Acceptable use policy

Version 1.0 · Last updated 11 October 2026

This policy explains how our phone service may and may not be used. It's part of our terms and conditions. It exists to keep you, other customers and the public safe - in particular from scam and nuisance calls - and to make sure the service works well for everyone.

1. Home and personal use

My Chat lines are for normal home and personal calls: keeping in touch with family and friends, calling services and businesses, and receiving calls. Small businesses with simple needs may use our service if we've agreed it with them first.

2. What you must not do

You must not use your line, or let anyone else use it, to:

make scam, fraudulent or deceptive calls, or help anyone else do so
make nuisance, abusive, threatening or offensive calls, or harass anyone
make silent or abandoned calls, or use automated diallers, robocalls or recorded messages to call people
run a call centre, telemarketing, sales or survey campaigns, or send bulk calls
show a caller ID (phone number) that isn't your own My Chat number, or hide who you are in order to mislead
resell or share the service, or connect it to systems that let other people make calls through it
make calls designed to generate income for you or anyone else, such as repeatedly calling premium-rate or revenue-sharing numbers
break the law, including laws on fraud, privacy, communications and consumer protection
interfere with, damage or try to gain unauthorised access to our service, our network provider's systems or anyone else's
share your line's login details or let unauthorised equipment or software use them

3. Fair use of the Unlimited plan

Our Unlimited plan gives you as many calls to UK landlines (01, 02 and 03) and UK mobiles (07) as normal home use needs. Most people will never come close to any limit.

To keep prices low for everyone, Unlimited calls are for personal conversations between people. Calls must not be used in the ways listed in section 2. As a guide, if your line regularly makes more than 3,000 minutes of calls a month, or calls an unusually large number of different numbers, we'll get in touch to understand why. If your use is outside normal home use, we may ask you to change plan or charge the usual call rates for minutes above that level. We'll always talk to you first.

4. Keeping your line secure

Keep any passwords and your voicemail PIN private. Change the voicemail PIN from the default.
Don't change the settings on the phone or adapter we sent you unless we ask you to.
Tell us straight away if you think someone else is using your line, or if you notice calls on your bill you didn't make.

5. How we protect the service

Ofcom requires phone companies to stop phone numbers being misused for scams. To do this, we:

check new customers before giving them a phone number
bar international and premium-rate calls on new lines unless you ask for them and pass our checks
set a monthly spending limit on call charges
allow your line to show only your own number as caller ID
keep an eye on patterns of use that may suggest fraud or misuse, such as very high numbers of short calls

We don't listen to your calls.

6. What happens if this policy is broken

If we reasonably believe your line is being used in breach of this policy, we may:

contact you to find out what's happening and ask you to stop
restrict the calls your line can make
suspend your line, or withdraw the phone number
end your contract
report the matter to Ofcom, the police or other authorities, and share information with them as the law allows

Where we can, we'll contact you first. If we need to act quickly to stop fraud or harm, we'll act first and contact you as soon as possible. We'll try to keep 999, 112 and 111 calls working.

7. Reporting misuse

If you receive scam or nuisance calls from a My Chat number, please tell us at helpme@my-chat.co.uk or on 01494 853 113, giving the number and the date and time of the call. We'll look into it promptly. You can also report scam calls to Action Fraud and nuisance calls to Ofcom.