Regulating to build consumer trust in phone-paid services
PhonepayPlus is the organisation that regulates products or services - such as competitions,
TV voting, helplines, adult entertainment, downloads, new alerts or interactive games - that are charged
to users' phone bills or pre-pay accounts.
Welcome to PhonepayPlus. We are the regulatory body for the premium rate products and services you can buy through your landline phone bill or mobile phone account.
For you as a consumer
Premium rate phone-paid services are being offered everywhere. Whether entering a competition you've seen in an advert or voting on your favourite TV show, being able just to send a text or make a call makes it easy to join in and have fun.
Our job is to help you if you have any questions about, or if you've had any problems using, premium rate phone-paid services. Services like competitions, TV voting, helplines, adult entertainment, downloads, news alerts or interactive games, which are charged to your phone bills or pre-pay accounts. As a regulator we're able to enforce our Code of Practice against operators who don't provide a service that's fair to you.
You can quickly check a number, to see what service is operating on that number. Or make a complaint if you feel a service was misleading, offensive or if the operator of the service failed to do what they said they'd do. We might start an investigation on your behalf as a result of your complaint and this might help you get a refund.
In addition to the online number checker PhonepayPlus has launched SMSus (76787) - a text message service that works in much the same way, allowing you to check a premium rate number anytime, anywhere, direct to your mobile phone.
And there's lots of other information, like links to consumer groups, on this site to help you, too.