What is a phone-paid service?

Phone-paid services (also called premium rate services) are products or services that are charged to your landline or mobile phone account. They include:

•  Ringtones, games and other downloads for your mobile phone
•  Using your phone or the red-button to vote or interact with television programmes
•  Entering competitions
•  News, weather or goal alerts
•  Phoning a directory enquiries company
•  Chat and dating services
•  Horoscopes
•  Helplines

You can recognise a phone-paid service by the numbers it begins with:

•  09 (voting on TV shows, entering competitions, technical support helplines)
•  118 (directory enquiry services that give you the contact details for a business you're trying to get in touch with)
•  0871, 0872, 0873 (sales/booking lines, customer service helplines)
•  Mobile text shortcode numbers – five-and six-digit numbers that you text off to for services (giving to charity via your mobile, entering competitions, downloading games and ringtones)

If your phone is on a contract, the charges will show up in your monthly bill. If you're a pre-pay customer, they'll be taken out of your balance straight away.

Phone-paid services are an easy way to buy and enjoy products and services whenever you want. You can interact with TV programmes, receive news and travel alerts, give money to charity, and personalise your mobile phone with ringtones, logos and other downloads.

When things go wrong

When we first launched the PhoneBrain schools campaign back in late 2008, complaints to PhonepayPlus about mobile services – which account for approximately 90% of all of the complaints we receive – were at an all time high.

The great news is that complaints have dropped drastically since then – complaints about mobile services are down 65% from last year (based on December 2008 vs. December 2009).

This is partially down to the work that PhonepayPlus does around educating members of the public – the PhoneBrain project is a good example of this – but it's also because PhonepayPlus introduced some new rules for mobile phone-paid services in January 2009. The revised rules include:

•  Subscription services - These are the services which charge you on a regular basis (usually weekly or monthly) for items like ringtones, wallpapers and news/sports alerts. Our new rules mean that, if you sign up for a subscription service that costs more than £4.50 in any given week (including a joining fee), the provider must send you a free confirmation text message with the cost of the service. Then, if you are happy to go ahead, you will need to reply to let the provider know. You cannot be charged until you have confirmed your subscription with the provider.
•  Clearer pricing - No matter where you see a mobile phone-paid service advertised (whether it's in a magazine or newspaper, on TV, on the internet or somewhere else), the pricing of the service must be given just as much space and attention as the rest of the advert - the cost shouldn't be hidden in small print. Also, providers must not say a service or download is 'free' unless there really are no other costs involved.
•  Promotional text messages - If you receive a free promotional message, it must make clear that the message is free and give you info on how to stop receiving similar messages in future.
•  STOP - You should be able to unsubscribe from any text service by texting the word 'STOP' to the same number. If the messages do not stop after you've sent this command, please contact PhonepayPlus straight away.
•  Marketing lists - If you receive a text message that you don't think you requested, let us know. We can ask providers for evidence that the people on their lists have consented to receive such messages.

Like numbers? Here are some statistics

You might never have heard of 'phone-paid' or 'premium rate' services before visiting this site, but the chances are you've used them. 38% of people in the UK have used a phone-paid service – that's a massive 18 million people in total!

The biggest users are 25-34 year olds. 46% of them have used a service at some point, compared to 30% of people 65 and older.

Of UK adults who haven't used a phone-paid service, 69% say it's because they have no interest in them, and 26% reckon they don't trust them.