CHANGES TO NON-GEOGRAPHIC NUMBERS

From the 1^st of July Ofcom are changing the price of calls to non-geographic numbers. At Business Works we focus on helping our clients keep more of the money they earn so here are some tips to save you receiving unexpectedly expensive phone bills.

Calls to numbers beginning 080 will soon be free for mobile as well as landline callers. If you operate a 0800 number you will know that charges are levied to receive calls, however there will be no changes to your current forwarding costs as these are factored into your existing call forwarding plans.

To ensure clarity to consumers, Ofcom have split the cost into two parts; a service charge and an access charge, this also impacts other ranges such as 09 and 118 numbers. This change is being made to help clarify call charges and promotion of numbers must include both the service charge and access charge.

The Access Charge is the part of the charge that goes to your phone company, in example calls charges as price per minute. Your contract provider will inform you of how much the access charge will be on bills and contracts.

The service charge is the rest of the call charge which is decided by the organisation who will tell you how much this will be.

For instance if an organisation stated that ‘calls cost 15p per minute plus your phone company’s access charge’ and your access charge was 10p per minute, the service charge would be the 15p per minute and the total cost of the call would be 25p per minute.

The new rules will apply to all consumer calls to 084, 087, 09 and 118 numbers across the UK ensuring clearer call rates for everyone.