Quote:The service is funded from the premium carried with the call to the 0844 number, thus if this were bypassed, the service would be provided with no charge to you (i.e. at the Company's expense).
As Dave said the charge for the 0844 call is the price you pay for an international call. There are many providers of access numbers for international calls, you can find them via Martin Lewis's site
http://callchecker.moneysavingexpert.com/intcallchecker/index.phpThe charge you pay from a BT landline for 0844 709 0100 is 4p/min (+ the call connection fee). I don't know what international destination this number is for but, for instance, to France/Germany the charge is 1p/min (+ the call connection fee) via Planet Talk's 0844 865 0011 number which is entirely reasonable (and competitive).
There is a 4p/min charge (+ the call connection fee) to Nigeria, Ukraine, etc via Planet Talk's 0844 709 0011 number - could it be that the number was mistyped in your original request?