saynotopremium.co.uk

One of the most important parts of a service that provides free alternatives to premium 0870 and 0845 numbers is the database of numbers and their alternatives. These are not easy to come by.

There are some 08 numbers that do not benefit the companies in any way, they use them in the mistaken belief that somehow it’s easier for their customers. Well not if they’re calling on a mobile. In this case the companies should be happy to share the geographical equivalent number unless they’re keen on hiding their location from their customers.

There are other 08 numbers that allow a revenue share for the company so they are actually making a profit for each minute they keep you on hold. In this case they like to keep the geographical equivalent numbers secret and/or change it every so often to keep people on their toes.

I popped down to the British Library the other day to check out some of their company databases to get an idea of the problem. It looks like there are around 40,000 numbers listed in the UK that start 08.

So quite a few then.

I’m going to try and maximise usefulness and prioritize companies that people call most often, large utilities for a start. As the saynotopremium service gets up and running, I should be able to focus on numbers that people are looking for too.

There are some standard things that you can do to try and find the alternative numbers, and one potential solution I have is to outsource the researching of some of the numbers. I’m going to publish a mini guide to finding numbers at some point to help anyone out there who wants to lend a hand with building up the database.