Help and FAQ

Anyone calling from a UK landline or mobile. There is no contract, no app to install and nothing to download. If you are not the bill payer, check with them first, because some of our services add the call to your normal phone bill.

Prepaid account: you register your phone number, top up by PayPal, then dial 0161 328 7777 followed by the international number. Calls come off your credit at our lowest rates, from 1p a minute. Calls to 0161 328 7777 are charged like any other UK landline call, so on most plans they come out of your inclusive minutes. Nothing extra is added to your phone bill.Free calls: dial 0845 222 6666 (or 08700 477 477) then the full international number. The call to us is an 0845 or 0870 call, so if your landline or mobile plan includes those numbers, the call costs you nothing extra. Some landline packages include them; most mobile plans do not. If yours does not, you pay 5p a minute plus your provider's access charge, and nothing to us. Not every country is on the free service; see the free international calls list. Instant access numbers: every country page shows an 084 number you can dial before the international number with no account and no top-up. Your phone provider bills you our advertised rate plus their access charge. Good for a one-off call from a landline; from a mobile, or if you call regularly, the prepaid account is much cheaper.

From a mobile, almost always the prepaid account, because mobile networks charge the highest access charges on 084 and 087 numbers. From a landline whose package includes 0845 and 0870 calls, the free service costs nothing extra. For an occasional call from a landline, an instant access number is fine.

Go to set up an account, enter the UK phone number you will be calling from, and top up by PayPal. The minimum top-up is £5. Once your credit is on the account, dial 0161 328 7777 from that phone, wait for the tone, then dial the full international number starting with 00. You can add more than one phone number to the same account.

Log in to your account and choose top up. Payment is by PayPal, and the credit is available straight away. Credit never expires and there are no monthly fees.

Pick the country on the home page or check the A to Z rates list. Each country page shows the prepaid rate, the mobile rate where it differs, the instant access rate and whether the country is on the free service. All our prices include VAT. Prepaid calls also carry a 5p connection charge. If you use an instant access or free calls number, your own phone company adds its access charge on top of our rate.

There is a minimum charge of 60 seconds per call. After the first minute, calls are charged by the second and the total is rounded up to the nearest penny.

Prepaid account calls carry a 5p connection fee, charged once when the person you are calling answers. Calls made through the instant access numbers and the free service have no connection fee from us.

On a prepaid account, the international part of the call is charged only once the other end answers. If you use an instant access number or the free service, your own phone provider starts charging for the call to our 084 or 087 number from the moment you connect to us, in the same way as any other call to that kind of number.

Calls to 084, 087 and 09 numbers are made up of two parts by law: a service charge, which is the part that comes to us and is the rate we advertise, and an access charge, which is set by your own phone company and goes to them. Ofcom says access charges range from 8p to 67p a minute, and they are highest on mobiles. Our access charges page explains how to check yours. None of this applies to prepaid account calls.

Yes. Log in to your account to see your call history and payment history, and to set up speed dials for the numbers you call most.

You make a normal phone call, so you do not need Wi-Fi, mobile data or an app. Quality depends partly on the network at the other end. If a call is poor, hang up and try again, and let us know the time and number so we can check the route.

First check that you dialled the international number in full, starting 00 then the country code, with no leading zero on the local number. If you are using a prepaid account, check that you are calling from a phone number registered on the account and that you have credit. If the problem continues, send us the number you dialled, the time of the call and the phone you called from using the form below, and we will check the call record.

Yes. Mobile rates are shown separately on each country page where they differ from the landline rate. On the free service, some countries include mobiles and some do not; the country page says which.

No. Our access numbers are UK numbers and the service is designed for calls from UK landlines and mobiles. If you dial them from overseas, your provider will charge you their roaming rate for the call to the UK. If you're travelling, see our guide to staying in touch cheaply while you're away.

No. Planet Numbers is not for emergency calls. In an emergency always dial 999 or 112 directly from your phone.

Prepaid credit is not refundable once it has been added to an account, except where we have charged you in error, where you cancel a top-up within 14 days and have not used any of it, or where we close your account for a reason that is not your fault. If a call has failed and you believe you were charged, tell us using the form below and we will check the call record and credit your account where appropriate. Our terms of business have the full details.

Contact us first by phone, email or the form below and we will try to put things right straight away. Our complaints code explains what happens next, including how to take an unresolved complaint to the Communications Ombudsman for free.

Yes. Planet Numbers is the consumer calling service of Planet Telecom Ltd, a UK telecoms provider. Planet Telecom serves businesses; Planet Numbers is for people calling family and friends abroad. Your account and credit work exactly as before.