Telephone Charges 9: Changes from 1st July 2015
Freephone Numbers
No. 2 of this series (dated 17/04/2014) reported that 0500, 0800 and 0808 calls are free from UK landlines, but mobile users are normally charged. From the 1st July, calls to 0800 and 0808 will be free for mobile users.
Confusingly, the same is not true for 0500. Ofcom (the regulator) advises “0500 numbers are not part of these changes and calls from mobiles to these numbers may still be charged for. Ofcom has decided that the 0500 number range will be withdrawn from use in 2017.”
Revenue Sharing
This is the euphemism for the organisation you are calling dipping their fingers into your telephone bill. The new euphemism will be “service charge” and the system will work as follows.
Your telephone company will make an “access charge” for calling any 08 (except freephone), 09 or 118 number. Organisations using rip off numbers (0843, 0844, 0871, 0872 and some 118 and 09 numbers) will add a “service charge”. A typical existing wording is “Calls cost x pence per minute from a BT landline. Other landlines may vary and calls from mobiles may cost considerably more”. From the 1st July, we can expect to read “Calls cost y pence per minute plus your phone company’s access charge”.
This is a small step in the right direction, but there is a major omission as 070 numbers are not included. As warned in earlier notes, 070 numbers look like normal mobiles, but they are very expensive to call.
(04/05/2015)
