MSE News: Calls to 084, 087, 09 and 118 to be clearer, but prices vary wildly

Ian011

The four 03 prefix ranges have different uses, but not different prices.

030 - reserved for public services, charities and healthcare organisations
033 - for any business or organisation
034 - reserved for migration from the matching 084 number
037 - reserved for migration from the matching 087 number

Ian011

Ofcom regulates the supply of, and suppliers of, telephone numbers, not users of these numbers. It was BIS that transposed the EU Consumer Rights Directive into the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 in the UK. Financial services have a separate, and usually far stricter, set of regulation than other businesses. In this case, the FCA dithered for two years before simply copying the BIS regulations.

118 for DQ is pan-European. Don't blame Ofcom. The pricing of these services is a complete rip-off. It surprises me that anyone would use them.

I am not sure what you mean by poor quality consultation processes. If anything, Ofcom has too many consultations.

trf0412

Ian011 wrote: »

The four 03 prefix ranges have different uses, but not different prices.

OK, so that explains why you listed them separately, but from the perspective of a consumer who is only concerned with knowing the cost of calls, I guess I just wanted to clarify that there is no need to know these different prefixes and it's safe to just go by the rule that ALL numbers starting 03 are charged the same.

Ian011

The only reason you might want to remember the four ranges is simply down to the fact that many users of 084 and 087 numbers have migrated to the matching 034 or 037 number.

In many cases, publicity material and advertising may be much slower to catch up and third-party websites may never be updated.

As such, wherever you see an 084 or 087 number advertised, always try calling the matching 034 or 037 number first. If it works it will be a cheaper call. If it doesn't, there will be no charge.

Grouchy

Well, I have just done a bit of homework and this is what I've come up with just a rough outline of possibilities for someone with an BT Anytime call package:

Based on a 1 hour call to the US -

Via 0330 number as given above (M-F 8-6) - cost £0

Via Justcall (bulk of charges BT) - cost £8

Dial Direct from BT landline - £12


I'd not looked into the BT charges for a long time because I'va always used a dial-through, but that seems like a lot of money for one call BT are charging.

Food for thought.

billsavings

Grouchy wrote: »

Well, I have just done a bit of homework and this is what I've come up with just a rough outline of possibilities for someone with an BT Anytime call package:

Based on a 1 hour call to the US -

Via 0330 number as given above (M-F 8-6) - cost £0

Via Justcall (bulk of charges BT) - cost £8

Dial Direct from BT landline - £12


I'd not looked into the BT charges for a long time because I'va always used a dial-through, but that seems like a lot of money for one call BT are charging.

Food for thought.

Why restrict yourself to using a 01/02/03 number that only operates between 8 and 6 M-F ? when overs dont eg https://www.callsdiscount.com

Another reasonably priced service you can use from your inclusive minutes 24/7 is https://www.localphone.com/call/united_states. Prepaid service.

But they allocate you dedicated 01/02/03 numbers pointed at your target numbers, so no two sets of numbers to dial.

Grouchy

billsavings wrote: »

Why restrict yourself to using a 01/02/03 number that only operates between 8 and 6 M-F ? when overs dont eg www.callsdiscount.com

Another reasonably priced service you can use from your inclusive minutes 24/7 is https://www.localphone.com/call/united_states. Prepaid service.

But they allocate you dedicated 01/02/03 numbers pointed at your target numbers, so no two sets of numbers to dial.

I think you've misread my post. I wasn't restricting myself to anything, nor encouraging others to do so. As noted right at the beginning of my post, it was a rough outline of possibilities, not a coverage of all and/or cheapest options. More a stark outline of variation on costs.

Glad I have got additional information/options from this thread.

redux

Grouchy wrote: »

I think you've misread my post. I wasn't restricting myself to anything, nor encouraging others to do so. As noted right at the beginning of my post, it was a rough outline of possibilities, not a coverage of all and/or cheapest options. More a stark outline of variation on costs.

Glad I have got additional information/options from this thread.

But it is exaggerated, picking only options at each end of the scale, and leaving out all of those in between, where realistic rates for that call are 1% to 10% of the maximum you gave.

Ed_Enuff

Grouchy wrote: »

Well, I have just done a bit of homework and this is what I've come up with just a rough outline of possibilities for someone with an BT Anytime call package:

Based on a 1 hour call to the US -

Via 0330 number as given above (M-F 8-6) - cost £0

Via Justcall (bulk of charges BT) - cost £8

Dial Direct from BT landline - £12


I'd not looked into the BT charges for a long time because I'va always used a dial-through, but that seems like a lot of money for one call BT are charging.

Food for thought.

You think that's bad? BT are charging £1.20 per minute to call a landline in Thailand. That's £72 per hour!!!

poppasmurf_bewdley

Ed_Enuff wrote: »

You think that's bad? BT are charging £1.20 per minute to call a landline in Thailand. That's £72 per hour!!!

Purely from a historical point of view, in 1967 it used to cost me £1 a minute to call the USA, so 20% increase in 48 years isn't too bad!