Many leading banks, insurers and energy companies are ripping off existing customers by making them pay to phone them while offering free numbers to new customers, a watchdog has found. The majority - 27 out of the 34 companies investigated - offered numbers for new customers, while just six gave the free numbers to existing customers, the Which? Companies operate a two-tier system by making existing customers use an or number. And 20 companies made their customers call the often-expensive numbers to complain about bad service or problems with their bills.

An number is also often given. The group warned that the one in seven homes now using only a mobile phone were paying a premium to talk to the two thirds of companies offering numbers for customer complaint lines. It said more than half of the 34 companies in the study failed to give adequate details about typical call costs on their websites, but those that did included Smile, The Co-operative Bank, John Lewis Insurance, British Gas, Npower, Santander and Barclays.

It's even worse when they offer new customers access to numbers while leaving loyal customers to pay more. We use both and telephone numbers. The numbers are free of charge and is charged at the customer's local rate.

Churchill says 'our priority is to ensure that all calls are answered as quickly as possible'. We cap the numbers to local rate so existing customers can take time to discuss their policy with our experts without worrying about premium rate phone calls. An HSBC spokesman said: However, if a customer would prefer we call them back, we will gladly do so.

They just need to let us know. A Scottish Power spokesman said: However, Scottish Power also offer a call back service. When a customer calls and we have a queue, we will offer the opportunity to request a call back. Our operators will then automatically call the customer back when they reach the front of the queue.

Non geographic telephone numbers allow us to direct customer calls quickly and efficiently to any call centre agent at any location, therefore minimising customer wait times.

BT introduced free calls to numbers in January where calls are made from landlines and other providers have followed to do the same.

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