Anyone had their landline number changed/ knows how to do it?

[whataboutbob]

This is for my brother. He is vulnerable ( mental health issues) quite naive and is being targeted by some dubious businesses. He is frequently rung up by people telling him for example that his roof needs work, his chimney is about to collapse etc. Luckily he tends to check with me but on a number of occasions has nearly fallen for this. His number is in the phone directory which doesn’t help. If anyone has managed to get their number changed I’d appreciate hearing how it’s done. Thanks

Contact his phone company. They can change number and put him ex directory.

You often get a new number if you change provider too.

Thanks guys, I believe he is with BT. I just need to convince him to go for it. He might be reluctant if his friends for example all have his number and use his landline. But I’ll talk to him when I’m next there and maybe we can call BT together. He now never answers the phone because he dreads nuisance callers

You can buy a call guardian phone that you programme all his friends and family, doctor, dentist etc into so they can call but others are met (he won’t hear the phone ring) with either a voice saying he is not accepting this call goodbye, or a voice telling them that he is screening calls state your name and we will let him know you are on the line, at which point his phone will ring and the voice will tell him so and so is on the line do you wish to take the call, and he can press yes or no accordingly.

I got one for my mum. It’s fantastic. She hardly hears it ring now as any double glazing sales staff don’t make it through the security. The odd one will give their name and get through but I think they hear that call guardian message and give up! The computer generated ones give up for sure.

There are different ones so make sure you get the right one. The cheap ones just let recognised numbers through. You don’t want that as sometime someone else needs to phone, say your cousin who has a new mobile or your gran whose number you forgot to programme in, or the hospital or vet or whatever, so it’s handy to let him choose to answer an unrecognised number. If it works out that the double glazing sales team STILL persist then you can block them. There is a block button you can press while in a call if you don’t like the way it’s going.

The one I got my mum is the BT 4600 I think. £60 in Argos for two handsets. Worth it’s weight in gold.

Oh and I forgot to say once you programme in the names and numbers for him he can see the word ‘mum’ or ‘John’ or whatever you’ve programmed in so he knows it’s safe to answer.

Go online to the TPS and register his number and you can register his address too so that he doesn't get calls, mail etc.

BT changed mine when i had a spate of nuisance calls and were very helpful.
I was registered with the TPS but its scope is limited.

Thanks everyone and @Elieza that is so useful to know re the BT 4600. Good to have all these options. I’m probably y going round to his next weekend and will discuss the way forward. He might like the option to be able to see who is ringing him and also accept new numbers and block them later is they are nuisance.
I think the number is TPS registered because it was my late dads home and he had dementia so I got it changed then.

I mean I got it TPS registered when Dad was living there.

The TPS service does have an expiry though so worth checking it is still valid.