Getting our own back

Suggestion  - If all users of this forum signed up for an 0871 number and give out the number to all sales and marketing and utility as a contact number we will be playing them at their own game.


The revenue earned could go towards runnig the site, there must be upkeep and hosting costs to be paid

What do you all think

The question of whether to get one's own 08 number to give to companies divides the users of this site.

Some think it's OK to "get their own back" whereas others see it as don't agree with it as it allows providers of these numbers to profit.

I would expect that the amount of revenue derived would be small. There is the question of whether providers pay out revenue straight away or wait until a certain amount is accrued which would be a barrier to generating revenue for the site.

As 0871 numbers are now officially Premium Rate Service numbers, service providers must register with PhonepayPlus, so in practice I think 0844 numbers are likely to be more popular with individuals.


There's a number of threads on getting your own 08 number such as: Getting One's Own 08xx Number. Also (perhaps a bit outdated now) are those listed on the Hot Topics thread.

One could always start a website called "Sayyesto0844" or something like that and encourage everybody to get their own 0844 telephone number.

I am one of those who is campaigning for the misuse of Business Rate numbers to be ceased. I accept that others hold a variety of different views.

I am also totally against 08s just as everybody else it, it was just a thought to may be get back at the multi nationals just as this site has. I bet when Daniel set up the site he never thought it would have had the following it has.

If there was to be a campaign giving out say 0844 numbers (as suggested) it would have to be a joint effort from as may members as possible to have maximum impact.

I invite all readers to give me their feed back

Following an experience with the Nationwide Building Society when they changed to 0845 numbers & the difficulties in communicating with them, I obtained my own 0844 number. When I tried to change my number on the website, it refused to accept it as a valid number!
I suspect that other companies will probably respond similarly.
I switched my business to another & more accessible provider & now try only to deal with companies who have geo or "free" numbers.  

There are many who feel that by calling an alternative listed on this site and even announcing that this is what they have done they are helping to undermine use of 084 / 087 numbers. The same may be thought to potentially apply to the giving out of 0844 numbers on which to be called back.

I can understand that either may give the person doing it a warm glow, but I would want to see evidence before I could be convinced that this was likely, of itself, to have any effect on the level of usage of 084 numbers.

I could see the possibility of direct action focused on particular companies on an enormous scale potentially having some effect. I do not believe that these columns could directly influence any significant percentage of the callers to any organisation. If anyone has a serious proposal of how direct action could be effective, then I would be interested to read it.

bazzerfewi wrote on Mar 9^th, 2011 at 1:17pm:

If there was to be a campaign giving out say 0844 numbers (as suggested) it would have to be a joint effort from as may members as possible to have maximum impact.

I'm with SilentCallsVictim on this one. I think that in practice it won't affect businesses who have to call them. There will be plenty of calls from office landlines made to mobile numbers, which will have the same higher call cost tendancy as with 0844 numbers, but won't force businesses to stop calling them.

I believe that small businesses do hurt with the cost of phoning 08 numbers, but it's far more likely that it's with ringing suppliers and other organisations they come into contact with. Those where the owner (or person paying the phone bill) makes such calls are likely to look-up alternatives on our site to save money.

So customers providing 0844 numbers en masse is likely to have no effect (on businesses at least). This need not stop individuals getting their own numbers though.

I have taken on board your misgivings and the likelihood of it making an impact is slim, so with that in mind it may not be a good idea after all.


I will let you all know if I have any other CRAZY ideas