Thanks for the inspiration from your website.  I have now sent the following message to all banks, insurance companies and suppliers who offer me customer services from 08 numbers. Note the insistence that my telephone preference must be included in my customer record under the provisions of DPA98.  If they fail to comply, do you think I can take my case to the Information Commissioner's Office?

"Under the provisions of the UK Data Protection Act 1998, I require you to amend my customer record to show that I will only contact you by telephone using a number beginning with 01 or 02.  Because we have an 'inclusive landline calls' phone package, any telephone numbers beginning with 0844, 0845, 0870, or 0871 are not included in our 'free minutes' allocation, unlike 01 and 02 (geographical) numbers. If you require me to respond to your enquiry by telephone, you MUST provide me with a standard national number, that is, one which begins with a UK geographical area code. (A telephone number I can use to call you from abroad may be suitable for this purpose.)   Failure to comply with this request will deny you the opportunity to resolve customer relations issues with me by telephone."

I have now written to the Information Commissioner as follows and I will post any replies received from ICO on this forum.

"Dear Data Commissioner,

I understand that under DPA 98 (and supplementary provisions) a data subject may require communications preferences to be accurately recorded.  I have written to suppliers requiring them to show on my customer record that I will not speak to them by telephone if I am unable to call them back on a telephone number beginning with 01 or 02.  The reason for this is that numbers beginning with 0844, 0845, 0870, or 0871 are not included in our 'free minutes' allocation, unlike 01 and 02 (geographical) numbers.  

Where a Company’s Data Controller refuses to enter this communications preference on my customer record,  will the Data Commissioner be happy to progress my complaint under DPA 98?"

Correct me if I am wrong, but my reading of the law, the company have offered a method of contact for you to use, it does not have to come out of your "free minutes" or such as long as they offer a method of contact. It doesn't have to be a standard geographical number

The intention here is not to take legal action against a company who refuse to give a geo number; that would be impossible.  The intention is to draw attention to the groundswell of opinion by requiring them to register my (our) objection to non geo numbers in the data they hold about us as individuals.  My guess is that under DPA 98, companies MUST register our preferrences for preferred communication methods.

For example, I am in dispute over an inaccurate electricity meter reading.  An 0845 number is printed on the bill.  I have asked the Data Controller at the electricity company to register my objection to using non geo numbers under the field which stores my communications preferences.  Now I have the company communicating with me by email to try and resolve our protracted dispute.  If we all did this (under pain of DPA 98) then the system of non geo numbers for customer services would rapidly fall around their ears.  

The legal point is about the right as Data Subjects to have our objections formally recorded in the personal data which companies must maintain accurately.  Hope this explains my fiendish plan.

Without going into too much discussion, this is a worthy project.

Do not forget that numbers beginning 03 are now in use to address your situation. They must be charged on exactly the same basis as 01 and 02 and are included in call plans. Some 03 numbers are reserved for use by the public sector, but those beginning 0345 etc. are intended for direct conversion from 0845 etc.

Users of 03 numbers cannot receive revenue share, so the cost of using them has to be paid for in full. Those with an interest in good quality customer service should however be quick to adopt them, once they know about this option.