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Charges for certain 866 calls ?

goworld1
I'm a participant level 2
I'm a participant level 2

Do phone calls to certain phone number prefixes (866-xxx-xxxx) or (888-xxx-xxxx) or (900-xxx-xxxx) cause an automatic charge to my Fido Account ?

I am Postpaid, but got charged $4.99 for a callback to an 866-xxx-xxxx number??

Is there a LIST of phone prefixes which automatically elicit extra charges ?

Thanks,

Walter.

2 REPLIES 2

goworld1
I'm a participant level 2
I'm a participant level 2

Thank You - after your thorough Reply - it makes complete sense now - we can now all be On Guard. Thank you . . .

Cawtau
Senior MVP Senior MVP
Senior MVP

Hello Goworld1,

 

  Welcome to the community!

 

  Firstly, you should note that the 1-900 phone numbers are considered Premium-rate phone numbers or pay-per-call services (see here and here). On the other hand, 1-866 or 1-888 phone numbers are generally considered toll-free. That is, in most cases, the callers are not charged long-distance for those calls. However, it is important to note that calling toll-free numbers from mobile phones still uses airtime minutes.

 

  There are also some important things to note regarding toll-free phone numbers. While North American toll-free numbers can generally be called free of LD charges from Canada or the US, it depends on the designated area as determined by the business owning the phone number. In addition to restricting those numbers to either Canada or US, some businesses may also place additional limits on their free usage (ie only from certain states or provinces etc)(see here). It would be a similar situation with toll-free phone numbers from other Countries. It all depends from where they wish to accept the long-distance charges. Many toll-free phone numbers are not free from long-distance charges when called from a different Country.

 

   Since the designated call area is determined by the businesses, it's not possible to know the availability of a particular toll-free number in specific regions just by the phone number itself.

 

Hope this helps 😀

 

Cheers