NumberGroup ramping up 0845 rental from £1.60 to £10/month

isofa

Numbergroup (http://www.numbergroup.com/) have just bumped their charges up to £10 per month now, rather than £1.60 a month (they do allow 10 numbers, but most using this have 1 or 2).

In a few months (since Dec 2011) for 0845 numbers they've gone from free to £120 rental per year. For small business requiring these numbers (such as us, to filter calls), this is getting expensive, and what will stop them putting up fees again in a few months.

Does anyone know if you can move an 0845 number from one provider to another? As there are others only charging £5/month or less...

(Another thread here about bill for unused numbers: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3770107)

property.advert

I'd stop alienating customers with a chargeable 0845 number and get a proper geographic number which people can call from their inclusive mobile minutes.

isofa

property.advert wrote: »

I'd stop alienating customers with a chargeable 0845 number and get a proper geographic number which people can call from their inclusive mobile minutes.

Whilst you are entitled to your opinion, I completely disagree, our customers certainly aren't alienated – fortunately I have a successful 20 year old business to back this up. We use different 0845s for different projects, all 0845s are inclusive minutes on BT call packages and have been for years, still the misnomer that they aren't is widely spread. Those not on call plans/packages only pay a low rate. It has totally changed to how it used to be. 0845s are not to be confused with 0870 or "premium rate numbers" used to generate income for support ones.

I'd suggest reading and comparing BT rates here: http://www.productsandservices.bt.com/consumerProducts/displayTopic.do?topicId=25502

0845 routed numbers also allow many small and micro businesses to handle various projects and calls to different numbers routed to a landline, or auto-forwarded to a mobile when out of the office, instead of paying for costly multiple lines from BT etc.

Any useful advice on providers and moving numbers gratefully received.

instructorcolin

I to am outraged by the increase the latest one is 525%!!!!!
Seems to me that their business model was to suck in customers at low prices then once they are hooked sting them on prices.
Imagine multiplying up their increase by the thousands of customers they might have!
I wrote back to them and had an incredibly rude reply. Basically they said if I didn't like it when did I want to close my account.
I'll be leaving them as soon as I can put everything into place. They think they have a hold over small businesses like us because of the inconvenience of changing number - I haven't found a way to transfer it. If anybody does let us know!
In the meantime maybe this is a story that might interest "Watchdog"?

alunharford

isofa wrote: »

Whilst you are entitled to your opinion, I completely disagree, our customers certainly aren't alienated – fortunately I have a successful 20 year old business to back this up. We use different 0845s for different projects, all 0845s are inclusive minutes on BT call packages and have been for years, still the misnomer that they aren't is widely spread. Those not on call plans/packages only pay a low rate. It has totally changed to how it used to be. 0845s are not to be confused with 0870 or "premium rate numbers" used to generate income for support ones.

The trouble is that you don't know how many potential customers you've already alienated. I consider 0845 numbers to be premium rate so I don't call them - the business never finds out. I think that's pretty normal among 20-30 year old professionals who primarily use a mobile phone to make calls.

Whether that's an issue for you depends on the nature of your business - you might not care about my demographic or you might be so specialist that I'd be willing to call your 'premium rate' number to do business with you.

Call diversion costs £3.15 per month from BT though...

nick88

It's not just £10 a month - it's £12 including VAT. I'm probably just going to ditch this entirely and get new numbers, although I guess it could be possible for people to club together to keep their existing ones.

dacouch

I avoid businesses with 0845 numbers, they cost 40p a minute on T-Mobile, if there's no number on saynoto0870.com then I use another company.

martinthebandit

dacouch wrote: »

I avoid businesses with 0845 numbers, they cost 40p a minute on T-Mobile, if there's no number on saynoto0870.com then I use another company.

Yep, me too

and you just know that if you do ring them there will be several minutes of messages and options to listen too/select, once you get through that lot you then spend time listening to how important your call is etc.

You can easily spend a couple of quid or more before you even get to speak to anyone

dacouch

martinthebandit wrote: »

Yep, me too

and you just know that if you do ring them there will be several minutes of messages and options to listen too/select, once you get through that lot you then spend time listening to how important your call is etc.

You can easily spend a couple of quid or more before you even get to speak to anyone

With the added bonus of T Mobile charging you the 40p if it goes to an answer phone and I immediately hang up.

If I get straight through and the call last 5 minutes it costs me £2.00 which is not very MSE.

Annoyingly T-Mobile use mainly 0845 numbers to contact them (You can do most for free using 150 but trying to negotiate it is ridiculous) and they don't have numbers on saynoto0870.

I top my personal phone up with £15 to get 300 minutes to landlines and unlimited texts. I don't want to spend anything else on top of that if I can avoid it.

I remember when 0870 and 0845 numbers came out, they were sold to businesses to a) disguise they are small b) they were given away free or at low cost as the phone company made about 9p a call from the caller c) Some of the phone companies gave some of the cost back to their customer circa 4p

molerat

As far as I am concerned 0845 numbers are a "premium rate service", any business that wants my business over the phone will not get it with one of these numbers.

To the OP, now you know how we feel about getting ripped off.

nick88

They don't just provide 0845 numbers: they've got 020 and other geographic numbers, as well as the free of charge 0800 ones.

Not really sure why people would use 0845 numbers: you don't get any payback from numbergroup, and if you just want to hide the location, an 03 number is the same price to the caller as a geographic one.