Freephone numbers really are now free for all

The changes made on 1 July 2015 simplified the system to this:

01, 02, 03 – inclusive in allowance, else charged at ‘geographic rate’.

071-075, 077-079 – inclusive in allowance, else charged at ‘mobile rate’.

080, 116 – free from landlines and from mobiles.

084, 087, 090, 091, 098, 118 – Access Charge plus Service Charge.

The normal way to pay for calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers is through an inclusive package of calls that can be used at any time of the day or night, seven days a week. These inclusive allowances usually omit calls to landline and mobile numbers in Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man.

A few landline operators are continuing to confuse the situation by offering inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers.

0500 numbers are free from landlines, usually chargeable from mobiles, and will be phased out by 3 June 2017. Look for replacement 0808 5 numbers.

070 numbers are personal numbers charged at a premium rate. These, and numbers starting 055, 056 and 076 will be reviewed by Ofcom, perhaps next year, and probably phased out after that.

If you use the full 300 minute allowance to call 0870 numbers with a 13p per minute Service Charge, Vodafone will have to pay out £39 to the organisations that you called. The £36 that you haven’t paid comes from increased call costs for all other Vodafone customers.

This change massively simplifies the system.

Previously there were 300 price points covering the 17 000 blocks of allocated 084, 087 and 09 numbers and each of those price points was charged at a different rate on each network because the quoted price covered both the part retained by the caller’s provider and the part that was passed on.

Now the cost has been split in two, there are 80 price points for the Service Charge and this charge is the same irrespective of which landline or provider is used to make the call and each provider declares a single Access Charge covering calls to all 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers.

The call cost is no longer allowed to vary by time of day or by day of week. Connection fees have also been banned on these calls.

The cost of these calls has become largely irrelevant. Forced to declare the Service Charge, most organisations have switched to 03 numbers where no such charge is imposed. For most people calls to 03 numbers are inclusive in their calls allowance on their landline or on their mobile.

I agree that the move to 03 numbers is a great help to the consumer, but that is not the focus of this Conversation. The three companies that I have to call on Monday are all still using 084 numbers.

I am not going to celebrate until numbers with an access charge and a service charge are withdrawn. Access charges could be covered in phone tariffs and if a charge is needed for providing a service (e.g. for providing computer support), there is no need for this to be paid for via the cost of a call.

Wavechange, would you like to name and shame any of the three companies that are still using 084 numbers? In most cases, this is now unlawful, as explained above.

Re: I am not going to celebrate until numbers with an access charge and a service charge are withdrawn.

Exposure of the Service Charge makes it easier to challenge inappropriate usage of these numbers, and that is what consumers must now do.

Two of the companies are using 084 numbers legally and one of them corrected its website promptly when I pointed out that it is wrong to describe an 0845 number as ‘local rate’. I want to thank them for doing this and to ask for a geographical number (which I was given last time I called) to be shown on their website.

The company that concerns me is RAC. The renewal letter shows a ‘Member Services team’ number as 0844 8912357. I assume that this is a customer services number and should have been phased out. Interestingly, the number does not appear on the RAC website, which gives 0844 891 3111 as the customer service number. They also have an 0870 number for those whose new car came with breakdown cover, with a footnote: ‘Calls charged at local rate’ 🙁

I need to renew my motor insurance so will get quotes including breakdown cover. I expect that the only call I will be making to RAC will be to tell them I’m not renewing my cover. I have already looked up a Freephone alternative to the number I was given.

I called RAC to get a quotation for revised cover and mentioned the phone numbers, saying that it would have been quite expensive if I had called on an 0844 number. They gave me a different Freephone number from the one I had looked up. I asked them to get rid of the 0844 numbers and reference to ‘local rate’.

I suspect the trouble with the RAC is general sluggishness and incompetence due to too many levels of bureaucracy, rather than any attempt to make money by deception. RAC used to have an 0800 number for those wanting breakdown assistance. I used to point out to them that calling 0800 from a mobile (as you would when you’ve broken down) means both the RAC and the customer would pay for the call – a lose-lose situation that helped nobody. The operator didn’t understand that 0800 numbers were free. Two years ago, the penny dropped and they changed the 0800 number to a geographic-rate 03 number, saying they did that specifically for mobile phone users. But that was after the announcement that 0800 would become free from mobiles! Now there is only an 03 number available for breakdown assistance. If only they did things more quickly and started using the 03 number many years earlier, it would have helped from themselves and their customers.

Clint – The RAC website gives 0333 2000 999 and 0800 82 82 82 as numbers for breakdowns.

The number they give for Customer Service is 0844 891 31111. When I commented about use of an 084 number they gave me 0800 550550. I suggested they put that on their website, but see that has not happened. I found a different number – 0800 0961162 – on saynotto0870.

I suspect there is more than incompetence going on. 🙁

You question why Ofcom didn’t abolish the 084 and 087 racket altogether. I question why Ofcom (or previously Oftel) ever allowed this racket to evolve in the first place. In the United States, such a system has never existed, where the only non-geographic area codes are free (e.g. 1-800, 1-877 etc) and full premium rate (1-900) akin to the UK’s 09 range. It is a disgrace that the system of surcharged non-geographic numbers for customer service lines was ever allowed to evolve in the UK. Unlike US consumers, UK consumers are often far too indifferent and tolerant of unfair commercial practices.

When you call an 084 number, including 0845, depending on the level of Service Charge, your landline or mobile provider has to pay out up to 7p per minute (up to £4.20 per hour) to the organisations that you called.

When you call an 087 number, including 0870, depending on the level of Service Charge, your landline or mobile provider has to pay out up to 13p per minute (up to £7.80 per hour) to the organisations that you called.

This is why these calls cannot be inclusive.

Previously, the payout for 0845 and 0870 numbers was lower (0845 was 2p per minute, 0870 was 0.5p per minute). The changes on 1 July 2015 increased them such that 0845 is now treated the same as 0843 and 0844. Likewise, 0870 is now treated the same as 0871 and 0872.

Organisations still using 084 and 087 numbers and who are unable to justify the Service Charge, or who are prevented by other regulations (e.g. CCR 2013 published by BIS, or forthcoming regulation published by the FCA) or guidance (published by Cabinet Office) from imposing it, must change their number. Ofcom made matching 034 and 037 numbers available for this purpose in 2007.

The new charging structure requires all users of 084, 087 and 09 numbers to declare the Service Charge. This makes it much easier to challenge inappropriate usage of these numbers. Many organisations using these numbers have been unaware of what callers pay for these calls. Under the new system there can be no doubt.

Re: You question why Ofcom didn’t abolish the 084 and 087 racket altogether. I question why Ofcom (or previously Oftel) ever allowed this racket to evolve in the first place.

In the 1980s, all telephone call costs were high. Everyone had a BT landline and mobile phones were analogue and hardly existed. Calls from landlines to geographic numbers were charged as local, regional or national calls. The latter were very expensive. It cost a fortune to ring the head office of a company if it were outside your immediate local area. Inclusive calls hadn’t yet been invented.

Non-geographic numbers were developed and these were charged the same as a local call or as a national call. This allowed the caller to speak to a company at the other end of the country for the price of a local call. At the time, these numbers were a good thing. Businesses took them up as they allowed one central number to be published and calls routed according to caller location, time of day, or from options selected from a menu.

The telephone market was then opened to competition and the concept of termination rates introduced. To begin with they were quite high and, initially, the cost of calls to geographic or non-geographic numbers hardly changed. The concept of revenue sharing on 0845 and 0870 numbers was introduced and much later new revenue sharing ranges (0844 and 0871) were added in 2001.

Non-geographic numbers had originally been a good thing, but the tide was turning. Organisations such as banks and travel agents started introducing 0870 numbers for their individual branches, meaning that calling your local branch incurred a national rate charge. Opposition to these numbers started to appear.

Over time, the termination rate for calls to geographic numbers began to fall. By 2003 it had fallen to such an extent that landline providers could now begin to offer inclusive calls to 01 and 02 geographic numbers anywhere in the country for a small monthly fee. With much higher termination rates, calls to 084 and 087 numbers were excluded. Organisations such as sayNOto0870 stepped up the fight against usage of these expensive numbers and published lists of unofficial 01 and 02 numbers to help callers avoid the expense of calling 084 and 087 numbers.

In 2009, Ofcom removed revenue sharing from 0870 numbers and these calls became inclusive from landlines but not from mobiles. BT wrongly anticipated that Ofcom would remove revenue sharing from 0845 numbers and made 0845 calls inclusive. A few landline providers followed BT’s move in including 0845 numbers and found themselves paying out 2p per minute while collecting nothing from the caller that had made the call. Most users of 0870 numbers simply moved to 0844 or 0871 numbers to carry on receiving revenue share payments and consumers gained nothing. The cost of calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers from mobiles remained high.

Ofcom had introduced 03 numbers in 2007. These are non-geographic numbers charged at the same rate as calling 01 and 02 numbers and which count towards inclusive allowances on landlines and on mobiles. The call handling and call forwarding costs incurred in the use of a non-geographic number are paid for by the called party. Take up of these numbers was low. It was now time to change that.

In 2010, Ofcom kicked off a far wider review of all 08, 09 and 118 numbers. After multiple consultations and sustained opposition from mobile networks eventually followed by a long implementation period, the new call charge system came into effect on 1 July 2015.

The new system treats all 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers the same way with a declared Service Charge and a standard Access Charge. Where the Service Charge cannot be justified, users of 084 and 087 numbers have a clear migration path to 034 and 037 numbers. In the meantime, other regulations (from BIS, FCA, DoH) and guidance (from Cabinet Office) has forced many organisations to make the move to 03 numbers. Declaration of Service Charge increases pressure on many other organisations to follow.

In future, 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers will be used to provide recognised chargeable services with a declared Service Charge. Ordinary day to day communication with businesses will take place only on 01, 02, 03 and 080 numbers.

Nowadays, the normal way to pay for telephone calls is through an inclusive call plan covering calls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers at any time of the day or night, seven days a week. Most people should have no need to call 084, 087 or 09 numbers unless they are accessing a chargeable service.

Thank you very much, Ian, for providing such a coherent explanation of the situation. That it has taken 744 words to do so is a reflection of the muddle-headed way in which telecom services have developed in the UK over the last two decades. As you say, it is all much simpler now but we must maintain the vigilance to ensure that firms are not still directing people to route routine calls through chargeable service lines. Years ago, in the days of the nationalised industries, Post Offices used to have handy little government leaflets on various service aspects and explanations of changes; nowadays you have to first realise what it is you don’t know and then look for it on the web. No wonder consumers are in a perpetual state of confusion.

As far as I’m concerned, the job is only half done. I expect that I will have to continue to look up alternative numbers, either geographical or freephone, each time I encounter an 08 number.

Where users of 084 and 087 numbers fail to declare the Service Charge they must be challenged to declare it else change their number.

Where a Service Charge is declared but it is clearly inappropriate and unjustified they must also be persuaded to change their number.

Ofcom made the matching 034 and 037 numbers available for this purpose in 2007. Public services also have the option of a new 030 number.

There is no technical reason why a recorded announcement by the telecome service provider cannot be relayed every time a chargeable service number is called saying something like “You are calling a chargeable service line. The responder must inform you about the charges payable”.

The changes made on 1 July 2015 simplified the system to this:

01, 02, 03 – inclusive in allowance, else charged at ‘geographic rate’.

071-075, 077-079 – inclusive in allowance, else charged at ‘mobile rate’.

080, 116 – free from landlines and from mobiles.

084, 087, 090, 091, 098, 118 – Access Charge plus Service Charge.

Other numbers, such as those starting 055, 056, 070, 076, will be reviewed by Ofcom at some point in the future, perhaps next year. The 0500 range was reviewed in 2014 and these numbers will be phased out by 3 June 2017.

Re: There is no technical reason why a recorded announcement by the telecoms service provider cannot be relayed every time a chargeable service number is called saying something like “You are calling a chargeable service line. The responder must inform you about the charges payable”.

By the time the caller picks up the receiver, they have already made te decision to make the call. It’s already too late to be informing them to go look up the call costs.

The strapline for the UK Calling changes that came into effect last week was “know the cost before you call” and places an obligation on all users of 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers to declare the Service Charge immediately adjacent to the telephone number everywhere that it is advertised.

Thank you Ian. I was falling behind the action again. Your final paragraph covers it completely.

Ian – Have a look at RAC Breakdown on this page: http://www.rac.co.uk/contact-us

Being informed that ‘Calls from other networks may vary’ is not a great deal of help to me.

Ian, Thanks. But why should we all have to remember which 6 numbers have a significant charge? I was simply asking why one number prefix could not be used.

Once you have remembered that 080 is free from landlines and from mobiles, it shouldn’t be too difficult to remember that all other 08 and 09 numbers are chargeable calls with an Access Charge and a Service Charge.

Some landline providers continue to confuse the situation by providing inclusive calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers where the Service Charge run up by the caller is paid for by all subscribers rather than by only the particular caller that made use of the chargeable service.

DQ services throughout Europe use numbers starting 118 which explains why there is a separate number range for that.

Re: “Being informed that ‘Calls from other networks may vary’ is not a great deal of help to me.”

Since 1 July 2015, any such declaration is a clear breach of the new Ofcom and ASA rules.

Feel free to raise the issue with Advertising Standards.

I was hoping that someone else would take this on. I’m having a fair amount of success with getting smaller companies to update their phone numbers but the big boys like RAC pay little attention. 🙁