Exposed: the shocking 118 rip-off

Need help finding a phone number? If you turn to a 118 number, you'll pay through the nose.

If you need help finding a telephone number, think twice before you call a 118 number.

With 118 118 for example, you will be charged a whopping £2.75 connection fee, plus £2.99 a minute when you call. That means anyone calling the service will pay at least £5 for the privilege. Add on your service provider's fees and many of us will pay closer to £6 just to find out a telephone number.

118 call charges

Here is what you will fork out to call a 118 number from the various networks.

Call provider	Home phone access charge per minute	Mobile access charge per minute	Minimum cost of calling 118
BT*	9.58p	30p	£5.83
EE	11p	45p	£6.19
O2	n/a	25p	£5.99
Orange	n/a	45p	£6.19
Plusnet	9.58p	n/a	£6.70
Post Office	9.5p	n/a	£6.69
Sky	9.5p	n/a	£6.69
TalkTalk	5p	20p	£5.79
Three	n/a	25p	£5.99
T-Mobile	n/a	45p	£6.19
Virgin Media	10.25p	36p	£5.84
Vodafone	n/a	45p	£6.19

Source: 192.com

*BT customers on their low-income tariff will not pay the access charge

“Phone bills can rocket after calling 118 numbers,” says Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice. “Often it is unclear just how expensive a call can be.”

She said that older people who aren’t internet savvy are particularly vulnerable to shock bills as they rely on telephone directory services rather than the internet to find out phone numbers, and revealed that Citizens Advice had heard from an elderly person who had received a £150 phone bill as a result of calling 118 numbers.

How to avoid 118

If you need to find out a telephone number, the cheapest way to do it is via a search engine on the internet. You can also use an online directory enquiry service such as 192.com.

But for people who don’t have access to the internet, there are low-cost directory services that you can use.

For example, it is substantially cheaper to call 118 811. It is operated by the same company as 118 118 but they call it a “simplified and low cost version”. A call to 118 811 costs a fixed fee of £1 per call plus your telephone company’s access charge. So a one-minute call from BT would cost £1.09, compared to £5.83 to call 118 118.

Directory enquiry service	Minimum cost from a BT landline
118 118	£5.83
118 212	£5.83
118 500	£5.13
118 247	£3.09
118 811	£1.09

Don’t pay at all

But you can avoid call charges completely if you are prepared to listen to a short advert while you get find out a telephone number. Calls to 0800 118 3733 are completely free from a landline.

Have you been stung by a 118 number? Tell us about your experiences with directory enquiry services in the comments box below.

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