Cheap Prison Calls in the UK

When someone you love is in prison, staying in touch is not optional, it is essential. Research consistently shows that maintained family contact reduces reoffending, supports mental health on both sides, and strengthens the relationships that matter most when release eventually comes. But for many families, the cost of regular phone contact creates real financial pressure.

A 20-minute daily call to a mobile number costs £1.10 in phone credit. Over a month with weekday calls that is around £22. Over a year it is more than £260. Multiply that by a typical sentence length of two to three years and you are looking at hundreds of pounds that do not need to be spent, because the same calls can be made at less than half that cost using methods that are completely legal and work with every UK prison.

This guide covers everything: why prison calls are priced the way they are, the exact current rates, an interactive calculator to show your specific saving, every method that actually works, and an honest comparison of the services available. By the end you will know exactly what to do and how to get started today.

What prisoners actually pay per minute in 2026

All publicly managed prisons in England and Wales use a phone system provided by BT under a national contract with the Ministry of Justice. The rates below apply to every HMPPS prison and most privately managed prisons that have aligned to the same tariff. They were reduced by 20% on 1 April 2025 and are confirmed fixed until 31 May 2027.

The single most important number above is the gap between the mobile rate (5.50p) and the landline rate (2.48p). Mobile calls cost more than double. This is the gap that every cheap prison call service exploits — by giving you a landline number that forwards to your mobile, they bring every call into the cheaper billing tier.

How much could you save?

Tell us your call pattern and we will show you exactly what you could save every month — based on official 2026 HMPPS rates.

Every way to get cheaper prison calls in the UK

There are five distinct ways to reduce what your family spends on prison calls. They are not mutually exclusive — the most financially savvy families use several of them together. Here is an honest assessment of each one, including what it costs, what it actually saves, and any limitations.

Why are prison calls so expensive in the UK?

The cost of prison calls is not accidental. It is the result of a specific structural decision built into the national telephony contract that the Ministry of Justice holds with BT. Understanding why costs are what they are helps families make informed decisions about managing them.

The mobile vs landline billing tier
The HMPPS contract categorises UK phone numbers into two billing tiers. Standard geographic landline numbers starting with 01, 02, or 03 are charged at the lower landline rate. Mobile numbers starting with 07 are charged at more than double that rate. This pricing structure predates the widespread shift away from home landlines in the UK, but it has not been updated to reflect the reality that most households no longer have a traditional landline at home.

The practical result is that most prisoners default to calling mobile numbers, because that is the only number their family has given them, and pay the higher rate on every single call. The gap is not marginal. At 5.50p versus 2.48p per minute on weekdays, mobile calls cost more than twice as much as landline calls. That is the entire basis for the cheap prison calls industry: services that give families a landline number while forwarding the call to their mobile.

Why the rates came down in April 2025
Prison call rates were higher before April 2025. The previous weekday mobile rate was 6.88p per minute and the landline rate was 3.10p per minute. The 20% reduction that took effect on 1 April 2025 followed sustained pressure from prison reform organisations, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, and families over several years. The Ombudsman, Adrian Usher, has linked running out of phone credit to deaths in custody, and called publicly for a flat-rate charging model rather than per-minute billing. The current rates are fixed until May 2027, when the BT contract expires.

Scotland is different
Prisoners in Scotland receive 200 free call minutes per month from the Scottish Prison Service. After that allowance is used, calls cost 5p per minute for all UK numbers regardless of whether they are a landline or a mobile. For families of prisoners in Scotland, the priority is using the free monthly allowance efficiently before worrying about additional cost reduction.

The minimum charge
Every call from a UK prison has a minimum charge of 10p regardless of length. A call that lasts 10 seconds costs 10p. This is why multiple short calls in a day are disproportionately expensive, each one triggers the minimum charge. Longer, less frequent calls are better value than many brief check-ins. Families who agree a regular daily call time eliminate wasted credit from missed or very short connection attempts.

From sign-up to first cheaper call

Step 1 — Sign up and get your number (5 minutes)
Choose your plan on the Prison Call website and complete checkout. Your local UK landline number is delivered to your email inbox within minutes. The number has a local area code, for example 020 for London, 0121 for Birmingham, or a code matching your own area, and is registered to your name and address.

Step 2 — Pass the number to your loved one
Write the number in a letter, pass it during a visit, or mention it on a current call if they are already able to call you. Ask them to add it to their approved PIN contact list through the prison's kiosk or administration system instead of, or in addition to your mobile number.

Step 3 — Wait for security approval (2 to 7 days)
Prison security staff check every number before it is added to a prisoner's approved list. Because the Prison Call number is registered to your real name and address, it passes security checks without issue. The approval process takes 2 to 5 days at most Category C prisons and up to a week at high-security Category A establishments. Your loved one will be able to tell you when it has been approved.

Step 4 — Every call is automatically cheaper
From the first approved call, your loved one dials the Prison Call number instead of your mobile. The prison system charges them the landline rate. The call forwards to your mobile. You answer as you always have. The saving happens automatically on every single call from that point forward — no ongoing action needed from either of you.


Your Prison Call number works at every UK prison. If your loved one is transferred, they simply add the number to the PIN list at the new establishment. You do not need to sign up again, change your number, or do anything different on your end.

Prison Call vs other cheap prison call services

There are a handful of services in the UK that offer virtual landlines for prison calls. The table below shows how Prison Call compares on the things that matter most.

Comparing your options for receiving prison calls

When you're trying to figure out the best way to receive calls from someone in prison, you've basically got three options, and it's worth understanding the tradeoffs of each.

The first option is to get a traditional landline installed at home if you don't already have one. This gives your loved one the cheapest possible call rate, usually 6 to 8 pence per minute, and there's something to be said for having a proper house phone. The call quality is excellent, it never runs out of battery, and there's a certain reliability to it. But you're paying £20 to £25 a month just for line rental even before any calls, you need to wait for an engineer to come and install it which can take weeks, and most significantly, you can only answer when you're actually at home. If a call comes through while you're at work, doing the school run, visiting family, or anywhere else, you miss it completely. For people who work from home or are retired and usually in anyway, this might work fine. For most working families, it's too restrictive.

The second option is to just accept the higher costs and have them call your mobile. You don't need to set anything up, there's no monthly fee beyond your normal phone contract, and you can answer calls wherever you are. The problem is purely the cost. At 13 to 25 pence per minute, regular contact becomes prohibitively expensive very quickly. If you're only receiving the occasional call, maybe once a fortnight or once a month, you might decide it's simpler to just pay the higher rate rather than setting up anything else. But for weekly or daily contact, you're looking at £80 to £100 a month or more, which most families simply can't sustain long-term.

The third option is a virtual landline, which is essentially designed to give you the advantages of both the other options while avoiding their disadvantages. Your loved one pays the cheap landline rate, so credit lasts three or four times longer. You answer on your mobile, so you've got all the flexibility and convenience of being able to take calls wherever you are. Setup is quick and done entirely online. There's a monthly subscription cost, but it's significantly less than what you're saving on call charges, so the net effect is that you're spending less overall while getting better service.

There are some other alternatives that families sometimes try. Prepaid calling cards can occasionally offer discounted rates, but they're complicated to use, not all prisons accept them, and the savings often aren't as good as they initially seem. Some prisons have partnerships with specific providers who offer discounted packages, but these aren't available everywhere and often still aren't as cheap as using a virtual landline.

For the vast majority of families, a virtual landline ends up being the most practical solution. You get landline rates, mobile convenience, quick setup, and significant cost savings. Unless you genuinely are at home all the time anyway and want to install a traditional landline, or you're only receiving very occasional calls and don't mind paying mobile rates, a virtual landline is usually the best option.

Virtual landlines aren't the perfect solution for absolutely everyone, so it's worth thinking through whether it makes sense for your specific circumstances.If you're receiving regular calls, meaning at least once or twice a week, and those calls typically last fifteen to twenty minutes or more, a virtual landline will almost certainly save you significant money. You're probably spending somewhere between £40 and £100 a month on calls at mobile rates. Switching to a virtual landline will bring your total costs including the subscription down to around £25 to £40, saving you hundreds of pounds a year.

If contact is going to continue for an extended period, meaning your loved one has months or years left on their sentence, the savings compound over time. Even if you're only saving £30 a month, over two years that's £720. Over five years it's £1,800. These aren't trivial amounts.

If you're not usually at home during times when calls typically come through, whether that's because you work, you're studying, you're caring for children, or whatever your situation is, the flexibility of receiving calls on your mobile while still paying landline rates makes a virtual landline the only practical option. A traditional landline won't work for you because you can't answer it.

On the other hand, if you're genuinely at home most of the time anyway and you're comfortable with the idea of only being able to answer calls when you're physically in the house, and you don't mind the hassle of getting a traditional landline installed, that would give you slightly lower costs. You'd pay £20 to £25 a month for line rental but zero on call charges, versus £20 for the virtual landline subscription plus the cost of the calls themselves. The difference isn't huge, but it exists.

If you're only receiving very occasional calls, maybe once a month or even less frequently, the mathematics might not work in favor of a virtual landline. If those occasional calls are costing you £10 or £15 a month at mobile rates, paying £20 for a virtual landline subscription doesn't save you money. You'd actually be spending more. In that scenario, it's probably simpler to just accept the mobile rates.

If your loved one is due to be released very soon, within a few weeks or a couple of months, you might decide it's not worth the setup effort for such a short remaining period. Though even a couple of months of savings might be worthwhile depending on how often you're calling.

For most families with someone serving a sentence of months or years, who want regular contact and need the flexibility of being able to answer calls wherever they are, a virtual landline ends up being the most practical and economical solution. It's the sweet spot between cost, convenience, and call frequency.