Registering Your PRS With PhonePay Plus

For companies who are thinking of getting a premium rate number for customers to call and partake in the services offered, there are a few regulations that need to be followed before the company makes their move. PhonepayPlus are the regulator for all premium rate numbers and their role is to make sure that once the company has registered, they abide by the guidelines they endorse.

Every company has to register with PhonepayPlus when they get a new premium rate number, but not every company has to pay the annual fee for the privilege. If you are operating a charitable company or you are in the first year of operation AND your projected gross outgoing is less than £10000 per annum, you are exempt from stumping up the £135+VAT charge. This annual fee has to be in place due to the role that PhonepayPlus play in the premium rate numbers business. There has to be a regulator to ensure that all customers operate fairly.

There is a Code of Practice that has just been published in its 12^th edition and all companies must adhere to what is detailed in it. Regulations include: having reasonable cause for a premium rate number, you cannot have a premium rate number if you are not offering a service to the callers; the operations that are offered through the premium must neither have an relationship with anything that does not comply with the law nor must they endorse non law-abiding services; the pricing details of the phone call must be clearly detailed so that the caller is fully aware of the contract they are entering into when dialling the number.

This is not an exhaustive list of what is detailed in the Code of Practice, merely an example of the type of regulation that is in place. There have been stories of companies who have exploited the premium rate numbers concept and have ripped off their clients; this is why PhonepayPlus exists so that companies can use premium rate numbers legitimately.

Premium rate numbers are incredibly versatile and therefore they can be used for a whole host of services. Predominantly, premium rate numbers are distinguishable from their prefix – 09, 08, 070 or 118 but they can also come in the form of Voice Short Codes (VCNs). The final form here is largely used for mobile phone customers to use premium rate numbers at a fairer and more obvious rate.

Premium rate numbers’ charges are determined by the company who wishes to operate the number, this means that it can be anything between £0.15 and £2.00 per minute. What you charge and what sort of revenue you make from the number varies dependent on the type of business you operate and the number of minutes received through the number.

PhonePay Plus’s official website can be found at http://www.phonepayplus.org.uk/