There was a response to my post below yesterday on the Value Ireland Blog about the 0818 number that Vision Independent Productions are using which may cost more for people who have packages of included minutes on their home or mobile numbers - 0818 calls are outside of included minutes.

It is a non profit phone line and is charged at national rates 8c per minute so it doesn’t discriminate against people outside Dublin. The high prices quoted were from mobile phones and is due to what mobile phone companies charge. Feel free to call the production office directly on 01 8602832 with your stories of savings.

I’m guessing this response was from someone within the production company, but if you do have any ideas for their new show, call the 01 number they’ve now provided.

Have you found an original way of saving money?

Have you found an original way of cutting costs and saving money? Well its time to put your nose for a good deal to the test. Joe Duffy and a team of consumer experts: Ben Dunne, Conor Pope and Barbara McCarthy want to know the story behind these savings. With the help of the studio audience your deal will be scrutinised and challenged but if it stands up throughout the investigations and the panel are convinced it should be Highly Recommended, you will walk away with €2000.

Highly Recommended will look at a range of issues that impact on all our lives ranging from property, cars, health insurance, weddings and childcare. A fun way to encourage us all to shop around, Highly Recommended puts the everyday under the spotlight, imparting valuable consumer advice along the way.
The Highly Recommended Experts are:

Ben Dunne
Ben Dunne has been one of the most controversial figures in the Irish retail industry. He now runs a chain of low price fitness centres throughout Dublin and is a well renowned advocate of the concept of consumer value for money.

Conor Pope
Journalist Conor Pope is responsible for the ever-popular Pricewatch, which has appeared every Monday in The Irish Times for more than three years. On the page he reviews products ranging from the most cutting-edge mobile phones and digital cameras to the cheapest pasta sauces and mouthwashes. He has been recently commissioned to write the ultimate bargain hunter’s manual for savvy Irish consumers.

Barbara McCarthy
Barbara is a freelance journalist who has written a range of articles on topics such as taxation, the global economy and consumer issues such as shopping in New York and property. Barbara is ably placed to comment on the importance of not only shopping around for a bargain locally, but also on where to look further a-field.
Are you clever with cash?

Have you found an original way of cutting costs ? Are you just the person to teach the rip-off merchants a thing or two? You could make a bundle out of a bargain on Highly Recommended, RTÉ One’s new lifestyle consumer show with Joe Duffy.

If you’d like to tell us about the cash you’ve made on car purchases, the dosh you’ve saved on dentists or doctors, the healthy cut backs you’ve made on health insurance, online earnings, holidays, or electrical goods - anything at all - we want to hear from you.

Also, if you just want to be a member of the audience, contact us:

Email: highly.rec@gmail.com or phone: 0818 270 941 (note the use of a free web mail here)

Calls charged at national rate. Network charges may apply.

Here’s our tip on saving money, as per a reader of Value Ireland, don’t call their 0818 number. This is one of the numbers that may cost you more than you think as per our www.saynoto1890.com website. RTE, or Vision Independent Productions - help us poor consumers save money - give us a regular 01 number to call you on.

A couple of weeks ago we launched our new website, www.saynoto1890.com. This website will provide Irish consumers with the alternative telephone numbers to call instead of using the LoCall and CallSave numbers. By using these alternative numbers, consumer can avail of their inclusive minutes as part of their telephone package bundles, thereby cutting their phone bills and saving money.

Something weird has struck me in the research that I’ve been doing for this website - it appears that these organisations below may be favouring the busineses that they are actually supposed to be protecting us consumers from - at least when it comes to calling them.

National Consumer Agency - Consumer HelpLine - Lo-call 1890 432 432 - contact us page is here.
National Consumer Agency - Corporate HelpLine - Call 01 402 5500 - contact us page is here

Financial Regulator - Consumer HelpLine - Lo call 1890 77 77 77 - contact us page is here
Financial Regulator - Industry HelpLine - Call 1 4104000 - contact us page is here

Why do two of our regulators distinguish in this way between customer helplines and and those aimed at helping businesses? Based on our www.saynoto1890.com website, in many cases these so-called LoCall and CallSave numbers are actually costing consumers more money than the ordinary 01 numbers would do.

(First published on Value Ireland Blog September 20th, 2007)

In previous posts (in July and August) I wrote about an article written by Paul Kelly in the Irish Examiner about how calling Irish businesses and organisations was costing Irish consumers more than it should do.

This is because calling Locall and Callsave (1890 and 1850) numbers is not normally included in bundles of minutes that consumers get with their mobile or landline packages.

In his article, Paul provide some regular phone numbers which could be used instead of these Locall and Callsave numbers to call certain companies. We followed up by providing some more in August. By calling these alternative numbers, consumers can use up their inclusive minutes, rather than paying extra for the calls.

We have now set up a new website, http://www.saynoto1890.com/ which will provide consumers with an up to date listing of alternative phone numbers which can be used instead of to Locall and Callsave numbers.

We invite you to keep a book mark of this site for future use, and if you have any numbers that we should know about, please post your comments with any numbers you’re aware of that may be of use to other consumers.

(First published on Value Ireland Blog on September 4th, 2007)

From some e-mails we’ve received today, plus some research we’ve done ourselves this evening, here are some other alternative numbers for some well known companies.

ViVAS Call Centre – 1850 717 717 – use 01 6193620 instead
VHI – 1850 44 44 44 – use 056 7753200 instead
Bord Gais Energy Supply - 1850 632 632 – use 01 8190395 instead
ESB Customer Supply - 1850 372 372 – use 018529534 instead
Bank Of Ireland Phone Banking - 1890 365 365 – use 01 4044470 instead
Vodafone Pay as You Go - 1850 20 87 87 – use 042 9385504 instead
O2 Speakeasy - 1850 601747 – use 061 203345 instead

As before, if you have any other suggestions, post a reply to this message, or e-mail us.

(First published on Value Ireland Blog on August 1st, 2007)

A good article here in the Irish Examiner by Paul Kelly about how consumers can end up spending more money when making calls to 1890 LoCall rather than less. Other numbers included in this analysis are Callsave 1850 and national 0818 calls.

The main reason that consumers end up paying more rather than less when making calls to such 1890/1850/0818 numbers from mobile phones and from landline providers like Eircom is because these calls are specifically excluded from minute bundles.

The journalist does show that there can sometimes be alternative numbers (local or national numbers) that consumers can call which would actually be part of their minute bundles and then wouldn’t incur extra costs.

Which is exactly what this site in the UK does - SayNoTo0870, where O870 is the UK equivalent of 1890. On this site, users provide alternative numbers to the 0870 number for users to call, and not incur excessive charges. There are different rules and issues in the UK, but the idea is pretty good.

So we in Value Ireland are going to do something similar. We’re going to publish as many local numbers for the popular companies which Irish consumers must call on a regular basis.

To kick things off, we’ll quote the suggestions provided in the article linked above:

AIB Phone Banking - 1890 242424 - use 01 6670024 instead
Ticketmaster Ireland - 0818 719300 - use 01 4569569 instead

A trick to finding these alternative numbers is to check a companies “Contact Us” page, and to look for a “From Abroad” number which is normally a local or national number rather than the 1890/1850/0818 numbers.

Do you have other alternative numbers that would work instead of these 1890/1850/0818 numbers? Post them here and we’ll keep track of them, or e-mail us.

(First published on Value Ireland Blog on July 31st, 2007)