The great premium-rate helpline rip-off

Government departments and some of Britain's biggest companies are raking in huge sums of money at the expense of consumers through premium-rate helplines.

Consumer group Which? lists more than 30 organisations in its "hall of shame" of those that use higher-charging telephone numbers for their customer service or technical support services.

They include TV Licensing and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), as well as businesses Tiscali, British Gas and Barclays.

Organisations that use 0871, 0870, 0844 and 0845 numbers share the revenue from calls with the phone service provider -- meaning the longer a customer stays on the line, the more that organisation earns.

Which? researchers found that British Gas, AOL Broadband and the DVLA kept people hanging on the longest, with average waiting times of around three minutes. One call to AOL was held for more than 15 minutes.

A 10-minute call from a BT landline to a regular geographic number -- such as 01, 02 or the new 03 code -- costs 40 pence at most. But the same length of call to a 0870 or 0871 number can cost up to one pound.

The DVLA made 3.4 million pounds from its 0870 number in the last financial year. It says it plans to switch to a cheaper number but has not said when.

Industry regulator Ofcom introduced the 03 code, which cost the same as calling a geographic 01 or 02 number, last year.

It plans to stop organisations making money from 0870 numbers. But Which? found that none of the eight broadband companies, five utility firms and five government agencies it probed had switched to 03 numbers, and some had just switched from 0870 to other high-cost numbers.

Neil Fowler, editor of Which? magazine, said: "Why should you pay for the privilege of making a complaint or getting a problem fixed?

"It's unacceptable that companies and government agencies can make big money from people calling helplines."

Tiscali criticised the findings, saying researchers had failed to do a "thorough job".

"It (Which?) has missed the opportunity to highlight some of the very high rates charged on 0905 and 0906 numbers by Virgin Media and Orange, for example, who charge 25 pence and 50 pence per minute for broadband support," it said in a statement.

"Tiscali customers who take voice services too, which is the majority, pay a discounted 5 pence per minute for technical and billing calls and those who don't, pay 10 pence per minute, which is cheaper than or comparable to most lines in our industry."

source: reutors 30-05-2008

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