Our services are designed to make it easier for families to stay in touch with loved ones inside. By having one of our numbers, calls become much cheaper for the inmate than calling a family member's mobile directly. It also means that the prisoner can have one number to contact you even when you are out and about. Because this is a family plan, you can have several numbers, each with it's own destination, all on the same account.

There are two main service types - 08 Freephone and 01/02 local numbers:

08 numbers are free for the prisoner to call as the loved one pays a little more - It is important to know that many prisons do not allow 08 numbers to be put on the inmates 'allowed calls list', so it is best to check before you buy one. We do have a try-before-you-buy, precisely so that you can see if it works in your loved one's prison, without risk.

01/02 local numbers are accepted in every prison for every prisoner. Calling them does cost the prisoner a local call cost (this rate is set and charged by the prison, but is usually between 4 and 10 pence per minute. This is still much cheaper than the prisoner calling your mobile directly). We have areas codes (0121 for Birmingham for example) for most of the UK, so you should be able to have a number local to your home town. It is important to select a number that is local to you and NOT the prison's location.

Yes, we are unique inthat you are able to have a mix of 01/02 and 08 Freephone numbers all on the same account, and sharing the same pot of top-up balance.

Its almost immediately after we take your sucessful set-up payment

All the prisoner need to do is to inform the Prison that the number we give you is your home number. No need to mention that it is a service.....this is just your number. It usually takes a few days to make it onto the PIN, but once that is done, you are free to use the service.

When you sign up you will be given a secure and unique link which opens up a portal in your browser. This portal you will be able to top-up as well as seeing your account balance, call history and recent payments.

With the family call plan, all numbers are on the same account and have a shared top-up balance. Hence, if you top-up your account, all numbers can use it.

We have a unique way to make top-ups easier. Once you have logged into top-up manually for the first time, you can choose to enable AUTO-TopupTM so that if your account balance drops too low (below £1) our system automatically collects £10 from your saved card. This simply means you'll never run out of credit and there's no worry about not being able to make calls.

Alternatively, you can elect to keep your account on Manual Topups, which means that you log into our portal to top-up each time you need to add balance. It's a great choice, and it's entirely up to you.

If you email the support team - theteam@inmatesrates.co.uk  -  we can make those changes for you. For security reasons, we will ask you to confirm some account details before making any changes.

Because the account is "pay-as-you-go" you can stop using it at any time. No need even to cancel. You can even leave an account dormant for a short while (upto 90 days) without losing your numbers. PLEASE be aware though, that after 90 days any unused accounts will be deleted and any top-up balance forfeited.

Top-ups are non-refundable in any circumstance, due to money laundering procedures. This is why it is important to check that the numbers have been accepted by the prison BEFORE you top-up, instead just using the free minutes allowance to get it approved.