July 13, 2004
Say no to 0870!
If you're a UK resident you'll be familiar with telephone numbers starting with the digits 0870 -- these are called 'National Rate' numbers normally.
Did you know that they cost, for example, 8 pence per minute to call from a BT phone during the day (8am - 6pm)?
Did you know that, from this cost, BT (or your telco) share some of the cost with the organisation you're calling? In other words, it's costing you 8p a minute but whoever you're calling is making more profit from you than you already give them?
Did you know that generally all BT or other telco's do when they set one of these numbers up is forward it to a geographic number (one beginning with 01 or 02)?
I found a site today that lists the 0870 numbers and their geographic (or, even better, 0800 FREEPHONE) equivalents...
Why would you want the geographic number?
Imagine a scenario where you need to make a 10 minute call to a company (usually 9 minutes in a queue followed by < 1 minute actually explaining your issue). Dialing an 0870 number would cost you 80p, the geographic equivalent would cost around 25p. Even better is the freephone number where it won't cost you a penny!
And do you really want to give, for example, your credit card company even more profit when you're calling to complain about their service? Thought not! :)
So without further ado, Say NO to 0870!