Requirements for call-blocker phone?

I'm thinking of buying a call-blocker phone, but do I need some specific "add-on" to my phone package from BT? Can anyone advise please?

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

Yes with bt you need caller identity it costs us a fiver a month best fiver we ever spend IMO

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

Thanks Julie, will make enquiries. So fed up with nuisance calls.

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

I have a Panasonic cordless phone.
It's handy to have caller id at the extra cost.
However, on my phone, you can highlight any number that has called and block it anyway.
Works a treat.

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

Oh gosh, the BT Protection Racket issue crops up again.

Yes you do need your provider (BT or otherwise) to enable the simple switch that will allow the caller number details to come down your telephone line. But as highlighted they charge you for that privilege which is inherently wrong and amounts to a fraudulent protection racket. Like the triads saying "Pay us £20 a week or we'll send the boys round to trash your corner shop"

Here it's "pay us £5 a month or we'll let the telesales and nuisance calls through to your phone"

An utterly appalling and crooked situation obv endorsed by the corrupt government.

You have 2 choices. You can be a sap, bow down and succumb to that protection racket, or, you can decide to stand up for yourself, shoulder a little inconvenience and operate a system that stops the majority of the calls.

If you want to do the latter here's the process.

Fundamentally you NEVER ever answer the phone. You let it ring out no matter what.

You then do a 1471

If the number was withheld you do nothing
If the number was unavailable you do nothing
If the number was there but you don't recognise it, you do nothing
If the number was there and you recognise it as family/friends then you simply ring them back

As you keep doing this, you tell your family and friends what you are doing and ask them to only let the phone ring twice and then hang up and that you will always ring them back.

They will quickly get used to that and happily do it. The advantage is that you'll know in future they are calling because there were only 2 rings whereas call centres ring for ages.

Why does this work?

Primarily it means you will never ever have to speak to a nuisance caller.

In addition, when the call centres don't get any answer at all from your number they will flag your number on their database as non-viable, as a number that can't be reached and is not a good target for their calls.

Such databases are freely traded between hundreds of nuisance call companies. Once you are flagged as non-viable you won't get calls from the others.

Conversely all those people who (stupidly) answer the phone and start to listen to the call centre spiel will get their numbers flagged as good viable targets even if they immediately hang up. The call centre knows that your number is genuine, that there are real people at the end of it and so will sell your number to hundreds of other nuisance callers who will plague you relentlessly.

So, the solution is as I have said, extremely simple. You never, ever, ever, answer the phone, period. You let it ring out, do a 1471 and ring back if it's someone you know.

Once you do this the calls will die off pretty quickly as word gets around that your number is useless.

No need to pay BT anything, no need to be a sap and pay their protection racket money. Cut them off at the source.
Be in control, don't answer the phone.

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

I think Telstra used to charge $5 (£2.50) for caller ID on a land line but with VOIP and mobiles it is free. Personally I have my phones registered on Do Not Call and the only ones that get through are M$ scams and the like. I just tell them to "**** off" and hang up. Happens once a month at most

As most phones these days have an answering machine built in why not just screen your calls that way? If they are people you know just pick the phone up if they are not just delete the message (scammers just hang up).

With mobile phones at about $25 (£12.50) a month for unlimited calls and texts including overseas I can't see why anybody would bother with a landline these days. I only have my old number on VOIP because it is free, I never use it to make calls.

Telecommunications is a whole different ball game these days.

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

We are with Plusnet who provide an excellent service and who charge just 99p per month for caller display...

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

That's a bargain Barry

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

Sounds like a different system in Australia Bruce - oh, and the reason I bother with a landline is because we have no mobile signal in this neck of the woods.

I would also point out Realist, that when you dial 1471 and press 3 to connect the call, there is a charge, albeit a small one.

Thanks all for your help, still haven't quite decided what to do.

Re: Requirements for call-blocker phone?

I can only repeat ours is best investment we have ever made sue, the bt one comes preloaded with most nuisance numbers and instantly you notice a huge down turn in wasted annoying hours answering the phone. Get any come through its a simple one press and they are gone forever. I think my blood pressure went down several points after we got it.

Realist seems to live a different world to many of us, if I did as he suggested I'd be paying just as much as those calls are not free and my blood pressure would be up ! In a perfect world bt etc would do all he says but this is the real world where they make a profit out of us we can only chose to pay for what is best for us and this is a bit of kit that really transforms lives IMO