I'd always thought that ringing an 0845 number was more expensive than ringing an 01 or 02 number. Can someone put me right on this please?

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It is as far as I am concerned as my 01 & 02 numbers come free with my package. Also 08 numbers from a mobile cost an arm and a leg.

hansi wrote on Nov 22^nd, 2007 at 9:55am:

I'd always thought that ringing an 0845 number was more expensive than ringing an 01 or 02 number. Can someone put me right on this please?

It depends.  I use 18185 to make UK 01/02 calls weekday daytimes - so pay 5p for a call of unlimited duration.

Assuming that same 'weekday daytime' (i.e. peak) call, someone with a BT Together Option 1 residential landline would pay:

6p connection + 3.25p/minute to call any UK 01/02 number but

6p connection + 2p/minute to call any 0845 number.

Off peak 01/02 calls costs 4.5p for up to an hour but off peak 0845 rates vary because BT now charges daytime/evening rates 7 days a week - see HERE.

So, arguably, it could be said that the average punter (i.e. lethargy = still sticking with the GPO) would pay less to call an 0845 number.

Broadband Talk with BT option one lets you speak for an hour evenings and week ends for nothing on 01 & 02 numbers. So 08 numbers will cost.

Well if you want VOIP, there are plenty of providers that don't charge anything at all for 01/02 numbers....

Post Office HomePhone charges nothing extra for free 01/02 calls in the evening and at the weekends.  0845 calls still rack up at a penny per minute.

Some shyster or other at a high level in BT NTS marketing only recently decided to lower the price of 0845 daytime calls to 2p per minute from 3p per minute to try and confuse the issue with journalists and the public.  They have no commercial basis for charging more to carry a call to an 01/02 number than an 0845 in the weekday daytime.  If this is investigated by the EU there will be a finding against BT that this is an anti competitive move (because their actual costs in routing the call to 0845 are much higher than for 01/02).  In the old days when Ofcom controlled BT's prices they would not have allowed BT to do this.

The Motley Fool have produced a guide to comparing phone call costs called "Expensive Phone Numbers"[size=14][/size] : ---

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/money-saving-tips/household-bills/2007/12/14/were-talking-telephone-numbers.aspx?source=ioowftxt0010011

There are a number of interesting comments with this article, some of them complaining about doctors using 0844 numbers.

The topic of the cost of 0845 calls has been raised last month in this thread:

http://www.saynoto0870.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1193999940


Quote:

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/money-saving-tips/household-bills/2007/12/14/were-talking-telephone-numbers.aspx?source=ioowftxt0010011

the costs for 0845 and 0870 calls are incorrect in this article.  They have been reduced as of 1 August 2007. The timebands are also wrong.

As are the 0844 & 0871, which despite what the article claims are not "fixed" at 5ppm & 10ppm respectively, but have bands ranging from ½ppm to 5ppm for 0844 and up to 10ppm for 0871, (can't recall the lowest band rate for those!).