Are companies moving away from 0845/0870 numbers?

shadowspy24

Maybe I'm being paranoid but ever since 0845/0870 numbers became free on BT and TalkTalk, I get the suspicious feeling that companies are changing their numbers to 0844/0871/0843 etc. The biggest example i can think of is Sky who advertise 08702404040 on their channels that you don't have and when you call that number they ask you to call a 0844 number.

What difference does it make to companies if the 0845 calls are free to us? do they not get their extra money or something? Has anyone else noticed companies changing their 0845 numbers in favour of 0844?

Heinz

They get less revenue share on 0845 numbers (and none at all now on 0870).

Hence, they change to 0843/0844/0871/0872/0873 numbers so they can continue making us pay to call them and they can rake off a part of our call costs.

DonnyDave

shadowspy24 wrote: »

Maybe I'm being paranoid but ever since 0845/0870 numbers became free on BT and TalkTalk, I get the suspicious feeling that companies are changing their numbers to 0844/0871/0843 etc. The biggest example i can think of is Sky who advertise 08702404040 on their channels that you don't have and when you call that number they ask you to call a 0844 number.

I think BT and Talk Talk (perhaps others) made these calls inclusive in anticipation of the removal of premiums on 0870 that supported revenue sharing.

So Sky et al made the move because of the change in the regulations where they would loose the revenue which happened on 1 August.

shadowspy24 wrote: »

What difference does it make to companies if the 0845 calls are free to us? do they not get their extra money or something?

It makes no difference. Your telephone company covers the cost of these calls regardless. Thus, the cost of the calls are passed back to its customers.

shadowspy24 wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed companies changing their 0845 numbers in favour of 0844?

0844 is the new 0870.

There's not an awful lot of difference in the "premiums" associated with 0844 numbers and those that used be on 0870. During the daytime 0844 is only a bit lower charge than 0870 used to be.

shadowspy24

Ok. Thanks for your replies, i guess i was right then. Pretty soon everyone will be on 0844/0843/0871 etc and having free 0845/0870 will be pretty much pointless.

DonnyDave

shadowspy24 wrote: »

Ok. Thanks for your replies, i guess i was right then. Pretty soon everyone will be on 0844/0843/0871 etc and having free 0845/0870 will be pretty much pointless.

Calls within packages aren't "free"; they are paid for through fixed subscriptions ("line rental") and other charges.

0845 calls cost providers like Talk Talk and BT more. So over all, costs will be higher if they are inclusive.

The only way for us to stop paying the rip-off premiums associated with them is for organisations to stop using them or for the regulations to be changed, as happened with 0870. Even then, some providers such as Virgin Media and the mobile companies chose to continue imposing a premium, even though they no longer had to pass it on.