Posted: 26th Apr, 2006 By: MarkJ
Bulldog has sent a message to customers informing them that the ISP "
is changing its policy regarding premium rate service calls - that's numbers starting 09.". In short, they're blocking them, unless you stump up £50!:
As of Wednesday 26th April 2006, you will not be able to call premium rate numbers from your Bulldog phone. If you do want to make premium rate calls you will need to make a pre-payment of £50.00 which will be used against your bill.
By simply dialling 150 from your Bulldog phone and selecting option 1, you will be able to make your £50.00 payment by debit or credit card. We recommend you allow up to 24 hours for your service to be reset. If the value of premium rate calls from your account continues to reach a high level, we may contact you again to ask for a further pre-payment.
More information about premium rate numbers
Premium rate numbers - those starting 09 - attract higher call charges ranging from 10p to over £1.50 per minute. They are typically used for delivering information (horoscopes, weather, tips etc.) or competition lines, TV voting lines and support lines. Numbers starting 08 are not classified as premium rate numbers and are therefore not affected.It's believed that the provider is attempting to stem the tide of premium rate fraud, yet the widespread usage of such lines makes this a grey area.
Unsurprisingly reception has been mixed, with many angry at the idea of having to stump up £50 for numbers that they may never use to anywhere near that cost. Why not a charge of £20 instead? No clear reason is given.
It may be worth pointing out that most of the biggest scams [rogue diallers] require a dialup connection to work, which many broadband users will not have.