Yeah. People are still promoting 0845 numbers as A Good Thing^TM

I came across this complete garbage about half an hour ago:

http://articleinquiry.com/business/financing/reasons-why-many-businesses-choose-to-offer-an-0845-number/

Response already written and posted:

"There are no advantages for the consumer when a business uses a high-rate number beginning 084 or 087 instead of a geographic (01 or 02) or geographic-rate (03) number.

The National Audit Office of the UK government said in July 2013...
"Callers do not receive a better service from higher rate numbers and many callers are put off calling these (phone) numbers altogether. The most vulnerable callers, such as low-income households, face some of the highest charges. ..."

0845 numbers are not charged at "the local rate". Local rate hasn't existed since 2004. Instead, callers incur a 2p/min Service Charge, plus whatever mark-up their phone company adds on top. In the case of calling from a mobile phone the 0845 call cost is usually between 15p and 41p/min. In the case of calling from a landline the 0845 call cost is often between 5p and 10p/min with a connection fee of around 15p per call on top. If you're looking at BT's 0845 call prices, these are not typical as they are capped by the provisions of the NTS Condition; a restriction that will end in 2014.

Contrast the high prices mentioned above with the fact that most landline and mobile users have an inclusive call package where they can make calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers anywhere in the country at no additional cost per minute and you'll understand that 0845 numbers certainly look like a rip-off to the majority of consumers.

Consumers are beginning to recognise 084 and 087 numbers as those that are expensive to call. Many go out of their way to avoid doing business with companies that use these numbers. The problem is so severe that BIS has recently published draft legislation that will ban the use of 084, 087 and 09 numbers for customer service functions. The new law comes into effect in December 2013 and will apply from June 2014.

On 2nd September 2013, the Public Accounts Committee of the UK government held an enquiry into the usage of 0845 and other high-rate numbers within government and for public services. They branded the usage of these numbers as "a racket" and have demanded these lines switch to cheaper 0345 numbers.

The reason for using a non-geographic number is the facility of publishing a single number nationwide and having the ability to route calls to different places depending on time of day or by geographic origin. All non-geographic numbers beginning 03, 080, 084, 087 and 09 offer this facility.

However, with an 0845 number the trick pulled on the consumer is that the caller is paying the fees for running the service through the 2p/min Service Charge hidden within the call price. With an 03 number, the business pays for the telephone facilities they require. For the small business, deals with 20 000 minutes of incoming calls per month can be found for under £50 per month.


The article promotes the position as it existed in the late 1990s. It's now 2013, and the article is completely out of step with current thinking. With Ofcom's "unbundled tariffs" due to be announced in detail within the next few months, the ongoing government review of these high-rate numbers, and the provisions of the Consumer Rights Directive coming into force soon, now is the worst time ever to be thinking about adopting an 084 or 087 number for a business. These days it's all about switching to 03 numbers."

Oh!  Couldn't have been more timely...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2413432/Firms-deter-complaints-using-costly-0845-numbers-Customers-ban-lines.html

I cant get the link to work now Ian, it did originally . But the article you refer to seems to have been regurgitated a few times as I noticed it was published a couple of times by other sites in July 2012.

Link still works for me. I wonder if this is the sort of advice that John Lewis received?

Ian G wrote on Sep 5^th, 2013 at 10:20pm:

The reason for using a non-geographic number is the facility of publishing a single number nationwide and having the ability to route calls to different places depending on time of day or by geographic origin. All non-geographic numbers beginning 03, 080, 084, 087 and 09 offer this facility.

You are quite right in what you say, but we should remember that these facilities are also available with geographic numbers --- so-called intelligent geographic numbers !!    :)