http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/content/16886.asp?men=2&sub=6

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O2 makes customers pay to call 0870
12:31AM Wed 19 September 2007

O2 has defended its decision to remove 0870 and 0845 numbers from its inclusive minutes bundles, ahead of Ofcom's attempts to restore consumer confidence in the numbers.

The new measure from O2 will kick in from 28 September, bringing it into line with the other operators, none of which include so-called 'non-geographical numbers' in their 'free' minutes.

The move to charge customers for calling 0870 and 0845 numbers comes amid growing consumer concern about the costs incurred when calling businesses and services. An increasing number of businesses ditch landline numbers in favour of 08 numbers.

O2 contract customers will have to pay £1 for a five-minute call to an 0870 and 0845 number; prepay users will be charged £1.50.

An O2 spokesperson said: 'Our customers have enjoyed five years of being able to call non-geographical numbers from within their inclusive bundle.'
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What a great defence then!

It may not be the greatest defence but in all fairness to o2, they were the only mobile provider that I know of that was still including these minutes in inclusive allowances.  Many other mobile providers started charging for these numbers a very long time ago (some many years ago).

I believe this decision was inevitable and unfortunate because many customers will probably just shop around now and can concentrate on which network provides the better deal with regards to phone, mins and texts.  I think many o2 customers kept with them because they included these minutes which lets face it, it can be impossible to avoid ringing these numbers in most cases because they are extremely common.

Hi

I don't know if this is the right thread or not but I just phoned to pay my O2 mobile bill using 0880005005 and got through no problems, if the reception was a bit bad right enough, and managed to pay it no problems so didn't cost me anything.  If you want to pay your bill on your mobile you can dial 202 which is free. Both these numbers are free which to me is fine.... no complaints from this wee lady! :) ;) :) ;)