No, not exactly. 0300 numbers are charged the same as all 01, 02 and 03 numbers – they are all grouped into a standard rate set by your network provider – not free.
However, if you have spare free minutes included in your EE Pay Monthly tariff or Pay As You Go deal, you can use these free minutes to make the call essentially free – incurring no monetary charge until your free minutes expire. If you never use up your free minutes then the call is essentially free for you, but if you typically use up your free minutes then your 0300 call will make a difference to your bill.
Are 0300 numbers “mobile friendly”?
Like all 03 numbers, 0300 numbers are often referred to as being “mobile friendly” for two reasons. Firstly, before July 2015, traditional freephone numbers (0808 and 0800 numbers) were quite expensive to call from mobile phones where as due to Ofcom’s rules for 03 numbers, the cost of calling an 0300 number is always on a par with your network’s cost of calling localised 01 and 02 numbers. And secondly, 0300 numbers are compatible with any free minutes allowances included in your contract or top-up bundle.
However, since Ofcom’s more recent call cost regulation reforms came into effect on 01 July 2015, all UK calls to traditional “freephone” numbers (0800 and 0808 numbers) have been free to call from mobiles as well as landlines, thus deflating the boom of the “mobile friendly” 03 numbers because the true freephone numbers are now completely free to call – they don’t even eat into your free minutes allowances like standard-rate 01, 02 & 03 numbers always have and will continue to do.
Call cost structure
Calls from any EE phone in the UK to an 0300 number are typically charged at a per-minute rate alongside a connection charge which is set by EE.
Landline customers
Current EE landline call costs for 0300 numbers
All 03 phone numbers including those which start with the 0300, 0344 and 0345 prefixes are charged at the same rate from your EE landline as calls to local 01 and 02 area code numbers. This means that you currently pay a connection charge of 20p per call plus a continuous rate of 12.5p per minute, so for example if you make a call to an 0300 number that lasts for 5 minutes you would pay EE a total of 82.5p.
However if you are on an EE plan with free weekend calls you can phone any 03 numbers for a duration of up to one hour without incurring any monetary charge. Similarly if you are on an EE Anytime plan you will be able to call 03 numbers for free no matter what time or day you dial the number on.
Mobile customers
Pay As You Go
EE Pay As You Go customers currently have to pay 30p per minute plus a connection fee of 44p per call in order to call an organisation which uses an 03 telephone number, therefore you should be aware that it will cost you more to phone 03 numbers from an EE mobile compared to calling from an EE landline handset. However if you buy a “Talk & Text” or “Everything” pack you will gain some free minutes which can be used to phone 0300 helplines.
Pay Monthly
All of the Pay Monthly plans currently sold by EE include free minutes which can be used to phone charities that use 0300 phone numbers, however if you run out of these free minutes in your monthly contract you will have to pay 50p per minute as well as a 50p connection fee, therefore it is important that you keep an eye on your regular usage to avoid these relatively high charges.
Calling 0300 numbers from abroad is not free!
Phoning an 0300 phone number from outside the UK using your EE mobile phone is not free of charge even if you have free inclusive minutes remaining on your pay monthly or pay as you go tariff – those free minutes don’t cover international calls unless you have a specialist international callers’ tariff. It’s advisable that you make international calls to these numbers using a landline telephone instead, to keep costs down. The exact cost of the call will depend on which country you are calling a the 03 number from (you will be dialling +44 300 instead of 0300 when you’re abroad). It’s obviously wise to ask EE to confirm the cost of international calls under your existing tariff before you travel abroad as you may wish to switch tariff or even use a different phone while overseas.
Full breakdown of 0300 call costs on EE phones
| Type of EE phone | With free inclusive minutes on tariff | Without free inclusive minutes on tariff |
|---|---|---|
| EE landline | Free | 12.5p per minute plus 20p access fee |
| EE Mobile – pay as you go | Free | 30p per minute plus 44p access fee |
| EE Mobile – pay monthly | Free | 50p per minute plus 50p access fee |