Graphs at a glance: In 2012-13 Government departments ripped £56 million out of you by using premium rate telephone number. Including 402 million minutes on hold!

Would it surprise you to know the greatest perpetrators of the government premium rate phoneline scam, exposed by the National Audit Office, are IDS's Department of Works and Pensions and Osborne's HMRC? (Yes, we know HMRC is supposed to be 'non-ministerial'. But who are they kidding?). 

"Callers to higher rate lines paid £56 million in call charges in 2012-13. Callers spent a total of 880 million minutes on calls of which they spent 402 million minutes waiting to speak to an advisor. Customers incurred call charges of £26 million waiting to speak to an advisor."

National Audit Office report "Charges for customer telephone lines"

  

“Callers do not receive a better service from higher rate numbers and many callers are put off calling government phone numbers altogether. The most vulnerable callers, such as low-income households, face some of the highest charges.”

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 18 July 2013

The worse offenders are DWP (70 million high rate calls) and HMRC (47.4 million high rate calls), scamming money from the "most vulnerable callers, such as low-income households". 

Now there are depressingly many among us who believe the best time to kick a man is when he is down. They may see this £56 million as a decent contribution taken from the poor to save the nation's finances. They would be wrong. The lion's share of the loot goes to the telecoms companies:

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How much do those "cheap rate" 0845 etc. numbers really cost?

 Confused by phone charges or don’t know how much a phone call really costs? Perhaps that's their intention...

By Tony Monk. The information is based on research Tony did as a volunteer for KentLINk after it was discovered that several local GP practices were found to be using 0844 numbers, possibly on a revenue sharing basis.  Tony was also particularly incensed when he noticed that the expensive 0870 series number was rather cynically used by the Government as an emergency number for the public to ask for names of victims of the 7 July 2005 London bombings. 

WHAT THE AVERAGE PERSON THINKS

Many callers think that that 0843/4/5 calls are charged at a local rate or similarly cheaper cost.

THE TRUTH

0845 and 0870 numbers typically cost between 1p and 10.5p/min with or without set up fees and again are normally far more expensive from a mobile phone, typically 12 to 41p per min.

0871/2/3 numbers typically cost more than 0845 and 0870 numbers.

Charges for 0843/4 numbers from a landline vary greatly, typically between 1p and 13p/min plus a call set up fee. For example, Talktalk charge a set up fee of 13.87p per call and then 5p/min. One company was unable to quote a charge as it depends on the recipient’s telephone service provider.  Charges to these numbers will normally be far higher from a mobile phone.

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Phone shop staff misleading customers over ‘fixed’ mobile phone contracts

Guest post by Which? the consumer rights campaigner. Consumer mystery shopping carried out by Which? shows sales staff giving inaccurate information about the possibility of price increases.

 

Do you think fixed mobile contracts should be at a fixed price? Pledge your support at www.which.co.uk/fixed

New undercover research carried out by Which? revealed that the vast majority (82 %) of staff in mobile phone shops we visited gave incorrect information about potential price rises on ‘fixed’ phone contracts at the point of sale.

Astonishingly, 82% of shop assistants maintained that the price was fixed even when asked if it would stay the same throughout the length of the contract. All shop assistants, when prompted, claimed that the features will stay the same throughout the contract.

Which? recently launched the ‘Fixed Means Fixed’ campaign, which has already received almost 20,000 pledges of support from consumers, calling on phone companies to ensure that the price, and all aspects of fixed deals, remain the same for the full length of mobile phone contracts.

In the past year, four out of the five main phone operators have taken advantage of a hidden clause that allows them to increase prices on contracts that appear to be ‘fixed’, a practice potentially netting the industry up to £90m in a year.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, says:

"It's totally unacceptable that people aren’t being told the full story about potential price rises when signing up to contracts in mobile phone shops. Shockingly, even when we asked directly about price increases, the vast majority of staff denied this could happen."

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