Echo readers should be aware that more and more companies and organisations are charging telephone callers 10p a minute.

The number of such bodies, who should realise that this a practice which will surely lose them business, is growing apace.

I have now joined the band of people who are listing numbers which attract extortionate charges and boycotting them.

After I clocked up £1 before speaking to a human being at one of these companies the other day I complained and was told: ‘Oh, we have to make money somewhere’.

They don’t seem to acknowledge that callers will be helping them to ‘make money’ by buying their products or services if the cost of calling them is reasonable.

I won’t be dialling any such company again.

Ron Kirby, Dorchester