I find it irritating to have to decode...but most also give the numbers...you just can't always have the numbers with you. A case in point...I have an unlisted number. It spells a dirty word, so all my friends can remember the number without having find where they wrote it down and go look it up. (All phone numbers have 7 digits. We used to be such a small town that everyone had the same first three digits.) Another friend has the same thing. I don't call her often enough to have the number memorised, but I sure can remember the word. There are sites on the net which will decode your number, give lots of possiblilites. The problem is if you have a zero or several zeroes in the number because there is no corresponding letter for them.