Guide · Prices checked 24 October 2026
Pay as you go call answering: what it costs and when it beats a plan
Pay as you go call answering means you pay for each call a receptionist answers, and nothing for the calls that never come. On published UK prices that is 99p a call in weekday office hours or £2.20 a call plus VAT around the clock. It costs less than a monthly plan below about 15 to 18 calls a month, and more above that.
Bundles, flat plans and the full price list are in our guide to call answering service cost. Every price comes from the provider’s own website, checked on the date shown. Written by While You Work, which has no pay as you go tariff, so we show where pay as you go costs less than we do.
The idea
What pay as you go call answering is
A pay as you go telephone answering service charges you per call answered, or per minute of talk time, with no bundle of calls to buy in advance. Miss four calls in a month and you pay for four. Miss none and the bill is nil, or whatever the provider charges to keep your line active.
The alternatives are a monthly bundle with a set number of calls, or a flat monthly price. While You Work is a monthly plan with a set number of calls: Starter is £39 a month plus VAT for 50 calls, Pro £69 for 150, and a call counts once however long it lasts, up to 10 minutes. We do not sell a pay as you go tariff.
Per call or per minute matters more on pay as you go, because there is no allowance to soak up a long call. The Answer Centre charges 99p a call and says it does not bill by the second. Face For Business charges by the second on two of its plans. A ten-minute call on a per-call tariff costs the same as a one-minute call; on a per-second tariff it costs ten times as much.
Who offers it
UK pay as you go and no-monthly-fee tariffs
| Provider | Published tariff | Hours | VAT | Up front | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Answer Centre | 99p a call, no monthly subscription, no set-up fee | 8.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday; 7am to 11pm seven days a week costs extra | Not stated | None. Two-week free trial | 24 October 2026 |
| Answer.co.uk, human | £2.20 a call, no monthly fee | 24/7 | Plus VAT | £25 minimum credit | 16 October 2026 |
| Answer.co.uk, AI | Lite: £10 a month plus 85p a call. Bundles from 50 calls for £30 | 24/7 | Not stated | £10 monthly fee | 16 October 2026 |
| ReceptionHQ MessageExpress | £15 a month plus £1.15 a call, or bundles from £25 for 25 calls | 24/7, no after-hours surcharge | Plus VAT | £15 monthly fee. 7-day free trial, no card | 1 November 2026 |
| Answer4u | Not published. A monthly subscription to keep the line active, then per call or per second, by quote | 24 hours a day, 365 days a year | Not published | Quote first. 30-day free trial | 24 October 2026 |
Two of these have no monthly fee at all: The Answer Centre and Answer.co.uk’s human service. Answer.co.uk’s AI Lite plan and ReceptionHQ’s per-call tariff charge a monthly fee and then a price per call, so a quiet month still costs £10 or £15. Answer4u only gives its price in a quote.
Worked examples
What a month really costs at 10, 25, 50 and 100 calls
Each tariff multiplied out, before VAT, with the VAT-inclusive bill in brackets where the provider prices plus VAT.
| Tariff | 10 calls | 25 calls | 50 calls | 100 calls | The maths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Answer Centre | £9.90 | £24.75 | £49.50 | £99.00 | 99p a call. VAT not stated. Weekday office hours only |
| Answer.co.uk, human | £22.00 (£26.40) | £55.00 (£66.00) | £110.00 (£132.00) | £220.00 (£264.00) | £2.20 a call plus VAT. The £25 minimum credit pays for the first 11 calls |
| Answer.co.uk, AI Lite | £18.50 | £31.25 | £52.50 | £95.00 | £10 a month plus 85p a call. VAT not stated. Its 50-call bundle at £30 is cheaper from 24 calls, and £72.50 at 100 |
| ReceptionHQ, per call | £26.50 (£31.80) | £43.75 (£52.50) | £72.50 (£87.00) | £130.00 (£156.00) | £15 a month plus £1.15 a call, plus VAT. Its bundles (£25, £49, £90 plus VAT) are cheaper from 9 calls |
| While You Work | £39.00 (£46.80) | £39.00 (£46.80) | £39.00 (£46.80) | £69.00 (£82.80) | Starter, £39 plus VAT for 50 calls. At 100 calls, Pro at £69 for 150 calls, or Starter plus 50 extra calls at 60p, also £69 |
What the numbers say
- At 10 calls every pay as you go tariff beats our Starter plan. At 25 calls, The Answer Centre at £24.75, Answer.co.uk’s AI bundle at £30 and ReceptionHQ’s 25-call bundle at £25 plus VAT are all cheaper than Starter. Answer.co.uk’s human service, at £55 plus VAT, is now dearer: the crossover is about 18 calls, because 18 times £2.20 is £39.60.
- The crossover with The Answer Centre is about 40 calls, because 40 times 99p is £39.60, or nearer 47 if VAT is added to its 99p, against Starter at £46.80 with VAT.
- At 50 calls, Starter at £39 plus VAT is cheaper than every human pay as you go tariff with a published price, though Answer.co.uk’s 50-call AI bundle at £30 is still cheaper if its price includes VAT, which it does not say. At 100 calls, human pay as you go costs £99 to £220 against £69 plus VAT on Pro, and Answer.co.uk’s AI comes to £72.50.
- Hours matter as much as price. On the 99p tariff a call at 7pm reaches a voicemail box unless you pay for longer hours; Answer.co.uk and ReceptionHQ answer around the clock, as do we. What an evening call is worth is on our page about what a missed call costs.
Read the small print
The hidden costs of pay as you go
| Minimum credit | Answer.co.uk asks for £25 of credit up front on its human service: 11 calls at £2.20, paid for before you have missed one. |
| A fee to keep the line active | Answer4u charges a small monthly subscription to keep your line active, then per call, by quote. ReceptionHQ’s per-call tariff is £15 a month before the £1.15 a call. |
| Office hours | The Answer Centre’s 99p covers 8.30am to 6pm on weekdays. Cover from 7am to 11pm, seven days a week, costs extra, and outside those hours callers get a voicemail box. |
| VAT | £2.20 a call plus VAT is £2.64. The Answer Centre and Answer.co.uk’s AI plans do not say whether VAT is included, so ask if you cannot reclaim it. |
| Per-second and per-minute billing | Face For Business charges by the second on two of its three plans, with a 90-day minimum term. AnswerConnect bills whole minutes from connection until the work on the call is done. Checked 24 October 2026. |
| Every call is a paid call | Sales calls, wrong numbers and the caller who rings back twice all cost the same as a customer. |
| Set-up fees | None found on any tariff here. The Answer Centre and Face For Business both say they charge none; Answer4u’s price only comes with a quote. |
Pay per call
When pay as you go is the right choice
- You miss fewer than about 15 calls a month. At £2.20 a call that is £33 plus VAT, and at 99p it is under £15.
- Your work is seasonal. A gas engineer who is flat out from October to February and quiet in June pays for the quiet months on a plan.
- Your calls come in weekday office hours and you want a person on the line. The 99p tariff beats our Starter plan to about 40 calls a month.
- You want to know how many calls you really miss before you commit. A month on £25 of credit tells you.
A set number of calls
When a plan wins
- You miss more than about 18 calls a month on the £2.20 tariff, or about 40 on the 99p one.
- Your calls come in the evening and at weekends. On the 99p tariff those hours cost extra; on our plans they are included.
- You want to know the bill before the month starts. A plan costs the same in a busy January as a quiet August.
- Your calls run long. On a per-second tariff a long call is a dear call; on our plans a call counts once, up to 10 minutes.
- You want more than a message taken. Our AI receptionist asks the questions your trade needs, such as the postcode and how urgent the job is, and on Pro texts you urgent calls straight away. See the call answering service page.
Changing your mind
How to switch between pay as you go and a plan
Every service on this page works by diverting your own number when you do not pick up, so switching means changing one divert number.
- From pay as you go to a plan: use up any credit and check whether notice is needed (The Answer Centre’s prices page mentions no minimum term), then set your divert to the new number. With us there is no contract, and you can cancel within 14 days of the line going live for a full refund.
- From a plan to pay as you go: cancel at the end of the billing period and point the divert at the pay as you go number. Ours has no notice period. Face For Business has a 90-day minimum term and then 30 days’ notice, the kind of term to check before you sign.
- Within our plans: over 50 calls on Starter, each extra call is 60p plus VAT, so 60 calls costs £45 and 100 calls £69, the same as Pro, which includes 150 calls. All three plans are on the pricing page.
Questions
Pay as you go call answering FAQs
What is a pay as you go call answering service?
A service that charges for each call it answers, with no bundle to buy in advance and, on the strict pay as you go tariffs, no monthly fee. In the UK, The Answer Centre charges 99p a call in weekday office hours and Answer.co.uk £2.20 a call plus VAT around the clock.
Is there a telephone answering service with no monthly fee?
Yes. The Answer Centre’s pay as you go tariff is 99p a call with no monthly subscription and no set-up fee, answered 8.30am to 6pm on weekdays. Answer.co.uk’s human service is £2.20 a call plus VAT with no monthly fee and a £25 minimum credit, answered 24 hours a day.
How much does pay as you go call answering cost a month?
£9.90 to £22 plus VAT at 10 calls, £24.75 to £55 plus VAT at 25, £49.50 to £110 plus VAT at 50 and £99 to £220 plus VAT at 100, on The Answer Centre’s 99p and Answer.co.uk’s £2.20 tariffs. While You Work Starter is £39 plus VAT for up to 50 calls and Pro £69 plus VAT for up to 150.
Is pay as you go the cheapest way to get my phone answered?
Below about 15 calls a month, yes. The Answer Centre’s 99p a call is the lowest per-call price we have found published in the UK and stays cheaper than our £39 Starter plan to about 40 calls a month in weekday office hours. Answer.co.uk’s £2.20 a call is cheaper than Starter to about 18 calls. Above that, a plan with a set number of calls costs less.
Does While You Work offer pay as you go?
No. Our smallest plan is Starter at £39 a month plus VAT for 50 calls, and extra calls are 60p each, so the nearest thing we have to pay per call is going over the allowance.
Do pay as you go answering services answer out of hours?
Some do. The Answer Centre’s 99p covers 8.30am to 6pm on weekdays, with 7am to 11pm seven days a week for an extra charge. Answer.co.uk, ReceptionHQ and Answer4u answer 24 hours a day, as does While You Work on every plan.
Can I move from pay as you go to a monthly plan later?
Yes, and back again. Every service on this page works by diverting your own number, so switching means changing one divert number. While You Work has no contract, and you can cancel within 14 days of your line going live for a full refund.
Prices change. We re-check this page regularly, but always confirm the current price with the provider before you sign up. All trademarks belong to their owners.
Where we fit
While You Work is a monthly plan: Starter £39 for 50 calls, Pro £69 for 150 and Business £129 for 400, all plus VAT, with extra calls at 60p, 50p or 40p. Below about 15 calls a month the tariffs above cost less.