Freephone numbers
What are 0800 numbers and 0808 numbers?
Numbers starting with 0800 or 0808 are freephone numbers and cost nothing to call from UK landlines and mobile phones.
Freephone numbers allow callers to ring an organisation at no charge, with the cost of the call paid for by the organisation receiving the call. Common uses for them include:
- Sales and customer service lines
- Charity and government helplines
- Access to prepaid calling cards
Are 0800 numbers free from mobiles?
Yes, 0800 numbers and 0808 numbers have been free to call from all personal mobile phones and landlines since July 2015. Previously, most mobile networks had charged for calls to 0800 numbers and 0808 numbers.
Calling freephone numbers from payphones
Some freephone numbers may not be accessible from BT payphones.
Organisations have to pay significant additional per-minute fees when they accept incoming calls to their 0800 and 0808 numbers from BT payphones. Some organisations choose to block such calls instead of paying this additional levy.
Further information
All numbers starting 080 are free to call and have the same technical features. This includes 08000 numbers, 08080 numbers, 08085 numbers and all other numbers that start with the digits 0800 or 0808, regardless of how the number is displayed or what the following digits are.
Freephone calls were originally made by calling the operator and asking for a company by name. However, by the end of the 1980s, dedicated direct dial freephone prefixes had come into use: 0800 was used by BT, while the prefixes 0500, 0321 and 0958 were amongst those used by other phone companies.
Numbers starting 0808 80 are reserved exclusively for charity helplines and advice lines. These numbers are overseen by the Helplines Partnership.
The are also international freephone numbers which start 00800 or +800.
Recent history of 0800 numbers and 0808 numbers
| 1982 | 0500 prefix allocated for Mercury Communications freephone services |
| 1985 | 0800 numbers introduced for British Telecom freephone services |
| 1994 | 0800 numbers made available to phone companies other than BT |
| 1997 | 0808 prefix introduced to provide extra freephone capacity |
| 1999 | 0808 9xx xxxx numbers assigned for dial-up internet use |
| 2000 | Old 0321 xxxxxx numbers move to 0808 0xx xxxx |
| 2015 | 0800 and 0808 numbers become universally free to call from mobiles and landlines |
| 2017 | Old 0500 xxxxxx numbers move to 0808 5xx xxxx |