When you call an 084 or 087 number you will charged extra and that extra goes to the telecoms provider and the owner of the number called.  This is expected for some services such as chat-lines, recorded information lines and entertainment services such as voting on a TV show, but it is abused by some organisations, customer service lines,  sales lines, government departments, health services and financial services who would not be expected to be making money from your calls.

This website (www.saynoto0870.com) helps you find alternative inclusive or geographic rate 01, 02 or 03 numbers or free 080 numbers to call those businesses and organisations.

Calls to 084 and 087 numbers incur both an Access Charge of up to 15p per minute from landlines or up to 45p per minute from mobiles and a Service Charge of up to 7p per minute for 084 numbers or up to 13p per minute for 087 numbers. However, callls to 01, 02 and 03 numbers are usually inclusive within a call plan or else charged at “geographic rate”. Calls to 080 numbers are free from landlines and (from 1 July 2015) free from mobiles.

Since 2009, BT and some other phone providers have included calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers in their call plans, but this only applies to certain packages or at certain times of the day. Calls to other 084 and 087 numbers are excluded.

Many companies also advertise a separate number that can be used when calling them from abroad. This usually begins in the format +44 1 or +44 2. There is usually nothing to stop you using this number from the UK (as it is a normal rate telephone call), and will be included in any inclusive minutes provided by your landline or mobile phone provider. In some cases, however, you may need to withhold your caller number  in order to make the connection.

This site is all about listing the inclusive, geographic rate and free numbers, thereby saving you money. To get started and find a particular number, please click on the ‘Search to find an alternative number’ link at the top of the page. You can search by telephone number or by company name.

A lot of companies and organisations such as Virgin Trains and National express  use these chargeable phone numbers to make money from you and that’s wrong unless they are providing a service you are expecting to pay for.

Many organisations have changed to 03 or 080 numbers but you still need to be careful of the costs of calling, especially from a mobile phone.

For Irish callers, there is a similar website http://www.saynoto1890.com/ to help you avoid the premium rate costs.

Say NO to 0870