I was directed to this website after a chat with my brother regarding premium-rate services and 08- numbers available to me from Canada, and their cost.  This site seems like a great idea, and I wish you all the very best in your fight through what seems like an impenetrable fog. Surely the very reverse of transparency !

Now the request for help. I moved from the UK in 1980, and we're planning (yes - it's a "we" now!) on moving back to the UK next year.  Since I've been gone, of course, lots has changed, and the issue of the phone service seems the most confusing.  As you probably know, here in North America for the most part local calling from a home landline is free.  You can sign up with a long-distance carrier, which does not have to be the same phone company that provides your local service, but that's about it. Premium rate calls have to be identified as such, and you can usually tell when a particular call is going to be expensive.

When we move back to the UK, we're going to have to get a phone.  My particular beef with the 08- and 09- series numbers is that, when I phone them from here, I'm charged a lot more (I understand that's the fault of something called the TCP that's not an antiseptic) but nobody tells you up front that this is a premium rate service, although what I usually want are not premium services.  Examples of "premium rate for non-premium service" include Virgin mobile (the only way I can get in touch with them is through an 08 number) and Menzies Hotels booking line (ridiculous that one should have to pay at all, let alone a premium, to book a hotel room. North American hotels almost all have toll-free 800-class numbers.).

The quick questions are, what are my options these days, and how can I go about keeping costs as low as possible?  This seems like a very intelligent place to start that question, and any and all replies would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Nigel