Premium or Shared Rate Phone Numbers
How to Identify you are dialing a premium rate or shared rate number
If you’ve had issues attempting to dial certain numbers (especially in the EU), there could be a few reasons why the dial is not going through. First, determine if the issue is related to international dialing settings.
Check your Playbooks settings to determine if:
- You’re dialing an international number that is not supported in Playbooks (blocked due to the area being a high cost and high fraud area).
- Verify your personal settings include the countries you’re dialing into and your agent number includes a country code.
- You’re using the correct format for dialing international numbers.
If the issue is not related to international dialing settings, you may be attempting to dial a premium or restricted phone number. Calling premium rate number in Playbooks is not enabled by default.
What are Premium or Shared Rate Numbers
Premium rate numbers are phone numbers typically used to provide information, customer support, or entertainment on a shared-cost basis, such as +1-900 numbers in the US and +449 numbers in the UK. They are described as ‘premium rate’ because they are far from cheap to call. This means that the callers are charged a higher per-minute rate on their phone bill which can be upwards of $1 or more per minute.
Shared cost service numbers are similar to premium rate number, but instead of all the cost going to the caller, the cost of the call is split between the caller and the organization they are calling. Typically, these types of numbers are used for support.
You can authorize your account to have the ability to call premium and shared numbers (see instructions below), but extra terms and costs may apply.
Detecting Premium Rate Numbers
If you have a number you suspect is a premium rate number, check to see if your hunch is correct.
Steps to Identify a Premium Rate Number
- Navigate to this link: https://giggsey.com/libphonenumber/index.php
- Enter the phone number information in the Input Data fields
- Check the Validation Results. This will show you if it is a Premium Number.
Enabling Premium Rate Numbers
Premium Rate Number dialing can be enabled on a per country basis if you are on a metered plan, but it requires an addendum to your contract because it could result in an increase in your account’s telephony costs. Reach out to your XANT Customer Success Manager to get current details and an estimate of additional charges.
