What is an 0870 number ? Find out more here.
So what is an 0870 number ? What is this deal about ?

In it's simple form it is a National Rate number, anyone calling it would be charged at National rate or the same as any normal call to an 01 or 02 landline number from outside a local area. They cannot be allocated to mobile phones, pagers or other non-geographical numbers. For numbers which can gain higher revenue or be connected to mobiles, please see our sister site at www.DonPhone.co.uk See the COSTS page for how much your callers pay.

Many companies use 0870 for their helpdesk, sales or information lines such as catalogue companies, advertisment response lines and so on. The caller does not know what part of the country the destination number is in and probably never worries about that. It's a similar idea to 0800 or 0845 numbers we have all come to know over the years in that a service exists for people to call using a non-geographical number at a set rate.

We have had comments from some people that a warning should be given regarding the actual call cost. Although 0870 is listed as being 'National Rate' the calls are not discounted by the telephone companies. For example, some cable companies are charging 3p per minute at peak, 2p evening and 1p weekend for calls to any number in the country - as long as it's a 'real' number with 01 or 02 prefix. 0870 calls are charged at full national rate. We do not want to promote the image that 0870 is valid for such discounted calls. Likewise the method of prefixing the dialled number with a code to acheive lower rates does not allow for 0870 calls. Because of this we do not recommend that domestic users change their numbers to 0870 only.

It does not affect the existing telephone line or number, you continue to pay your telephone service provider in the same way as you always have done and you can still be called on the original number. 0870 calls are redirected to the real number and are then logged to the computer system as being used. The computer maintains records of all the minutes any given 0870 number was active for and produces a monthly report from this. Only calls routed via the 0870 number are recorded, we have no means of knowing who calls your 'real' number or what outgoing calls you make.

Unlike some companies who charge £99 or more, just to connect a 0870 number, The 0870 Company offers you this service with no connection fee. Some companies charge £25 per month as a line rental free - The 0870 Company makes no charge for this. Some companies just allocate you the number, and that's that - The 0870 Company will give you money back for your incoming calls! Crazy but true. Even BT charge a monthly rental of £50 per number - and they don't offer any revenue either. Another company advertise 0870 numbers where you pay a £250 admin fee for an account, they allow as many 0870's as you want but do not pay any revenue for calls made to the numbers - compare the benefits of our service!

The 0870 Company pay you from 1.2p per minute peak rate or up to 0.5p per minute off peak (evening) for calls made to your 0870 number. You don't pay anything, your caller only pays National Rate and you get money back. It needs no special equipment or telephone, nothing changes but your profit from using the number in advertising and stationary etc.

To give an example: A company has taken a 0870 number for it's helpdesk line, not only does it give the impression of being a national company instead of a 'local office' but they will be making money on the incoming calls. Lets say they get an average of 9 hours of incoming calls per day to the one number, quite possible with a bank of operators on a normal 9-5 day. These calls are at peak rate so generate, say, 1.2p per minute, 72p per hour = £6.48 per 9 hour day. This totals over £140 in an average month of 22 working days. We do have customers earning well in excess of this.

If you have a very high number of minutes per month to one number please contact us to discuss even higher rates of reevnue that may be available.

Work out the amount of incoming calls your business gets in a month, also allow for off-peak calls if you get any, then calculate what you could be paid - for doing little more than filling in a simple form on this website and telling people the new number. If you have a lot of incoming faxes you may want to consider giving that line it's own 0870 as well. As an alternative idea, if you work from home or are a small office and only have one line handling both voice and fax you could take two 0870's and publish seperate numbers, even though they come back to the one line - nobody can tell.

Caller ID is presented through this system, it does not get stripped out as with some 'personal number' schemes. Your operator will continue to 'see' the numbers on digital switchboards or you can use 1471 as normal. Incoming International calls are also accepted, you simply remove the leading zero to give +44 870 *** **** as your number for overseas contacts - and continue to reap the benefits.

There is no contract to sign, you'll not be sent any bills, nobody will check your credit rating or go through your accounts - this service is FREE bar monthly admin fees which are deducted from revenue and are NOT normally invoiced. The only condition is that the number is actually used - if a number is recorded as having no usage in an accounting month then an admin fee will be applied and an invoice raised. As part of the ordering process we insist that the customer electronically acknowledges that they understand all the terms and conditions of ordering. This forms a contract in law and this is binding.

Although the orginal intention was to provide numbers for business users there is no reason why an 0870 number should not be connected to a home telephone or fax line. Personal users are welcome to sign up with us here and will get the same benefits as business users. Bear in mind that we MUST see 0870 usage on your line every month, lines which fail to reach this target on a regular basis will be subject to admin charges.

The catch ? - there isn't one. Your account will be credited with all calls made to your 0870 number. At the end of the month following the month in which calls were logged our accounts team will be sending out cheques to those who have reached a minimum of £25 credit, it is not viable to issue cheques for lesser amounts but be assured that any money credited will roll over until such time as you reach £25, at which point you will be paid out. Note that cheques are only issued once per month, you do not get one when you reach £25 within a monthly usage period..

NOTE: Customers who were connected BEFORE January 2nd 2001:
These numbers were connected by Bigwig.Net and are no longer under our control. The tariffs shown on this site do not apply to those accounts. You need to contact them directly as per email sent to all customers in June 2001.

We can also provide memorable numbers for advertising campaigns etc., please see the 'Gold' numbers page for details. We currently do not deal in 0800, 0845 or other non-geographical numbers, only 0870 on this website. (For personal numbers which can be connected to mobile or premium rate lines please see www.donphone.co.uk )

Many questions are answered on the FAQ page but if you don't find what you're looking for there please ask. To keep the service costs low we do not telephone, we don't send out letters or faxes - everything is done by email. You can email or fax us, see the Contact page for details, but please include your email address for a reply or send a SASE.

Nobody will use your details for telephone or email contact outside of this offer. You pay no additional charges, unless you wish to buy a memorable number, for as long as your number remains in use. The online order form is hosted on a secure server to protect your privacy. A privacy policy is in place here and we are listed by the Which? Webtrader scheme.

IMPORTANT
Should any given number be recorded as having no usage for three consecutive months then the number may be terminated. An email will be sent to the address given as part of the application before this action is taken and the status reviewed depending on the customer reply. If no reply is received a further attempt will be made, should this fail to bring a response then the number would be disconnected. Our feeling is that there is little point in issuing a number which is then not used at all, reasonable notification having been given the service would be suspended. It is possible that the disconnected 0870 number would later be allocated to another customer.
Numbers which record no usage are billed at £5 per unused month and an electronic invoice will be sent for this amount where applicable.