I have been annoyed for a while about the way many companies+government departments block calling their "overseas only" numbers - even when you precede it with 141.

But I have just discovered a way round it - at least for VOIP users.

I have used Vonage for a long time for a variety of reasons and have always been quite impressed with their service.  You can use it as a VOIP phone from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection, but it always gives your "user ID" as whatever UK number was assigned to your account.

However, the "hide caller ID" function (for Vonage it's *67 instead of 141) seems to hide my "pseudo-UK" number quite successfully from the those companies that won't let me dial their "overseas only" numbers.

Don't know how long this will keep working - and I know that some might argue that it could make life tricky for people who are genuinely "overseas".  But since my Vonage calls are rejected when I'm genuinely overseas it's probably quid pro quo.  And anyway the more awkward we can make it for companies that refuse to provide 01/02/03 numbers the sooner they might.

Well that lasted less than a week with Santander!

Since this is the only place that I've posted this information do we assume that the Santander gremlins monitor these pages and pounce on any way of making it expensive for customers to contact them?

What bit of "customer service" don't they understand?

Even in Biblical times bankers were positioned below prostitutes in the order of things.

Of bankers, Santender would appear to be the worst, appearing nearly every week in the Saturday Times problem sorting page.

If Santender really is reading posts here perhaps they will now be blushing. Or perhaps not — they must have very thick skins.  :)

Stoday wrote on Jun 5^th, 2011 at 12:13am:

Even in Biblical times bankers were positioned below prostitutes in the order of things. Of bankers, Santender would appear to be the worst, appearing nearly every week in the Saturday Times problem sorting page. If Santender really is reading posts here perhaps they will now be blushing. Or perhaps not — they must have very thick skins.  :)

....and in the Week end Telegraph problem page.

However, I guess if you are the biggest bank, you are going to have more complaints than those that the  smaller outfits.

My in-laws BT line is number-withheld by default.  They use, I think, 18866 for their calls.  They always come through to us as "INTERNATIONAL" on the caller-id !   Might be another route to try.

irrelevant wrote on Jun 9^th, 2011 at 8:51am:

My in-laws BT line is number-withheld by default.  They use, I think, 18866 for their calls.  They always come through to us as "INTERNATIONAL" on the caller-id !   Might be another route to try.

I use 18185 a lot and one of my relatives uses 1899 (both from the same Finarea group as 18866).  To be honest anyone using 18866 or 1899 and not using 18185 should switch over to it as its mobile rate of 6p per minute is far lower than the other two and there no counterveiling higher charges in other areas.

In any event my experience is that calls routed via this carrier may be presented to other callers in any of the following conditions:-

1. Full UK format CLI is presented

2. International version of UK CLI (commences 00441xxx on the display) is presented

3. Unavailable is displayed

Which of these CLI conditions is presented depends entirely on which call carrier Finarea routes that particular call through and that varies with the time of day etc and not just the actuall number being called.

In any event none of this any longer makes any difference with hardened NTS revenue sharers like the London 2012 Olympics ticket line or Santander since even if you withhold your number or use 18185 to make the call they have all now updated their systems so that the call is still flagged up to them as having been made through their geographic alternative overseas number by a UK originated caller and consequently they still reject it and play you a message to call the 084 number instead. :o >:( :'(

I got through to the London 2012 ticket line on their 01 number using 18185 several months ago but now they always reject my call to that number using 18185 no matter how many times I call. >:( >:( >:(

NGMsGhost wrote on Jan 11^th, 2012 at 4:35pm:

I use 18185 a lot and one of my relatives uses 1899 (both from the same Finarea group as 18866).  To be honest anyone using 18866 or 1899 and not using 18185 should switch over to it as its mobile rate of 6p per minute is far lower than the other two and there no counterveiling higher charges in other areas.

Remember 18185 charges 7 pence per minute to mobiles at weekends, so use 1899 instead which charges 6 pence per minute at that time (but 10 pence per minute during the week).

Dave wrote on Jan 12^th, 2012 at 11:08am:

Remember 18185 charges 7 pence per minute to mobiles at weekends, so use 1899 instead which charges 6 pence per minute at that time (but 10 pence per minute during the week).

I did notice that recently when staying at my mother's house for several weeks after her recent heart attack and was rather puzzled about such an apparently odd strategy when the whole of the rest of the telecoms industry either charge less at the weekend or have a flat rate 24/7 x 365.

As it happens my home landline is with Post Office Home Phone so I enjoy free calls to mobiles of up to an hour on Friday evening and Saturday and Sunday so hadn't been unaware of it until very recently.  However I still do wonder why 18185 would enjoy annoying its customers by charging them such a petty additional fee of only 1p per minute extra.