January 11th 2016
PhonepayPlus, the UK's regulator of premium rate phone services, has issued new advice today on what to do if you spot an unexpected charge on your phone bill. The regulator has also produced a short video taking you through the steps.
1. Do not delete the message that confirms your subscription or payment
Do not delete the message that confirms your subscription or payment. It is very important to have all the details of the service and payment in order to find out more about it. If you do not wish to receive the service, do not reply to the message and to send a new text STOP ALL to the short code.
2. Check if it is a premium rate service
Premium rate services may appear as any of the below:
– Charge to Mobile (eg Payforit, Operator billing or Direct-to-bill; allow customers to make purchases charged to a phone bill without sending a premium rate text message, for example buying an app from the Google Play store charged to your phone bill); or
– Premium rate numbers and shortcodes (for example SMS shortcodes – five or six digits long and usually begin with 5, 6, 7 or 8, 118 – directory enquiry numbers, 087 numbers and 09 numbers)
3. Contact the company that runs the service
If you want to make an enquiry about your charge, you should first contact the company that is running the service (also known as the 'service provider')
To find out who is running the service and the contact details of the company, use PhonepayPlus’s #NumberChecker or contact your telephone provider and ask for the contact details of the service provider.
4. Still need help? Contact PhonepayPlus
Still not satisfied after contacting the service provider? Then please either call PhonepayPlus on 0300 30 300 20 (Monday – Friday, 9.30am – 5pm) or submit an online enquiry.
Before you do so, make sure you have the following information to hand, otherwise they will not be able to help you:
– The name of the service provider or the premium rate number involved
– A copy of the text message itself confirming the subscription or the payment
– Any other information on your telephone bill that might help identify the service
Note that if your charge is not related to a premium rate service, you should first contact your telephone provider and ask them for more information.
