No, 0871 numbers are never free to call regardless of which mobile or landline network you use – they’re premium rate numbers and you should avoid them if it’s not too inconvenient. Instead of calling an 0871 number, try to find an alternative local-rate 01, 02 or 03 number (or even better, a freephone 0800 or 0808 number) to save you money on your call.
Background on 0871 numbers
0871 numbers are higher-rate service numbers which are a kind of premium rate number not permitted to be used as after-sales helplines due to their high call costs and lack of compatibility with inclusive free minutes allowances. These hotlines are never free to call on any network meaning you have to pay a service charge of 13p per-minute plus an additional time-dependent access charge to your provider, the latter is often considerably more expensive for mobile customers compared to landline users.
Maximum cost of phoning an 0871 number
- Cost of calling 0871 numbers from EE
- Monthly mobile customers will pay a total of 63p per minute to call 0871 phone numbers.
- Cost of calling 0871 numbers from O2
- O2 monthly contract users currently pay 68p per minute to phone numbers starting with 0871 prefixes.
- Cost of calling 0871 numbers from Vodafone
- Customers on a monthly Vodafone Mobile contract have to pay 68p per minute to phone 0871 numbers.