I needed to phone the Banco Santander in Madrid and noticed the number is 902 242424 which is Spanish premium rate (not surprising as Santander own Abbey and all contact nos in the UK are non-geo).  Found a site "nomasnumeros900.com" (no more 900 numbers).  They advise there are often free numbers that will connect and give alternative geographic numbers.  I know there have been threads about this previously but have never seen this particular site mentioned.  Hope it may help if somebody needs a geographic alternative in Spain.

redant wrote on Feb 7^th, 2009 at 1:01pm:

I know there have been threads about this previously but have never seen this particular site mentioned.

The search facility in the forum can be your fiend in avoiding making these kinds of erroneous statements redant ;)

I specifically recall previously advising members of the existence of www.nomasnumeros900.com and the site's search engine indeed confirms the existence of my post in August 2008 (by searching for nomasumeros900) in the thread discussing overseas equivalent websites to saynoto0870.com

See www.saynoto0870.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1157288629/15#15

I too find the advanced features of the search facility to be somewhat fiendish at times.

I stand humbly corrected and suitably chastised.

redant wrote on Feb 8^th, 2009 at 12:10pm:

I stand humbly corrected and suitably chastised.

Can I supply a free set of birch twigs or some sack cloth and ashes. ;) ;D

By the way I have noticed that lately 18185.co.uk is saying it is charging 3p per minute to call US 1-800 numbers compared to only 0.5p per minute to a normal US landline.

So it seems the issue of NGNs costing more to call than GNs is after all beginning to afflict some parts of the US telephony system.  Although many companies with 1-800 numbers do also list a "local number" (suggesting this problem must also afflict Americans too) not all of them do so.

NGMsGhost wrote on Feb 8^th, 2009 at 12:18pm:

By the way I have noticed that lately 18185.co.uk is saying it is charging 3p per minute to call US 1-800 numbers compared to only 0.5p per minute to a normal US landline. So it seems the issue of NGNs costing more to call than GNs is after all beginning to afflict some parts of the US telephony system.  Although many companies with 1-800 numbers do also list a "local number" (suggesting this problem must also afflict Americans too) not all of them do so.

No, there is no such affliction; 1-800 numbers are tollfree, which translated into English means free

From here, some of the Betamax VoIP brands eg Justvoip have such calls free, or use Sipbroker callthrough