topic Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank in Mobile Services

Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 21:51:37 GMT

So I had to call my French bank in an emergency to sort out my buy to let.

the French bank website said to call on an 0810 number at ‘local rate eur0.09’

EE on my bill they charged my £5.33 per minute resulting in a massive £495 call charge!!

ee have said the number is premium rate and that eur0.09 only applies to the French. They have also said this £495 went to the number I called not them. I’m not sure I believe them.

There seemed to be no way for me to know what this charge was going to be in advance.

I have no idea who to complain to or what my rights are but this seems outrageous.

Help!

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

XRaySpeX — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 22:29:20 GMT

Did you put a country code in front of 0810 or was it 00810? 0810 is not a valid no. in UK.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

bristolian — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 23:18:04 GMT

Any reference to call charges made by a foreign organisation is likely to have been intended for residents of that country, you'd have to discuss that with your French bank.

What're the first 7 digits of the number you dialled?

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

EssexBoyEE — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 23:31:48 GMT

The fact that the Call Charges for 0810 were quoted in Euros would have rang Alarm Bells for me, you always need to be aware of what Numbers you Dail on your Mobile.

EE are correct, Premium Rate Numbers are Charged at a National Rate plus a Premium Call Charge and the Additional Costs go to the Number Owner.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

BrendonH — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 06:39:30 GMT

You called a number in France after looking at their website saying it's costs a certain amount.

That figure would be for french networks calling from within france

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:13:20 GMT

I dialed 0033810….

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:13:58 GMT

I dialed 0033810…

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:14:53 GMT

How would I know in advance of calling what the fee would be. Could they charge £1million? How would I know?

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:18:44 GMT

What price is National Rate?

what price is Premium Call Charge?

What are Additional Costs?

how do I clearly see and know this information before calling.

i can’t see it on EE website or the bank website.

surely this information must be clearly displayed otherwise it could literally be anything

charging 6000 percent higher than the French rate seems unreasonable.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

bristolian — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 12:12:19 GMT

I would be interested to see the screenshot of this £5.33/minute charge for a French number, it does seem a little on the steep side compared with UK premium-rate numbers. The call-abroad price guides make only a passing reference to such numbers.

https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/help/terms-and-conditions/mobile/pay-monthly/add-ons/ee-pay-monthly-international-calling-add-ons-t-and-cs-5-july-2023.pdf

No reliance can be made on the bank's website, either way.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

Dode_ — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 12:47:42 GMT

@natkins Banks in the UK usually have a freephone No for in the country and usually a number for from abroad. It's worth checking the site to see if that's the case.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:31:10 GMT

That’s the number I called. The one they told me to call from abroad. +33810…..

i.e. the same number. It clearly says on their website to call that one from abroad but doesn’t give a price.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:33:20 GMT

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:34:39 GMT

I have posted the screenshot

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

James_B — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 18:59:47 GMT

Hi @natkins,

You can view the costs for calling non landline/mobile number in France on page 9 of the EE Standard and Non-Standard charges price guide.

Your bank should also have a standard landline number you can call from outside of the country.

James

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 20:12:39 GMT

Thank you James.

That is very helpful.
so it is £5.21 per minute

EE help desk told me they didn’t have this information, which seemed odd.

secondly it says I should have received an announcement before the call connects that it is a premium number. This didn’t happen so I will be making my complaint to OFCCOM shortly for not fulfilling the contract.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

bristolian — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 20:14:52 GMT

@natkins wrote:

This didn’t happen so I will be making my complaint to OFCCOM shortly for not fulfilling the contract.

Ofcom don't handle individual customer complaints, they will refer you to EE's complaints process - which includes the option of ADR if the issue is unresolved after 8 weeks or deadlocked before.

Read up on https://ee.co.uk/content/dam/ee-help/help-pdfs/complaints-code-of-practice-june-2019.pdf

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

Chris_B — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 20:57:27 GMT

@natkins Can you prove you didn’t get that pre recorded message ? It’s also an international premium rate number and when calling an international number you’ll be charged as your tariff allowance doesn’t cover international calls. The images of payment in euros would obviously mean not including calls from the UK as you don’t use euros in the UK. Perhaps you could plead being naive because everything posted on here kind of implies this. I don’t mean to offend you but I’ve been reading the be comments on here with interest and you are not taking responsibility for your own actions thats for sure

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

bristolian — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 21:12:31 GMT

There are legitimate ways of checking if a pre-call announcement is in-place, or should be.

The complaints process will have access to those checks, a genuine case should have nothing to fear.

Re: Huge charge for calling my French bank

natkins — Thu, 25 Jan 2024 22:20:34 GMT

Thanks.

yes. I called the number I about 10 times over several days. I would have heard the message many times and I definitely didn’t.