Money Saving Idea's - Telephone!

Telephone - say no to 0870 numbers

Ever tried making calls to 0845 or 0870 numbers ( also called Revenue sharing numbers) - invariably you get billed upto 8 to 10p/ minute - even if you are complaining to say Sky or Aol - these so called National rate numbers are actually money making gimmicks by companies. So if you are put on hold for say 15 minutes - which is often the case - therefore, you end up paying £1.20 to £1.50 for being on hold.

These companies get a cut ( typically 2 -3 p/ min or more) out of the money they charge you say 8- 10 p/ minute - which pays for their employees, expensive elephone equipment and gives them a nice profit. And all this money comes out of your pocket. In my opinion, this is a rip off. After all you are complaining about their services and they are charging you !!! This is a double whammy !

So what can you do to avoid massive bills - you can be Net Savvy and search for alternate numbers - geographic numbers so that the calls are cheaper.


1. One way of doing that is to go to a web site - saynoto0870.com and doing a search for alternative numbers. This way you get geographic numbers which you can call and save you a bundle.

2. Be savvy and look for alternate numbers which companies like HSBC, Asda etc give on their credit card bills or any other official mail or their web sites - for calling from overseas - these numbers are usually geographic numbers and you can call them from Uk and save yourself a bundle. For eg. AOL gives this number +44 117 919 1100 when calling from overseas and 0844 499 5555 when calling from UK. Read here

3. If you do not get a geographic number by the above 2 methods - then you have to search the forums of saynoto0870.com to get the numbers and request them on the forum. This is a lengthy way to get the geographic numbers - and i recommend this to people who can wait.

4. Some companies give geographic numbers for sales - which can be used to connect to another department - thus avoiding Premium rate charges!


FACTS

1. British gas fined £5,000/- for keeping customers hanging on to Premium rate numbers. Read more here .

2. The Department for Work and Pensions, made £268,000 last year from 0845 hotlines to advise those on low incomes about benefit and winter fuel payments. Interesting !

3. Many compnaies boost their profit by letting customers wait on the premium rate numbers before answering - all at your expense !