0844 is not a premium rate number at all. (As defined b OFCOM
)
Betfair have a key account number and that begins 0844 209 **** and is charged at 5.101p per minute plus VAT
The part you highlighted is for UK customers (the giveaway is please call our helpdesk on
UK-08448710000" Similar numbers can be found on Betfairs contact us page
If you took 1 second to look 3 lines further down it says Other countries - 00442088348060
You can even call this number from your UK number and it is inclusive of your free minutes.
Why does everything have to be such a big issue when you reply? It isnt a con nor a premium rate number.
It IS a "premium rate number". Unlike normal calls, your own phone provider cannot include the calls in a package they sell you, hence you pay TWICE for this call, once for an inclusive package, and again at 5p per minute.
This makes the "premium" for the call over and above the price of a normal call as 5p per minute.
Almost every other casino provides a FREE number, so why does Betfair buck the trend by making money from customers who call in.
The main difference with 0844 is that much of the 5p per minute is handed over to Betfair, whereas for a normal call the cost is set by the phone providers as enough to cover their costs plus their profit margin.
When 0844 was used for doctor's surgeries, it created a stink in parliament, and was referred to as "premium rate" in the debate. The key was that the surgeries were effectively charging by the minute to talk to a receptionist to make an appointment, and this violated the "free at point of use" principle for NHS services. The result was that there was a ban on such numbers operating as a revenue generating service when connected to surgeries.
0844 used to support dial up internet, and was how internet companies made their money from "pay as you go" access. Had they used a normal number, they would not have been able to make money from providing the service as the phone companies would have kept all the revenue.
0844 is in fact a sneaky loophole, which is explained in more detail on "saynoto0870(dot)com".
In this case, UK players can easily dodge this if they are on an all inclusive calls package by using the "international" number, and Betfair won't mind will they as they don't make money from the calls do they
This looks like the type of scam where you are sent a message intended to scare you into taking immediate action, and presenting a premium rate contact number to call in order to sort it out. I have had numerous texts of this kind to my MOBILE phone, and quoting an 0844 number that the scammer KNOWS is likely to be called from that same mobile, and which does not cost 5p per minute, but a whopping 40p per minute.
Call Betfair on your mobile and their 0844 is 40p per minute, whereas the "international" number would be less than 10p per minute.
0844 is actually WORSE than 0870, as OFCOM neutered 0870 a few years back, and told businesses to move over to 03 series numbers. Instead, they all made OFCOM look foolish and migrated en masse to a previously little known 0844 series so that they could keep their snouts in the trough.
03 has all the benefits of 0844 bar one, there is no mechanism on 03 for a business to make money from inbound calls. Given that years have passed, there is no reason for Betfair not having set up on an 03 code for the UK other than making money from players calling in.
However, of far more importance is how a player that has never had an account at Betfair could have their email address on their database, and further have three failed password attempts on an account that doesn't exist.
