0845 phone bills! DWP and Tax credits

Helz_belz_3 · 11 February 2011 at 2:25AM

My partner and I have our phone with virgin media and were horrified this month to receive call charges of over £11.00 to benefit agencies.

0845 and 0844 are not free unless you are with BT!.

Keeping everyone up to date has certainly cost us especially when you can be on the phone over half and hour waiting for some one to answer.

Then only to be told you have to ring another office too.

Martin urgent action is needed on this as it is hitting the poorest of society.

calleyw · 11 February 2011 at 9:23AM

Why not use the website no to 0870.

Give numbers that are normally geographical. So free.

My husband got a rocket when he spent a £10 on his mobile calling 0845 numbers last month. When asked why he did he excuse was I forgot :mad:

Yours

Calley

p00hsticks · 11 February 2011 at 9:42AM

Helz_belz wrote: »

0845 and 0844 are not free unless you are with BT!.

I'm not sure that they are (or ever were) free with BT - I think 0845 nmber are what used to be the 'local rate' ones....

Aarons_mummy · 11 February 2011 at 10:06AM

I use say no to 0870 same as above poster. There is a number for CTC and I normally wait around 20minutes but free calls mean it's not really costing me anything, not sure about DWP though I'm sure if I looked there would be an alternative

zagfles · 11 February 2011 at 10:41AM

0845 should really be the same price as normal geographic numbers these days, if it's not then your phone company is ripping you off! Switch phone company!

Indie_Kid · 11 February 2011 at 11:06AM

This is why I use the phones down JCP.

Helz_belz_3 · 11 February 2011 at 12:33PM

0845 and 0870 numbers are not free on either virgin land line, or any mobile inclusive packages.

What we need is a "normal" land line no.

These calls are currently charged at 10p per minute.

30 minute call £3.00 and that is before you speak to some one.

If they give us a 01 or 02 no we can call from mobiles on call bundle packages and free from Virgin media too

ankspon · 11 February 2011 at 12:34PM

I think 0845 is free with talktalk

zagfles · 11 February 2011 at 12:45PM

davidhwdn wrote: »

I think 0845 is free with talktalk

On TT, BT, and my contract mobile, 0845 & 0870 are treated the same as a normal geographic number (eg 01..,02.. number), so if/when they're free, 0845 are free too, and where they're not it's the same price as a normal number. I thought this was now standard practice? Obviously some companies are still ripping callers off by charging more - but as someone else said the saynoto0870 website has geographic numbers for most govt departments.

tinktinktinkerbell · 11 February 2011 at 12:47PM

we are on talk talk and we get those numbers for free, you have to get the free any time calls for £4 a month for them

but IMO its worth it

thriftychick · 11 February 2011 at 2:42PM

It cost me £3.51 for a call to CTC as they kept me hanging on for 20 mins and that is at local call rate. Not only do we pay taxes to fund the service, we then have to pay again to use it!