What does a week of calls cost?
They pay from their own money, and it is capped each week. The number you give them sets the price. HMYOI Polmont is run by SPS: most private prisons match these rates, but ask the prison to be sure.
- Official PIN rates
- England and Wales
- Until 31 May 2027
Rates last checked September 2026 · Ministry of Justice
The official rates
5.50p
a minute, weekdays
An hour a day
£20.71 a week
2.48p
a minute, weekdays
An hour a day
£10.06 a week
Same weekly limit. More than twice the calls.
Weekends: 2.20p to a landline, 3.60p to a mobile. 10p minimum a call. Until 31 May 2027. Ministry of Justice
Which landline number should you give them?
Since 11 August 2026, 0800 numbers as social contacts — and numbers used for call diversion / re-routing — must be restricted. GOV.UK · Interception policy framework · §7.9 Number removed from their PIN?
Have a landline at home, and someone is always in? Give them that number. It is free and gets the same rate.
Questions families ask
- Official weekday rates at HMYOI Polmont: 2.48p a minute to a UK landline, 5.5p to a UK mobile. 10p minimum per connected call. A typical 15-minute call, five times a week, is £4.13 to a mobile and £1.86 to a landline. Weekend is cheaper. Until 31 May 2027.
- They pay from PIN credit, not you. There is no incoming call. Credit is bought from spends. Private-cash is one part of that.
- A landline is 2.48p a minute on a weekday. A mobile is 5.5p. Same week, same minutes: about £2.27 less from their PIN on a landline.
- A UK landline is the cheap rate: 2.48p a minute on a weekday, against 5.5p for a mobile. Cheap prison-call apps usually forward the call, and prisons can refuse those numbers since 11 August 2026. The call-services guide lists which ones still connect.
- No. The call rate is the same. Weekly private-cash is not. That is the Incentives Policy Framework, not the phone tariff.
- The pence-per-minute here is the public-estate tariff. HMYOI Polmont is run by SPS, outside that contract; the Ministry of Justice says many private prisons have cut their rates to match, but HMYOI Polmont does not publish its own. Ask the prison to be sure. What is local is the PIN wait, the first call, and any call-length cap families report.
- Seven hours a week, priced at the official rates. We count three in ten minutes at the cheaper weekend rate. Calls come out of the most they can spend each week, so a cheaper number means more calls, not more money.
How long did the PIN (phone list) take?
Tell the next family what to expect. Pick their prison, then tap the wait. No names.