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How to call 101?
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Ian011
Posts: 2,432 Forumite
Calls to the police non-emergency 101 number will be free in all cases from April 2020.
Ahead of this change, there are some providers who have already made these calls free. These include all giffgaff mobile phones, all Vodafone pay-as-you-go mobile phones, all Virgin Media landline phones and all Virgin Mobile mobile phones.
Calls to 101 have always been free from a BT payphone callbox.
Other landline and mobile providers still charge 15p per call for calls to 101. For those callers who are unable to call 101 (such as pay-as-you-go users with only inclusive calls), most police forces have an ordinary 01, 02 or 03 number:
http://web.archive.org/web/20171002180022/https://www.police.uk/contact/#alternative-numbers
Where the caller has inclusive calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, these calls can be made at no additional charge - thus avoiding the 15p charge.
Where the caller pays a per-minute rate for calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, it would be cheaper to call 101 at 15p - irrespective of call length.
Ahead of this change, there are some providers who have already made these calls free. These include all giffgaff mobile phones, all Vodafone pay-as-you-go mobile phones, all Virgin Media landline phones and all Virgin Mobile mobile phones.
Calls to 101 have always been free from a BT payphone callbox.
Other landline and mobile providers still charge 15p per call for calls to 101. For those callers who are unable to call 101 (such as pay-as-you-go users with only inclusive calls), most police forces have an ordinary 01, 02 or 03 number:
http://web.archive.org/web/20171002180022/https://www.police.uk/contact/#alternative-numbers
Where the caller has inclusive calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, these calls can be made at no additional charge - thus avoiding the 15p charge.
Where the caller pays a per-minute rate for calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers, it would be cheaper to call 101 at 15p - irrespective of call length.
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Comments
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This isn't new news, it was reported last May:
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/05/non-emergency-police-calls-to-become-free-/0 -
That MSE article covers the information contained in the first sixteen words of my post.
None of the other topics in my post are mentioned in the MSE article.0 -
Just Dial and Call it's that simple.1
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vgoel922 said:Just Dial and Call it's that simple.
Very Droll. I assume you didn't read beyond the title. In that case, you would probably be unaware that for callers on a pre-pay deal with inclusive calls, calls to 101 always fail unless the caller adds an additional £5 or £10 voucher for making calls to non-inclusive and premium rate numbers. For those people, and for others who wish to avoid the 15p charge, there is the option to call the inclusive 01, 02 or 03 number listed in an archive of the police website.0 -
I saved the relevant number in advance, it's much easier than searching for it when in a hurry, even in a 'non-emergency' situation!0
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