Phone credit FAQs
A credit threshold is a spending threshold on your account that helps prevent you spending more than you want to on calls that aren't included in your call plan.
If you pay your phone bill by Direct Debit, we set a credit threshold to make sure you don't end up paying too much or not enough. Your credit threshold's the amount you can spend on calls every month using your landline. You can top it up if you need to make more calls that month – more on that further down.
It's a good idea to stay on top of your credit threshold, so you always know how many calls you've got left to make. You can find it at any time in My Account to put your mind at ease.
Every time you make a call, we take the amount it costs from your credit threshold and add it to your next bill. Then, at the end of the month, you pay for the calls you've made. We reset your credit limit on your invoice date.
You can see a breakdown of that by going to the Bills & Payments page and clicking on the View Unbilled Calls button.
That depends on what call plan you've got. The monthly credit thresholds for our call plans are:
| Call plan | Credit threshold |
|---|---|
| Plusnet Line Only | £55 |
| Evening & Weekend UK & Mobile | £55 |
| Unlimited UK & Mobile | £75 |
| Anytime International 300 | £75 |
| All business phone call plans | £100 |
| Plusnet Weekends | £55 (no longer available to buy) |
| Evenings & Weekends (including Plusnet Evenings & Weekends and Talk Evenings & Weekends | £55 (no longer available to buy) |
| Anytime (including Plusnet Anytime and Talk Anytime) | £75 (no longer available to buy) |
| Plusnet Anytime International 300 (including Talk Anytime International) | £75 (no longer available to buy) |
Don't worry, we'll drop you an email to let you know when you're close to going over your credit threshold.
We'll only calculate your usage charges every 24 hours, but once we've done this calculation and discovered you're over your credit threshold, the next call you make will go through to us and you'll need to pay a one-off charge of £5.76 (the amount it costs us to get everything back to normal on your line). We'll add that to your next bill. This doesn't affect calls to the emergency services or the operator.
So you can carry on making calls after that's happened, you'll need to make a top up of at least £5 + the amount the credit threshold has been exceeded by, which we'll apply to future calls you make. Then you'll be able to make calls again as normal.
To avoid the £5.76 charge and your calls being diverted, make sure you top up before you reach your credit threshold.
Please note that as we only calculate your call usage once every 24 hours so you may go over your credit threshold due to the calls you make in this period and you'll still have to pay for all usage charges incurred in this period.
You can pay for calls before you get your monthly bill by topping up your credit threshold. For example, you might want to do that if you know you'll need to make more calls that month than your credit threshold allows. You can top up at any time.
You can top up by £5, £10, £25, £50, £75 or £100. You can top up your credit threshold at any time. Just log into My Account, go to your Account Summary and choose how much you'd like to add. You can also add Smart Caps to your account. These will stop you spending more than a prescribed amount on your phone, preventing any nasty surprises when your bill comes through.
We just take the amount each call costs from your new credit threshold. That'll happen until your credit threshold runs out again.
If you've gone over your credit threshold and make calls before you've topped up, or after you've spent your topped-up credit threshold, you'll need to pay a one-off charge of £5.76 (the amount it costs us to get everything back to normal on your line). We'll add that and the amount each extra call costs to your next bill.
If you get to the end of the month and you haven't spent all your new credit threshold, it'll carry over to the next month, so you aren't losing out.
Here's why this might happen sometimes. These examples are based on our Evening & Weekend & UK Mobile call package (£55 credit threshold).
You top up but don't use it all
- You use £55 of your credit threshold to make calls
- You decide to top up your credit threshold by £25
- You use £10 on calls before the end of the month
- We add £40 to your bill at the end of the month
Or here's the maths:
| Used: | £55 credit threshold + £10 extra on calls = £65 owing |
|---|---|
| Paid upfront (top-up): | £25 |
| Total owed: | £65 - £25 = £40 owed |
You top up and use it all
- You decide to top up your credit threshold by £10 before you make any calls
- You make £10 of calls
- We don't add anything to your next bill
Or here's the maths:
| Paid upfront (top-up): | £10 |
|---|---|
| Used: | £10 on calls |
| Total owed: | £10 - £10 = £0 owed |
You top-up and then go over
- You decide to top up your credit threshold by £5 before you make any calls
- You make £20 of calls
- We add £15 to your bill at the end of the month
Or here's the maths:
| Paid upfront (top-up): | £5 |
|---|---|
| Used: | £20 on calls |
| Total owed: | £20 - £5 = £15 owed |
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