Which? reveals most hated phone numbers

Study: 49% of people actively avoid calling 0870

23 October 2008

New Which? research shows that many people actively avoid calling revenue sharing and premium rate phone numbers, according to a Which? survey of attitudes to phone numbers among more than 2,000 Which? members.

Revenue sharing phone numbers - which include 0844, 0845, 0870 and 0871 - let organisations that use them share revenue from customers calls. They are almost always more expensive to call - from both landlines and mobile phones - than numbers starting 01 or 02. Many companies use them for customer service and support phone lines, and even some government departments still use them.

Premium rate numbers start 09 and are the most expensive type of number to call.

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Click here for full report


Which? also has a section of its website devoted to telephone numbers here.

‘Which’ spoils its report by making the manifestly untrue statement:

QUOTE   Which? publishes its 01 geographic phone number alongside an 0845 number (it doesn't receive any revenue from the 0845 phone number, but it offers the choice because for a minority of people 0845 is cheaper than a geographic number). END QUOTE

And contradicts its own findings.

Dave wrote on Nov 1^st, 2008 at 9:16am:

New Which? research shows that many people actively avoid calling revenue sharing and premium rate phone numbers, according to a Which? survey of attitudes to phone numbers among more than 2,000 Which? members.

Unfortunately, Which? members are not representative of the wider population. I wonder what the figures would be for the general population. I bet few people avoid these numbers, which is why so many companies continue to use them.

kk wrote on Nov 1^st, 2008 at 12:10pm:

‘Which’ spoils its report by making the manifestly untrue statement: QUOTE   Which? publishes its 01 geographic phone number alongside an 0845 number (it doesn't receive any revenue from the 0845 phone number, but it offers the choice because for a minority of people 0845 is cheaper than a geographic number). END QUOTE And contradicts its own findings.

You mean they only publish a geographical number now (which is the case on the website, it seems)?

Ofcom published findings on the use of 087 and 084 numbers in one of its consultations (I can’t remember which one, so I can’t provide a reference).  Ofcom’s found a similar percentage of the population reluctant to use those non-geographical numbers.