Why do companies use 0845/0870 numbers?

[Nic Jones]

I've just phoned up HMRC to chase up a tax repayment I'm owed and rather than call their 0845 number advertised I stuck it in www.saynoto0870.com and used the geographical number to help me save the pennies on my phone bill.

After the nice lady at the other end had told me it was somewhere in their month + backlog she said I'd come through on the wrong number and that the geographical number should only be used by people calling from abroad and I had to use the 0845 number in future.

My question is why? It does exactly the same thing, connects me to the same person and saves me money on my phone bill. Is it just a case of the government wanting to rake in a few extra pennies for Prime Minister Clown and his cronies to piss up against the wall or another reason?

[Nic Jones]

john_p said:

I guess in the "old days" 0845 and 0800 numbers were great because the benevolent company was saving the caller money.

Nowadays with 0845 and 0800 numbers not coming out of (most) inclusive minutes on mobiles it costs me far more to call either of those numbers...

That's where I'm getting stitched up, with no landline currently I'm calling from the mobile, so it makes far more sense to use the geographical number as it's inclusive.

[Nic Jones]

cazzer said:

Why don't people have landlines these days?

Because I rent in a shared house at the moment and it just doesn't make sense to get one installed if I'm likely to be moving into my own place soon.