Call Answering Service Prices & Tariffs
Our live call answering packages start from £14.99 per month, with the price based mainly on how many genuine messages we handle for your business.
We do not charge you simply because your telephone rang. Wrong numbers, obvious sales calls and other nuisance calls do not use up your message allowance.
That means a small business needing occasional cover can start with a very small tariff, while businesses receiving more calls can move onto packages with larger monthly allowances.
We price standard call answering by useful messages, not simply by calls or minutes
There are several ways a telephone answering company can charge. Some providers bill for every call answered. Others bill according to how many minutes their receptionists spend on the telephone.
Our standard Classic call answering service works differently. Your monthly tariff includes an allowance of genuine messages. When a receptionist handles a useful caller enquiry and sends the outcome to you, that counts towards the allowance.
A wrong number or an unwanted sales call does not have the same value to your business as a customer enquiry, so we do not treat them in the same way for billing.
The figure that matters is not how many times the telephone rings. It is how many genuine calls result in something useful being passed back to your business.
Our standard call answering tariffs
Classic is designed for straightforward live call answering, message taking and call transfers. These are selected tariffs covering the most common levels of usage; additional higher-volume packages are also available.
| Tariff | Messages included per month | Monthly price | Useful for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget:Starter | 5 | £14.99 | Occasional cover or very low call volumes |
| Budget:15 | 15 | £29.99 | Small businesses receiving a handful of genuine enquiries each week |
| Classic:30 | 30 | £54.99 | Regular answering cover for a small business or sole trader |
| Classic:70 | 70 | £99.99 | Businesses with a steadier flow of inbound customer calls |
| Classic:250 | 250 | £329.99 | Higher-volume answering and reception cover |
| Higher-volume tariffs | 250+ | Ask us | Businesses requiring substantially more monthly call handling |
Prices exclude VAT. Additional genuine messages are charged separately if you exceed the allowance on your tariff. Current additional-message rates are £2.99 on Budget tariffs, and £1.99 on larger Classic tariffs.
Going over your allowance does not mean we stop answering your calls. Additional genuine messages are simply charged at the applicable rate. If your normal usage consistently changes, the sensible option is to review which tariff suits you best.
What counts as a message?
A monthly allowance is much easier to understand when it is clear what uses it and what does not.
Normally counts towards your allowance
- A customer leaves a genuine message for you or a member of staff
- A new prospect calls with an enquiry and details are collected
- An existing customer needs a response and we pass the information on
- A relevant supplier or business contact leaves useful information
- A genuine call requires agreed information to be captured and sent to you
Does not normally use your message allowance
- Obvious unsolicited sales calls
- Wrong numbers
- Spam or nuisance calls
- Calls where nobody provides a genuine message or useful enquiry
This distinction matters. A business receiving 40 incoming calls does not necessarily need a 40-message tariff if a proportion of those calls are sales calls, wrong numbers or callers who do not require anything passed back to you.
What might different levels of usage cost?
These examples assume straightforward Classic message taking and that the monthly volume stays within the stated allowance.
genuine messages in a month
A sole trader only needs occasional cover while on-site or in meetings and receives four useful messages during the month.
Starter: £14.99 + VATgenuine messages in a month
A small business receives a few genuine customer enquiries each week but handles most calls itself.
Budget 15: £29.99 + VATgenuine messages in a month
Telephone answering is used regularly during busy periods, meetings and times when staff cannot pick up.
Classic 30: £54.99 + VATgenuine messages in a month
The answering service has become a regular part of the business’s day-to-day reception cover.
Classic 70: £99.99 + VATThese are examples rather than a prediction of what your business will use. That is one of the reasons we prefer clients to test the service with real calls before deciding which tariff is likely to suit them.
The smallest monthly fee is not always the lowest monthly bill
If your usage is genuinely very low, the Starter tariff may be all you need. But choosing a five-message package when you normally receive 30 or 40 messages would mean paying for a large number of additional messages.
Equally, there is no benefit in buying a large allowance simply because you think your business might be busy. An unused allowance is still an unused allowance.
The useful comparison is your likely total monthly cost, based on the number and type of calls you actually receive.
This is why the trial is useful for pricing as well as service quality: it gives us real usage to work from instead of asking you to guess.
Classic, Pro or Diary?
Message volume is only one part of the cost. A straightforward two-minute message is different from a call where the receptionist needs to ask several questions, consult information, use your systems or manage an appointment.
Classic
From £14.99 per month
- Live telephone answering
- Standard message taking
- Call transfers
- Classic operator training
- Suitable for straightforward call handling
Pro
From £69.29 per month
- Everything needed for more involved inbound calls
- More complex message taking
- Bespoke operator training
- FAQs and additional data capture
- Suitable access to agreed online resources or systems
Diary
From £80.29 per month
- Telephone answering and message handling
- Access to an agreed online diary
- Appointment booking
- Changes and cancellations
- Bespoke diary rules and operator training
All prices shown exclude VAT. More involved or unusual call-handling requirements may need to be assessed individually before the appropriate service level can be confirmed.
What happens if I use more than my monthly allowance?
Your telephone does not suddenly stop being answered because you reach the number of messages included in your package.
Genuine messages above the monthly allowance are charged at the additional-message rate for the tariff you are using. On the lowest packages this is currently £2.99 per additional message, while larger Classic tariffs use a lower £1.99 rate.
An occasional busy month may therefore simply result in a few additional messages. If you regularly exceed the allowance, a larger tariff may give you a lower overall cost.
We are interested in the tariff that fits your real usage, not simply putting every business on the largest monthly package.
Are there any additional charges?
The monthly answering tariff covers the message allowance for the service you choose. A few additional costs can apply depending on how you want your telephone setup to work.
Call transfers
If requiredReceptionists can transfer suitable calls to landlines or mobiles. Depending on the package and transfer arrangement, inclusive transfer minutes may apply or a per-minute telecoms charge may be added.
If transfers are important to you, we will explain the applicable transfer charges before setup.
Smart Number
From £9.99/monthYou normally do not need a new number if your existing business number can be diverted to us. If you do need a virtual UK number, Smart Number packages are available separately.
PhoneLine+
From £10.99/monthPhoneLine+ is an optional VoIP business telephone service for companies that also want to make and receive calls using a UK business number from mobiles, computers or compatible handsets.
Out-of-hours messages
IncludedOur interactive evenings and weekends service is currently provided alongside the live weekday service without adding those out-of-hours messages to your normal monthly live-message total.
Live human answering operates from 8am to 6pm, Monday to Friday; the out-of-hours service is interactive rather than 24/7 live reception.
Use the free trial to find out what tariff you actually need
It is surprisingly difficult to estimate how many useful calls a business misses.
You may think you miss only a couple of calls each week, only to discover that more callers arrive while you are already on the telephone, out of the office or concentrating on something else. The opposite can also happen: the number of genuine messages may be lower than the total number of calls suggests because some calls are sales calls, wrong numbers or otherwise irrelevant.
Our free trial runs for up to 30 days or 100 messages, whichever comes first. That gives you a chance to judge the service itself while giving us something much more useful for pricing — real call-handling data.
At the end of the trial we can recommend a tariff based on how you actually used the service rather than asking you to choose a package blindly.
The answering/message-handling trial is free. Any separately agreed telecoms or call-transfer charges are outside the standard free message allowance.
Do not compare answering services on the headline monthly fee alone
What is actually chargeable?
Find out whether a provider charges for every answered call, every minute, every message or some combination of the three.
What happens when you exceed the allowance?
A cheap entry package can become expensive if a large proportion of normal monthly usage falls into an expensive overage rate.
What is outside the headline price?
Call transfers, telephone numbers, more detailed call handling, diary work and out-of-hours requirements can all affect the real cost.
This page explains our tariffs. We will cover the different charging models used across the wider UK telephone answering market separately in our call answering cost guide.
Call answering pricing FAQs
Are the prices on this page including VAT?
No. The prices shown are excluding VAT, which is added at the applicable rate.
Do you charge me for sales calls and wrong numbers?
No. Obvious unsolicited sales calls, wrong numbers and similar nuisance calls do not count as genuine chargeable messages under our standard message-based tariffs.
What happens when I go over my message allowance?
We continue handling your calls. Genuine messages above your allowance are charged at the additional-message rate for your tariff. If this happens regularly, it may make sense to review whether a larger package would cost less overall.
Do I have to know how many messages I will receive before signing up?
No. In fact, many businesses do not know. The free trial is designed partly to solve that problem by showing how many genuine messages we actually handle for you before a longer-term tariff is recommended.
Do call transfers cost extra?
They can. Transfer costs depend on the tariff and destination, and some arrangements include transfer minutes. If you want calls transferred regularly, we will make the relevant charges clear before the service is set up.
Do I need to buy a telephone number from you?
Usually not. If your existing business telephone service supports call forwarding, you can normally continue advertising your current number and divert calls to us when required. Optional Smart Numbers are available if you do need a new or additional UK number.
Why does Pro or Diary answering cost more?
More involved calls take additional operator time and training. A receptionist who needs to ask several questions, access information, update a diary or follow a more detailed process is providing a different service from straightforward message taking.
Can I start on a small package and change later?
If your normal usage changes, the sensible approach is to review the tariff rather than repeatedly paying unnecessary additional-message charges or keeping a larger allowance than you use. Our team can review your usage with you.
Still not sure which tariff you need?
Don’t guess. Try the answering service with your own callers for up to 30 days and see how much you actually use.
You’ll find out whether the service works for your business, and we’ll have real usage on which to base a tariff recommendation.