That is a simple question but a little more complicated than that. An 800 is better than an 888, which is better than an 866 or 877. But a number that spells something is much better than random digits, even random digits in an ’800′ vs a memorable word or phrase in an 866 or 877. To get more specific than that is harder to do in broad terms like this.

The larger you are, the more important it is to have an ’800′ vs any other area code. The more important credibility is to your sale, and the more important it is to look like a large successful business the more important it is to have the ’800′ versus anything else. The smaller you are, the more personal your service is, the newer your industry and business is, the less the ’800′ area code probably is.

Some people who have plenty of ’800′s will act like that is the most important thing, while people who don’t have many will tell you that it’s not as important, that the words they have make them more valuable. I am probably the most rounded in terms of having 800s, as well as 888s, 877s and 866s, premium numeric numbers and repeaters, as well as vanity words etc. That’s why I don’t see things as all black or all white on this, but it’s a spectrum. And honestly, most people are somewhere in the middle. So there’s no one right answer for everyone.

See this article on the difference between the different toll free area codes for more information.

.Bill

Eric Stewart
Pointingyouhome.com

I’m guessing you’re asking this because you are trying to avoid wrong numbers. Unfortunately there is no good way to do that. That’s because wrong numbers don’t just come from previous users. They come much more often from the 150 or so numbers that are just one digit away. We can sometimes tell how long it’s been since a number was active last, but we can’t search by that and even that can be deceiving, because a number can be disconnected and still be advertised or it may have been active but never advertised and had any volume of use.

Since there’s no way to make the type of a list you’re asking for, and that still wouldn’t guarantee you anything. But what we can do is stand behind our numbers for you. If you get a number that gets a lot of wrong numbers just let us know and we’ll replace it with an equivalent number at no charge. This applies to regular activations and premium numbers too, but doesn’t apply to backordered numbers.

I would also point out that there are several things you can do to deal with misdials too. We have a whole misdial section about misdials and how to deal with them. Many people actually look for misdial numbers. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions or need help with anything else.

.Bill Quimby.

Pat

We have a LOT of good options for that. You have to use the Instant 800 Lookup though to find them now. There’s a section that kind of helps give you some ideas (http://www.tollfreenumbers.com/premium/). You can try 800-*00-**** or 800-900-**** to find things like your previous number. You’ll probably get a whole list of similar numbers. Regarding what to query, just use some *s and put in a query for whatever you think would be good in terms of repetitive and easy. Then look at the 2nd blue box because that shows 8 random premium numbers each query.

.Bill Quimby.

Thank you
Ken