Never, Never, Never call 0845 609 4343!

[DevonShrimper]

If, like me, you have a 'Talk' plan with your phone provider (in my case Telewest or now VirginMedia), then calls to landline numbers are free as long as they are to 01... or 02... numbers. 0845 numbers are non-geographical and so are not included. In my case these are 5p per minute, oh, and there's a 6p connection charge. So, do I want to pay (Un)Intelligent Finance 5p to listen to a minutes worth of their 'on hold' music? Not likely. Even worse, 15p per minute on my mobile (O2) or 18p per minute with Vodafone.

So what's the alternative? Phone a landline number. If you go to if.com, they tell you on the front page that oversease callers can call +44 1506 593001, so simply drop the +44 and replace it with a 0 and away you go. A little digging around found some other options, courtesy of SAYNOTO0870.COM - Non-Geographical Alternative Telephone Numbers, where I found the following alternatives to 0870 609 4343:

0131 6583366 Customer Services, Direct Dial.

01506 593001 Overseas callers.

0131 6584008 Scottish Contact Centre, Direct Dial.

01506 817313 Direct Landline number.

[sosii]

Cheers! I never even looked.

 

Adding to your pips now.

 

:grin:

[DevonShrimper]

Just an update. It seems IF have taken the precaution of killing all of the above numbers except the overseas caller line. OK, so I'll be sticking to that. On my call plan I can be put on hold for up to an hour free of charge.

[sosii]

I was checking out a few for HBOS too and they've killed a few. The direct line to telebanking still works, but not to the automated one.