Personal Finance
Using premium rate lines and texts could send your phone bill soaring
Using premium rate lines and texts could send your phone bill soaring
LOCALL numbers (with an 1890 prefix) are used by organisations to make it cheaper for their customers to call.
But Revenue has recently scrapped its number, reverting to old landline numbers, because it found that ‘LoCall’ isn’t actually Low at all, if you ring from a mobile.
It costs from 5c to 31c per minute depending on the provider (and we know how long some organisations keep you on hold!). It got me thinking about lots of other calls that are racking up bills, notably the 15- premium rate numbers and texts that the Communications Regulator gets up to 1,000 complaints every month about.
Premium Rate Calls
There are 15 different prefix numbers (1512 to 1580) on premium rate services (PRS) and the customer can be caught unwittingly for charges they don’t realise. ComReg says that “the range of PRS has grown considerably in recent years, allowing access to information, advice and entertainment services”.
That vote on ‘Dancing with the Stars’, entering ‘The ‘Late Late Show’ competition or checking if Aquarius is going to get with Capricorn all get you cobbled for fees.
The most expensive cost €3.50 per minute – so just 20 minutes chatting to a sex bot, or a phone ‘psychic’ costs an eye watering €105.
Even charity donations can fall into the trap.
Recognising premium rate services
Voice services have a 15 prefix; text services are five digit codes beginning with 5. Check the cost of calling/texting PRS with your own phone company and ComReg has a number checker you can use on www. servicechecker.comreg.ie.
Recurring Charges
Competitions can sound so enticing: a simple question your cat could answer, followed by a call or text, and you can win a mega prize. You’re happy to pay the €2 entry charge to sign up.
But what many people don’t realise is that buried in the small print flashed superquick on the TV screen, is that the €2 is a subscription charge, and it may be deducted each week until you find out, and more importantly, discover how to stop it.
Multiple Charges
These services involve a single payment for a premium rate service. Using a mobile, that consists a number of text messages being sent to your handset to pay for the service in question. For example, payment for a once-off service that costs €10 may require sending four text messages (charged at €2.50 each) to your mobile phone. You should be notified if this is the case.
Unsubscribing
To unsubscribe from a premium rate subscription service ComReg recommends texting STOP to the sender. Do not text any other words as your request could be ignored. You should be unsubscribed within 48 hours. Complain to ComReg if it doesn’t work.
Texts
Text calls vary but are all regulated. At present, these are: 50XXX – Free
51XXX – Up to €0.16 53XXX – Up to €0.80 57XXX – €0.80 or above 58XXX and 59XXX – Variable price (these can be once off, recurring, and unlimited in price – best avoided at all costs).