Buy 0871 Numbers for Your Business

0871 numbers from Number Supermarket come with your first 2 months completely free, then from £14.99/mo + VAT on the Solo package. The Works package is £24.99/month + VAT and includes 3 numbers, 1,000 free inbound minutes a month, real-time reporting and 4 call features of your choice (for example call recording, IVR, hunt groups). Extra features on The Works are £9.99 a month + VAT each. You can also buy a number outright for a one-off payment of £497 + VAT. There is no set-up fee. Solo and The Works are 12-month minimum contracts.

No. 0871 is a UK premium-rate range, not free to call and not included in inclusive minute bundles. The caller pays a Service Charge (set by you, the business, capped 0-13p per minute by Ofcom) plus an Access Charge (set by the caller's own phone company, typically 8-67p per minute). The two-part split has been mandatory since Ofcom's 1 July 2015 unbundling and must be clearly displayed wherever the number is promoted. If "free for the caller" matters, choose 0800 / 0808 instead; if "included in caller's allowance" is your target, choose 0345 / 0330 / 0333.

0871 is not a geographic area code. It is a UK non-geographic premium-rate number range, part of the 087x family (0870 / 0871 / 0872 / 0873) regulated under Ofcom's unbundled tariff rules since 1 July 2015. 0871 numbers are not tied to any city or region — they're chosen specifically for paid service lines where the call itself generates revenue. Don't confuse the 087x premium-rate family with the 03x family (0300 / 0330 / 0333 / 0345 / 0370), which is national-rate and treated identically to 01/02 geographic numbers for caller pricing.

Yes. When you buy an 0871 number from Number Supermarket, you can forward calls to any UK landline or mobile number. You can change your divert destination at any time through our online portal or smartphone app — useful for after-hours redirection, holiday cover, or routing different services to different teams.

Your 0871 number is usually live the same day. You choose your number and select your package, and we call you before your number goes live. No engineers, no installations.

Solo includes call forwarding. The Works includes 4 call features of your choice from 20+. Extra features on The Works are £9.99 a month + VAT each. With The Works, the options for your 0871 number include voicemail to email, call recording, call whisper, time-of-day routing, hunt groups and IVR auto-attendant.

No. An 0871 number works with your existing phone setup. Calls are forwarded to whatever number you choose — office landline, mobile, or home phone. There is no hardware to install and no software required.

Yes. Under Ofcom regulations, you have the right to port your 0871 number to any other provider. Porting usually takes 1–2 weeks, depending on the network. If you bought your 0871 number outright, it is yours.

0871 is built for paid service lines. Typical users include: paid technical support teams (where the call itself recoups the support cost), premium consultation services (legal info, financial advice, medical information helplines), out-of-hours specialist support, event hotlines, ticketing and box-office lines, and expert-by-the-minute services. Major UK retailers, utilities and travel companies have historically used 087x ranges for customer service contact lines, although many have since migrated to 03 ranges following Ofcom's 2015 unbundling. 0871 is not appropriate for: general customer service helplines, charity contact lines, accessible-services support or any vulnerable-user audience — choose 0800 / 0808 (free for caller) or 0345 / 0330 (included in caller's minutes) for those.

0871 is one of only a few UK ranges where the business earns money from inbound calls. You set a service charge between 0p and 13p per minute (Ofcom cap). Callers pay that service charge plus their phone company's access charge (8p-67p/min depending on provider). NSM remits a share of the service charge back to you as a per-minute rebate, credited monthly against your subscription. There are no caps or minimum volumes — every billable minute counts. You receive a monthly statement showing inbound minutes and the rebate earned.

The service charge is the per-minute amount you, the business, charge callers for the call itself (not including their phone provider's access charge, which goes to the telco). Ofcom caps the service charge for 0871 numbers at 0-13p per minute. Most NSM customers set it at 10p/min. You choose your service charge when you buy the number and you must clearly display it wherever the number is advertised: "Calls cost Xp per minute plus your phone company's access charge". NSM provides compliant copy and configures the pre-call IVR announcement automatically.

No. The access charge is set by — and paid to — the caller's own phone company (BT, EE, Vodafone, O2, Three, Sky, TalkTalk, Virgin Media). It typically ranges from 8p to 67p per minute depending on the provider and the caller's plan. It does not flow to you, NSM, or anyone in the 0871 service-charge chain. Only the service charge generates rebate revenue. This split was set by Ofcom in 2015 to make pricing transparent for callers and is the reason calling a UK 084 / 087 / 09 number always shows two separate components in any official cost guide.

Yes. Under Ofcom General Conditions of Entitlement (Annex 1, in force since 1 July 2015), any business advertising or promoting a UK 084 / 087 / 09 number must clearly display the per-minute service charge alongside the number, in a form like: "Calls cost 10p per minute plus your phone company's access charge". This must appear on your website, signage, printed materials, social media and anywhere else the number is promoted. NSM provides compliance-ready copy and configures the pre-call IVR announcement so the rule is met at point-of-call as well.

The three ranges have fundamentally different revenue models. 0800 / 0808 (freephone): free for callers, business pays per inbound minute — best for helplines, charity, vulnerable-user service. 0345 / 0330 / 0333 (national rate): caller pays standard landline rate, almost always included in their mobile/landline inclusive minutes — best for everyday business contact lines. 0845 (084x premium rate): service charge capped at 7p/min — the lower-cost premium option. 0871 (087x premium rate): service charge capped at 13p/min, the highest of any 08 range, earning rebates of up to 8p per inbound minute — best for paid technical support, premium consultations and expert lines where the call itself is the chargeable service. Callers recognise 0871 as an expensive number, so use it only where the service genuinely justifies the cost; otherwise pick 03 for cheap-to-call presence, 0845 for a softer premium rate, or 0800 for free-to-call accessibility.