TalkTalk to start charging customers £24 a year for blocking cold callers – here’s how to stop them for free
The phone provider will start charging £2 a month to customers who want to opt in to the Anonymous Caller Reject service
TALKTALK is set to start charging customers an extra £24 a year for its service that automatically blocks cold callers.
From November 1, the phone provider will add £2 a month to bills for customers who opt in for the Anonymous Caller Reject feature.
The service stops nuisance and scam calls by screening incoming callers who try to hide their numbers and blocks them.
There have been nearly three billion unsolicited calls, texts and emails in the last year — equivalent to 50 for every UK adult.
But as it blocks calls from all hidden numbers, many customers choose not to use the service in case a wanted call is accidentally filtered out.
Last year, TalkTalk boasted that the service blocked around 147,000 calls a week in 2017.
How to stop cold callers for free
HERE are some tips from consumer group Which? on how to stop annoying nuissance callers:
- Register your phone number with the The service is free and records your preference not to receive unsolicited sales or marketing calls. Once registered, it will be illegal for companies to make unsolicited calls to your number. Mobile users can sign up by followed by their email address to 85095.
- Remove your number from phone books and directories.
- When you hand over your number to companies, tell them not to call you for marketing purposes or to pass your details on to third parties.
- Make sure that you don't "opt in" when ticking or unticking boxes on online forms.
- Phone up or write to firms which have cold called you and ask them directly to be taken off their call lists.
- Consider barring international calls or withheld numbers.
- Some apps like CPR Call Blocker and TrueCall Call Blocker allow you to screen calls for free but you'll have to pay more for the premium service.
- Make a note of a cold call number along with the company’s name and consider reporting them to organisations such as Ofcom, TPS or your phone provider.
Up until now, it was one of only two remaining home phone providers, alongside SSE, who offered the service for free after scrapping charges in 2014.
From November, it is also going to start charging customers another £2 a month for its Call Divert Service which lets you forward calls to another number.
So a customer who opts in for both services could see their bills go up by another £48 a year.
Affected customers should have already received an email or letter about the new charges giving them a 30 day notice.
But there is still time to opt out of the service by logging in to your online account.
If you go to the My Services section and click on Manage home phone Boots then you can untick the box next to where it says Anonymous Caller Reject.
Hit save to update the changes and you shouldn't see the charges on your bill.
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Of all the providers who charge for the service, TalkTalk is the cheapest, after Virgin Media who charge £2.70 a month.
The most expensive is BT who charge £6.50 a month.
Customers will see the extra charged added to their first bill in November which will fall on the 1 or 8 depending on when they pay it.
A spokesperson for TalkTalk told The Sun: "We are constantly making major investments in improving our broadband network, products and services to ensure we deliver the best customer experience.
"While making such improvements has meant that the pricing of some calling features has changed, we still offer a suite of other features for free while other major providers charge for them.
"TalkTalk customers can continue to benefit from free calling and privacy features including CallSafe, voicemail, last caller barring and caller display while making a saving of £306 over 18 months in comparison to BT."
In September, new rules came into place for cold callers who pester Brits without consent who now risk being slapped with a £500,000 fine.
Last year just 22 penalties were issued to firms who repeatedly targeted people with cold calling and texts in 2016.
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