118 call charges to be capped - MSE News

Former_MSE_Callum · 28 November 2018 at 9:42AM

People who call directory enquiry services will pay a maximum of £3.65 per 90 seconds from next April after a price cap was announced by Ofcom...

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'118 call charges to be capped'

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JJ_Egan · 28 November 2018 at 11:02AM

To late 118 **** have made enough to become a loan and credit card company .

boo_star · 28 November 2018 at 6:30PM

It's a shame that even though they're basically admitting that these services are far too expensive they won't admit that the 118 system was a complete failure from the consumer's perspective.

The old BT Directory Enquiries cost 40p to request 1-2 numbers in 2004, equivalent to 60p today. I doubt you could find a service that charges 60p as a call cost today let alone for the call cost + per minute cost.

littleboo · 28 November 2018 at 8:21PM

Its been a catastrophic failure, the regulator wont take any responsibility though.

Ian011 · 29 November 2018 at 1:07AM

The MSE article suggests looking numbers up on the internet, thereby missing the point that 118 services are used by people who do not have access to the internet or who find themselves in a position where they are unable or unwilling to use the internet. What is needed for these people is some publication that lists, compares and reviews the providers and rates their service provision and the cost. For those who do use the internet to look numbers up, many of them fall victim to the "call connection service" scam. Ofcom has proposed changes to the definition of Controlled Premium Rate Services to rein in this scam.

It seems that most people are unaware of anything other than 118118, and perhaps one or two others, and blindly call 118118 without realising the cost. The official price point is "£8.98 per call, plus £4.49 per minute after the first 60 seconds, plus Access Charge". 118118 describes the cost differently, presumably to make it look cheaper than it is. The article failed to mention anything other than the 118118 service. This would have been a good opportunity to mention some of the other much cheaper providers, or simply mention that hundreds of other providers exist, but that opportunity was missed.

The detailed list of DQ providers at
https://www.telecom-tariffs.co.uk/dialdirq.htm shows services with Service Charges as low as 35p per call.

Correction to MSE article: it is only the Service Charge set by the Service Provider that is being capped. Callers will continue to pay an Access Charge to their own landline or mobile provider as before. Currently, this can be up to 15p per minute from a landline or up to 58p per minute from a mobile.

giraffe69 · 29 November 2018 at 1:06PM

Something that enables people to compare the services would be a good idea but I suspect that the same people who end up shocked at the price would not read this anyway.
It is easy to get numbers online so those people who have a disinclination to do this are making a decision that will cost money. They can, of course use printed directories for business numbers. You can ring for a number but not let them do the connecting.
At some point people have to take a bit of responsibility. Even if there is a bit of welcome regulation it is always going to be an expensive way to get information.

pmduk · 29 November 2018 at 5:56PM

A little known trick for Virgin phone customers is that Directory enquiries is free for them on 118180, for the first 10 calls per day

118 call charges to be capped - MSE News

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