Shortcodes

Shortcodes are used to access services not included in your normal allowances. They’re a series of numbers, usually 5 digits long and can be used for one-off purchases or setting up a subscription. 

The following services are usually accessed using shortcodes:

  • Sending messages to radio stations
  • Calling video chat services
  • Downloading games to your phone
  • Entering TV competitions
  • Voting in TV shows
  • Making charity donations.

Shortcode Checker

To find the contact details for a merchant or payment intermediary, enter the shortcode into our shortcode checker.

Shortcode service charges are shown in the promotional material or adverts, and the standard charge is 15p per message.

For contract customers, charges will appear under the Premium Shortcodes—sent & received—or Texts to other networks section of your bill. Charges for voice shortcodes will show in the Calls to premium rate and other services section.

For Pay As You Go, charges will be deducted from your credit balance. So, you must have enough available credit to cover the cost of texting or calling the shortcode.

Most shortcode services will send you 1 or more messages as part of the service, and you may be charged for 1 or all of them.

If a message starts with or was sent from FreeMsg or similar, you won't be charged and it won't appear on your bill.

Some services you've used may appear in the ThreePay section of your bill. Find out more about ThreePay.

If you want to control how much you spend on numbers not included in your Pay Monthly plan, a Spend Cap can help. Find out more about Spend Caps and how to set one up.

Getting messages from a shortcode you don’t recognise? You can stop them by texting STOP to the shortcode on your bill or phone. 

Important: If your Spend Cap is set to zero, you won’t be able to send this message. You can temporarily remove or change your Spend Cap to send it. Alternatively, you can cancel the service by calling the merchant or payment intermediary or visiting their website. You can find their contact details by entering the shortcode on our shortcode checker. You can also find out more about premium rate services in our price guide.  

If you get a text you didn’t ask for from a long number, it may be spam. Please don’t respond to spam messages in any way—texting STOP will not stop them.

If your transaction is declined, you’ll get a message not sent error, and you won’t be charged.

This can happen if:

  • you don’t have enough Pay As You Go credit available to pay for the service
  • you have a Spend Cap or voluntary credit limit set up on your Pay Monthly plan
  • There’s an issue or error with the service or network 

If you continue to have problems texting or calling a shortcode, please get in touch.

Found a text or call to a shortcode on your bill that you don’t recognise? You can find the merchant’s name and contact details using our shortcode checker. If you still don’t recognise the transaction, please contact the merchant or payment intermediary for more details.

As the account holder, you’re responsible for any calls made or texts sent to shortcodes unless your phone’s lost or stolen. If you let us know about the loss or theft within 24 hours, you’ll only be liable for the first £100 of any unauthorised usage.

Has someone you know used your phone to pay for content or services without your consent? We recommend setting up a security PIN to stop this from happening again. You can find out how to do this on our device support pages.

Multiple merchants can use shared shortcodes but only 1 payment intermediary. If the shortcode you’ve checked is shared, the shortcode checker will only show the payment intermediary name and contact details. Please contact them with any queries or refund requests.

We aren’t responsible for any content or services you’ve bought from other companies using shortcodes. So, we can’t refund these types of purchases.  If you’d like to request a refund, you must contact the merchant or payment intermediary. 

They have 10 days to respond to your query. If you’ve been waiting more than 10 days, please get in touch with us to escalate.  

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