I'm in the US - how do I call these numbers in the UK?

March 20, 2025 8:07 AM

I have been given two different numbers to call in the UK. I'm in the US. It's not working. Here are the numbers: 0330 024 1805 and 03330 113 113. What am I doing wrong? (I'm on an iPhone though I don't think that makes a difference.)
posted by tzikeh to Technology (18 answers total)

Put the country code in front, which is 0044.
posted by quacks like a duck at 8:09 AM on March 20

And take away the 0 at the front. So it's 0044 330 024 1805
posted by moiraine at 8:11 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

You'll also remove the 0 at the beginning of those phone numbers after you put the country code first.

You'll often see numbers written as +44 (0)XXXX XXXXXX. You need one or the other, one internationally and the other locally.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 8:12 AM on March 20 [4 favorites]

Put the country code in front, which is 0044.

I don't think this is right. 00 is the "I'm making an international call" you start with when dialling from the UK. In the US it's 011 for an international call, then 44 for UK, and the local number minus the leading zero.
So:
011 44 330 024 1805
011 44 3330 113 113

Source
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:22 AM on March 20 [14 favorites]

I think on a mobile phone, you can just dial +44 (including plus symbol) and then the local number (eg [phone]) but I don't know if this is a universal feature. I know it works on a UK mobile calling the UK from another country.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:23 AM on March 20 [6 favorites]

EndsOfInvention’s first set numbers will work from any phone, but the iPhone will actually help dial if the country code is correctly entered with a plus. They call this “Dial assist”. The US is in the singular position of having its country code be the same as the usual prefix for long distance, which causes some confusion.
posted by wnissen at 8:43 AM on March 20 [3 favorites]

Go into your iPhone's Phone app, then hold down the 0 key until it becomes a +. Then, dial the country code (in this case, the UK country code, 44) and then the rest of the number (ie, 0330 024 1805). So, [phone]. That's it.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 8:56 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

the iPhone will actually help dial if the country code is correctly entered with a plus

Works on Android too. (As does +1[local area code] for dialing US numbers from outside the US.)
posted by trig at 8:57 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

Go into your iPhone's Phone app, then hold down the 0 key until it becomes a +. Then, dial the country code (in this case, the UK country code, 44) and then the rest of the number (ie, 0330 024 1805). So, [phone]. That's it.

It took me years to recognize the wonder of the + for international dialing on the iPhone. It handles all the local details for international calling -- I can call from anywhere to anywhere. All of my contact numbers now start with +.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:07 AM on March 20

If these are customer service type ‘local rate’ numbers they won’t work for overseas callers. In that case the organisation you’re trying to call may have a different number for international callers. You’d have to poke around on their website to find that or ask them for it.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:35 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

If these are customer service type ‘local rate’ numbers they won’t work for overseas callers.

I personally tested calling [phone] and [phone] from my US iPhone located in the US before posting my earlier answer and had no trouble reaching those numbers.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 9:40 AM on March 20

Just for fun, I tried making calls to the following numbers per the earlier suggestions:

00443300241805 - Did not work. This is not how dialing works on US phones.
011443300241805 - This is the way you would call on a US landline, but also did work on my mobile. Nice!
[phone] - Totally worked, per my suggestion above. This is currently the standard way to make international calls from a mobile phone. Again, hold down 0 to get the + sign.

Honestly, +[Country Code][Local Number] should work from any mobile phone which can call internationally. This has been the format for literally decades now.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 10:04 AM on March 20 [3 favorites]

Honestly, +[Country Code][Local Number] should work from any mobile phone which can call internationally.

As far as I know, it does. It's not an iPhone thing. It worked on my Nokia candybar phone back in the day. (Sorry if that's what you meant!)
posted by trig at 10:51 AM on March 20

The US is in the singular position of having its country code be the same as the usual prefix for long distance, which causes some confusion.

The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is an integrated telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Numbering Zone 1 and has the country code 1.
posted by TORunner at 11:21 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

When I used to (frequently) call the UK, I believe I dialed 01144 first, and then dropped the initial '0' from the UK number. I believe I was mostly or solely doing this on a landline, but I imagine there's a good chance it would also work on a mobile phone.
posted by ClaireBear at 11:43 AM on March 20

Just for fun, I tried making calls to the following numbers per the earlier suggestions:

00443300241805 - Did not work. This is not how dialing works on US phones.
011443300241805 - This is the way you would call on a US landline, but also did work on my mobile. Nice!
[phone] - Totally worked, per my suggestion above. This is currently the standard way to make international calls from a mobile phone. Again, hold down 0 to get the + sign.

Honestly, +[Country Code][Local Number] should work from any mobile phone which can call internationally. This has been the format for literally decades now.

When you reached the number, did they have Prince Albert in a can? Did they let him go?
posted by JohnnyGunn at 1:13 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]

I'm happy to let you know that not only did they have Prince Albert in the can, but they also were not aware that their refrigerator had gone on the run.

(It was an AVR tree. It's the year 2025, people don't answer their phones! I would have been super-nice [read: "Oops! So sorry, wrong number!"] had I actually been connected to an actual person.)
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 2:00 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]

Yeah, those are revenue-sharing numbers (where the end user shares the revenue from being called with the telephone operator, it's a bit scuzzy of them because it gives an incentive for that company to understaff their call centres) which don't work from abroad - the +44, 0044 advice here is correct for phoning UK numbers, but not for these revenue sharing ones and some others like premium rate numbers won't work from abroad.

Most decent call centres will post an alternative phone number for contacting them from abroad - but if they don't, you may be a bit stuck. Maybe an internet-calling thing akin to Skype might work as those generally have local connections in the country, thus the revenue-sharing numbers would work.
posted by BigCalm at 5:04 AM on March 21