 0800 is charged at standard rate. Does that mean that I should be calling 0800 numbers premium rate?

Just because certain groups have to pay more to call it, does not make it a premium rate number, it just makes it more expensive.

Which is why I had second thoughts about using the Wickipedia link - not definitive enough.

Perhaps this dictionary definition of the phrase premium rate is closer to my personal interpretation.
Last edited by Heinz : 13-03-2007 at 15:16

Dictionary definitions, what Wikipedia says or whatever don't mean zip. That's just semantics.
The bottom line is that these calls cost more (sometimes a lot more) than calls to a normal geographic number.

This has been aired so many times, but it has been agreed on this forum more than once that anything over and above 3p per minute is PREMIUM RATE, whether or not the call begins with 08, 09 or anything else.

Even the newspapers are beginning to cotton onto this con of using 0870 numbers instead of landline numbers just to make money.

So every time I dial a number on my mobile it's premium rate?

Depends on how you define it. lol

If it's over 3p a minute, my lowest call charge is 10p a minute.

But you wouldn't, would you?

I tend to stick with the ICSTIS definition - ie, those whose numbers begin 09.

0870 and 0845 cost more than the equivalent local and national rate 01/02s, but they never used to, and the 01/02s have gone down in cost, and the myriad of different call packages have not included them, so they cost more.

Even so, they are not premium rate.

I wouldn't want to see it be done away with, there are some good calling services and other reasons why you would want to have an 0870. It allows companies or organisations to provide services that they wouldn't otherwise be able to provide free like information lines or sending out leaflets, or charities. It helps fund the operators for these services.

Companies see it as a way of people paying for the operators on the phone rather than you paying that amount on your bill. So if you're constantly on to them it costs you money, but if (like me) you are more likely to do internet banking and hardly ever contact companies on the phone you don't have to pay the price of everyone else's enquiries because they couldn't look it up on the internet or something.
Last edited by intheknow : 14-03-2007 at 02:34

Whatever the defintion 0870 etc, cost you, me and the local vicar more to dial, whether we use a landline or a mobile, i.e. we pay A PREMIUM, who gets what from this I leave for others to discuss, particularly those who care.

What get's me is that at least with iffy voting lines on IAC or dodgy quiz channels at least they are a) widely reported as being a total and utter rip off and b) they aren't kept disguised or hinted at NOT costing you and me more than making a normal call.

Whilst I agree with you on the above, what really gets me is the premium I have to pay when companies such as Argos want you to ring an 0870 number to confirm the delivery instructions you have already given them and without calling, your delivery won't go ahead.

That little peice of profittering cost Argos the sale of a leather 3-piece suite and a double bed, costing over £1500, when I cancelled the order in protest against the use of 0870. ( cancelled by going into the shop, not ringing on their 0870 number).
Last edited by poppasmurf : 15-03-2007 at 12:23

I don't agree with it, but I can see why they do that. A 3 piece suite and double bed will not be small enough even to be delivered by courier and will cost Argos a significant amount to deliver, and you need to make sure that when they deliver it, you'll be available to save them making more than one trip.

Ringing to confirm this has a sound logic - but it would be better on an 0800 number - even so, that would cost me 35p per minute daytime on my mobile.