Are all 0800 completely free from a landline ?

superfurry

Saw an ad for a Free Remortgaging Guide in the Business section (p2) of the Sunday Times. Phone no. is 0800 389 8882 but it states below it "charged at national rates" What's going on ? I thought all 0800 numbers were free. BTW , if you want one quote TTG1206. I don't mind paying 5p for the privilige, but was just curious.

pricefighter

All calls to freephones 0500/0800/0808 are normally not chargeable from a landline.

pinkonion

Theoretically telco's can charge fo calls to them (like mobile companies mostly do) but the 1st one that did would probably lose a lot of customers very quickly.

bbb_uk

pinkonion wrote:

Theoretically telco's can charge fo calls to them (like mobile companies mostly do) but the 1st one that did would probably lose a lot of customers very quickly.

I assume (under OfCOM constraints) that BT have to provide free access to these numbers but the likes of Telewest/NTL and mobile companies can charge for calls to freephone numbers.

Only BT are under price constraints and the likes of NTL/Telewest can charge what they like and OfCOM can't do anything (unless exceptional circumstances) as only BT have SMP (Significant Market Power) and hence why OfCOM can (to a certain degree) impose price constraints.

pricefighter

BT are required to provide free landline access.The only time that i think alternative providers other then BT might charge you is if you were calling an alternative carrier,or a calling card service.After all what is the point of a Freephone Number if you cant phone it for free.What attraction would there be for you to pay for the Customers Calls, if they were paying again.

Work is being undertaken by the COI, together with other bodies, to see if they can address the problem of mobile operators charging for freephone calls,particularly in the area of genuine help lines.Orange(Contract) are the only network that allows these calls for free to all freephone numbers, except some alternative carriers numbers. However Virgin i believe do not charge for freephone calls to certain help lines.