Premium rate number guide

The cost of premium rate services tend to be higher than that of a normal phone call or text, so it’s important you know beforehand what you’ll be charged. You can recognise a premium rate number by the digits it begins with:

Shortcode numbers

Mobile text shortcode numbers are five and six-digit numbers, which usually begin with 5, 6, 7 or 8. You can send texts to these numbers to donate to charity, to enter competitions and to download games and ringtones.

118

Calls to directory enquiries vary in price depending on the directory enquiry service you call and the phone network you call from. 

From a landline calls cost a fixed one-off charge of between 20p and £2.00 for one or more searches, plus 35p to £1.65 per minute.

From a mobile some networks charge a fixed one-off charge of between 61p and £2.55, plus around 61p to £2.55 per minute. Other networks charge on a per minute basis with calls costing around £1.50 to £2.04 per minute.

0800 reverse

The person receiving a reverse call pays for it instead of the person dialling the number. 0800 reverse is free to dial from landlines and from Vodafone, Orange, O2, Tesco, 3 and T-Mobile mobile networks.

0871, 0872 or 0873

These numbers are normally used for customer service lines, such as technical support lines, chat lines, tarot/horoscope lines and sales/booking lines.

The pricing for these numbers must be clearly explained. If you’re put in a queuing system, you must be told your place in the queue or roughly how long you’ll wait to speak to someone.

Calls to 0871, 0872 or 0873 numbers cost between 5p and 12.5p from landlines and between 25p and 41p per minute from mobiles.

090

These numbers are mainly used for competitions, TV voting, horoscopes, chat lines, adult lines and professional service lines.

Calls to 090 numbers cost between 10p and £1.65 per minutes from a landline but can cost up to £2.55 per minute from a mobile.