01, 02, 03 – Landlines

Numbers starting ’01’ and ’02’ are arranged geographically and are generally used for home and business phone lines. These numbers have a specific area code for each part of the country. Numbers starting with ’03’ are not linked to any particular location.

07 – Mobiles, Pagers and Personal Numbering

Generally numbers beginning with ’07’ are mobile phones or personal numbering in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands or Isle of Man.

Numbers beginning 071, 072, 073, 074, 075, 07624, 077, 078 or 079 are for mobile phones in the UK, Channel Islands or Isle of Man. All other numbers beginning with 076 are reserved for pagers.

Numbers that begin with ‘070’ are known as ‘personal numbers’ and are used by people who need flexibility of forwarding incoming calls to different locations. However, although these look like normal mobile phone numbers, they can actually be charged at a premium rate of up to £1.50 per minute from most networks and are generally not included in bundle packages. These numbers can often be used by scammers attempting to trick you into calling them back. More information on this can be found on the Ofcom website.

08 – Service Numbers

Numbers starting with 08 are mainly used by businesses and are charged at special rates, where you pay an access charge and a service charge.

0800 numbers and 0808 numbers are for freephone services.

The service charge for 084 numbers is between 0p and 7p per minute, and for 087 numbers this can be between 0p and 13p. On top of this your network provider can charge an additional access charge, usually between 10p and 60p.

09 – Service Numbers (Premium Rate)

These are higher-cost numbers, which include a surcharge of up to £3.60 per minute or £6.00 per call. The cost of calling an 09 number is broken down into an access charge and a service charge.

Premium rate service numbers are usually used for information lines, competitions, gambling, dating services, tv voting and adult entertainment, where the cost of the call pays for the service provided.

Premium rate 09 numbers are regulated by PhonepayPlus with Ofcoms approval. If you have had an unexpected charge for calling an 09 number, you should contact PhonepayPlus via their website. There is also a handy tool for checking the cost of calling an 09 number upfront which can be found here.