I've recently entered a competition in the national newspaper. It was only cheap rate phone call (checked small print) but today, the company sent me a similar competition which costs about £9 in phone calls to enter.
It almosts seems the two comps are linked and it's a case of "if you don't enter one, you won't stand a chance in the other"
Are these comps fair ?....do people actually win fairly ?
I don't enter phone competitions, it's a racket - they make the money to pay the prizes by charging so much to the people who phone in. If there is an on-line option I always use that, doesn't cost anything (but I don't know if the odds are less for on-line entries!)
I omly enter phone competitions if the prize is really good and worth speculating the call cost on. I NEVER enter those you describe where call charges run up rapidly. Quite often you'll find there is a whole list of prizes but when you win it will be something trashy and not worth the cost of the call. Best avoided I think. Nothing more than scams