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February 23, 2012
Germans spend €150 million on hold
Published: 28 Jan 12 13:37 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20120128-40399.html
Germans spent more than 600 million minutes waiting on premium phone calls – and paid €150 million doing so, new figures showed on Saturday. Politicians have failed to hang up on expensive numbers despite discussing a ban.
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She told the regional paper Saarbrücker Zeitung the government was not doing enough to stop people being over-charged.
Hotlines and call centres, usually on 0180 codes were the worst offenders, keeping customers waiting for more than 616 million minutes last year. This cost €86 million, the Green Party report showed.
Sex and quiz phone lines, often hosted on 0900 numbers, kept people waiting for 48 million minutes, at a cost of €58 million. These numbers have an average cost of €1.20 a minute.
A telecommunications bill is being discussed in parliament, and includes a clause banning some expensive phone charges.
Under the proposal, only free numbers and those with area codes would be allowed to keep people waiting for a call. If companies want to charge people who are ringing they must set a flat price.
Yet this would not be enough, said Höhn. “There big loopholes which mean that recorded messages and choosing from a menu will still cost money,” she said.
The telecommunications bill includes other measures which have held it up in parliament, so any premium phone line ban itself being kept on hold.
DPA/The Local/jcw
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Your comments about this article:
That 150 million could be used paying the bills.
Even that fee of 15 euros for owning a TV
That month, My telephone operator charged me with around 150Euro bills.
The most expensive telephone call experience of my life !!!