Do you currently use 084, 087 or 09 numbers in your business?
If so, there are some imminent changes around the use of these non-geographical calling services (NGCS) that you will need to be aware of.
Research has highlighted that many callers to NGCS numbers are confused about how much their call is going to cost. This often results in customers choosing to avoid dialing these numbers.
As a result, from 1st July 2015 this will all change. Ofcom, PhonePayPlus and the Advertising Standards Authority have laid down a new set of requirements that will mean that companies using NGCS numbers will have to clearly advertise the cost of calling these numbers.
The cost of calling NGCS numbers can be easily split into two parts:
The Access Charge – this is the amount that callers are charged by their line services provider for making a call to an NGCS number
The Service Charge – this is the additional amount added to the call cost as pre-determined by the type of NGCS number, some of which is given to company using this number as a revenue share agreement.
From 1st July 2015, in order to comply with these new guidelines, companies using NGCS numbers will be required to clearly advertise the breakdown of the costs associated with calling their NGCS numbers both on their company website and anywhere else that they might promote one of these numbers. This must be clearly displayed in a close and prominent position to the telephone number in all cases.
A suggested statement regarding call charges for a NGCS number (for example where the service element of a call is 7p) might be:
“Calls to this number will cost 7p per minute plus your telephone company’s access charge” (*)
As a result of these new changes and in some cases in light of what charge band their NGCS number has been placed in, some companies are deciding to move away from 08 numbers completely. Should this be something that you are considering, there are several alternatives available including 03 non-geographical or more traditional geographical numbers.
If you would like to know more about these then please do contact our sales teams to find out more.
Our team can be contacted on Freephone 0800 840 3688, via our switchboard on 01509 278278 or by email at [email protected]. We look forward to helping with any enquiry that you might have.
(*) This is likely to be considered to be compliant – but we recommend you seek individual advice from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) at asa.org.uk/industry-advertisers
