problems with leading zero's

I'm having problems with my SQL selecting numbers with preceding zero's
from a character field.

I'm creating the fields like this:
CREATE TABLE phonenumbers (
            areacode character varying(3),
                prefix character varying(3),
                    suffix character varying(4)
                    );

when I run a broad select based on areacode and prefix i get this
(numbers munged to protect the innocent)
select * from phonenumbers where areacode = 555 and prefix = 555;

 areacode | prefix | suffix
----------+--------+--------
 555      | 555    | 0044
 555      | 555    | 0049
...etc

but when i try to do a more exact search for a number with a suffix that
starts with a zero, nothing comes back.

select * from phonenumbers where areacode = 865 and prefix = 379 and \
suffix = 0044;
 areacode | prefix | suffix
----------+--------+--------
(0 rows)

Ideas?

--Bryan