HAVE you ever been tempted to enter a competition over the phone only to find the cost of the call is higher than usual? York Trading Standards is often asked by consumers about premium rate telephone numbers, particularly the cost of such calls.

Businesses who use premium rate services offer information and entertainment through the phone, fax, personal computer and even interactive digital TV.

There is a wide variety of services ranging from weather forecasts, traffic information, opinion polls and horoscope lines to competitions, sports updates, chat lines and other business services. However, calls to premium rate telephone services usually cost more than ordinary telephone calls - up to £1.50 per minute.

The money made from the call is shared between the telephone company and the business providing the service. Premium rate services are advertised using special dialling codes and normally show up on your phone bill as a premium rate call or high premium service.

ICSTIS (Independent Committee for the Supervision of Standards of Telephone Information Services) is the watchdog that regulates the content and promotion of services charged at premium rate.

The committee investigates complaints about premium rate services and can apply a range of sanctions whenever the ICSTIS Code of Practice is breached. The Code applies to all premium rate services which are available to a customer in the United Kingdom, whether the service or the service provider are based in the UK or abroad. For example, the Code requires that advertisers must state the cost of calls, and advertisers must not mislead or provide out-of-date information.

The committee has recently investigated a number of service providers for sending unsolicited text messages to mobile phones encouraging recipients to call a premium rate number as a matter of urgency. Such promotions and services were held to be serious breaches of the Code of Practice.

ICSTIS is able to impose fines, bar access to the service in question and prohibit individuals from operating services for a set period.

The committee also administers a compensation scheme for telephone subscribers who receive high bills as a result of unauthorised calls to live one-to-one chat services.

To prevent authorised calls to premium rate services being made from your phone, you can contact your telephone company for details of premium rate call barring. Filtering software is available to restrict access to premium rate services on the Internet.

For further information about ICSTIS or any other consumer matter please contact City of York Trading Standards. The telephone number is 01904 551562 or you can call at 9 St Leonard's Place. The fax number is 01904 551590 and the email address is trading.standards@york.co.uk