Mobile phone users being charged up to £5 a minute to call directory enquiries

• Citizens Advice told by customer that he was charged £100 for call
• Phone company O2 has set minimum charge for 118 number at £5
• Price has risen from £3 and levy is 20 times the 25p BT was charging in 2003
• O2 defends price rise and says they are paying service providers more
  

By Sean Poulter And Tamara Cohen

Published: 01:22 GMT, 16 November 2013 | Updated: 01:22 GMT, 16 November 2013

Charged: Phone users are being charged up to £5 to obtain a single number from directory enquiries, with costs spiralling further if customers agree to be connected to the number

Phone users are being charged up to £5 to obtain a single number from directory enquiries.

In a shocking rip-off, the cost spirals further if customers agree to be connected to the number, because each extra minute costs £5.

Citizens Advice raised the alarm about the extortionate prices after one man told them he had been charged more than £100 for a single call to a 118 number.

The mobile phone company O2 has set the minimum charge for calling 118 numbers at £5 – compared with £3 previously.

The £5 levy is 20 times the 25p that BT was charging when its monopoly of the national directory service ended in 2003. The onward connection fee imposed by O2 can make the cost of a four- to five-minute call £25.

Calling from landlines can also be expensive. BT, for example, has a minimum call charge of £2.98 to reach its own 118 500 service. It charges £3.58 to reach the rival 118 118 service.

The directory enquiries shake-up in 2003 was ordered by the then telecoms regulator Oftel despite huge misgivings among consumers who were happy with the 192 service.

Oftel wanted to bring in a raft of exciting and cheap rivals – but instead produced a wave of confusing and expensive tariffs. Calls are understood to have halved in recent years.

Many customers have switched to the free services available on the internet, which can be accessed from smartphones or computers. However, a large part of the population, particularly the elderly, still need the telephone service.

Gillian Guy of Citizens Advice said: ‘People are being hit with eye-wateringly high phone bills after calling a 118 number. One Citizens Advice Bureau helped a man who had unknowingly spent £100 on a single telephone call after using a 118 service.

An increase in call costs will make these bills even bigger.

‘Consumers who don’t have access to the internet are more likely to rely on these expensive services and are at a greater risk of getting a shock bill. 

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‘Mobile providers need to be clearer about the cost of calling these numbers and how people could save money by getting the number they need, then putting the phone down and calling directly.’

Ofcom, the telecoms regulator which replaced Oftel, has admitted the system does not work and it is about to unveil new rules it hopes will make the charges clearer.

Firms will be required to offer a single flat fee to access any 118 or non-geographic number beginning with 08. They will have to advertise this and include details on bills and in their contracts. The firms will also have to spell out their own fees in their advertising.

Ofcom claims this new regime will make the charges clear and create competition between the phone companies with the hope of reducing fees. However, the new system will not come into effect until May 2015 at the earliest.

Price rises: O2 defended its price rise saying it had increased the charges to call 118 numbers as the company had been subject to price hikes from the providers

The market is dominated by 118 118, which is run by The Number, and 118 500, which is the BT service. They take 80 per cent of business largely because they have spent the most on marketing.

David Hickson of the Fair Telecoms Campaign said: ‘These very high costs make it imperative callers do not let themselves be tricked into taking advantage of the offer to connect the call, at the same rate.’

O2 defended its price rise saying: ‘We’ve increased the charges to call 118 directory enquiry services as we have seen a number of price increases to us from the providers during the past 12 months.’ 

All the phone companies offer their own directory enquiry services which are cheap or free to their own customers, however these numbers are not heavily promoted.