What is a phone-paid service?

Phone-paid (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
•  Giving to charity via text message
•  Using your phone to buy virtual credits or currency for mobile or online games
•  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 send texts 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 pay-as-you-go 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.

Knowing your mobile rights

Have you ever had charges on your mobile phone bill or pay-as-you-go account that you didn't recognise?

Or received text messages that you didn't ask for and ended up being charged for?

Perhaps you signed up for a service but didn't realise you'd be charged on a weekly or monthly basis?

Phone-paid services that you pay for using your mobile (like entering a competition or giving to charity via text message) are popular, can be loads of fun and can also have community or social benefits.

But from time to time things can go wrong, so it's important that you know your mobile rights - so you're not charged over the odds. PhonepayPlus sets the rules for the providers of these services to make sure that you are protected when using phone-paid services on your mobile.

•  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 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 information 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 you very well might have 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 of many phone-paid services are 18-34 year olds. And among 18-24 year-olds, 47% are happy to pay by text, compared to only 14% of people aged 55 and older.