Frequently Asked Questions

Just type a word, phrase or number into the search box at the top of the page. It shows you all seven toll free versions and the status of each one.

No need. Just type the word, like PLUMBER. If you type 1-800-PLUMBER, we drop the 1-800 and show all seven toll free area codes, plus the local area codes in your state.

The green ones you can get now. “Activate this number for $49” is a one time $49, and a green one with a monthly price is rent to own. The yellow Backorder ones are in disconnect and are $395 to $995. The red ones are NOT available. The blue Requestable ones are with other vendors and are usually thousands of dollars, or in a few cases a large monthly fee.

Yes. Only the first 7 letters dial, and the phone system ignores the rest, like the R in 1-800-MARKETER. Callers can dial the whole word and it still connects. You see commercials for numbers longer than seven digits all the time, like 1-800-PROGRESSIVE and 1-800-STATEFARM. Just don’t start a new word after the 7th letter unless it’s a phrase people know.

They all work the same way. Dial any of them from anywhere in North America and you reach the same person, free to the caller.

800 was the first toll free prefix, opened in the 1960s, so most of the good 800 numbers were taken decades ago. 888 opened in 1996, then 877, then 866, 855 (2010), 844, and 833 (2017). Newer prefixes have more available inventory and the same call quality.

The number itself matters more than the prefix. 888-BLUE-CLEAN is more memorable than 800-followed-by-random-digits. Don’t get hung up on the prefix, focus on the word.

In real customer data, 800 is still the most requested (38%), but 833 (22%) and 855 (19%) are right behind. Customers have already adapted.

Don’t quit on the first one. Your business still needs a front door, and you probably didn’t get the first domain name you searched for either. Try your brand name, a short word in front, or the other area codes. Digging a little deeper usually turns up something better.

Just type in the word by itself. Instead of having to try each different small word in front of it, it tries them all and gives you a list to pick from. The number four has a good flow in front of anything.

It puts a short word or a digit in front of yours, like CALL, GO, MY or 4, and shows only the versions that are available or just disconnected. More tries a longer list. If you add a digit, 4 is the best one, and 844-4 gives it some alliteration and repetition.

The available numbers that say “Activate this number for $49” are $49. That’s a one time fee, and you own the number with no strings and can take it to any phone company you want.

We give you proof of ownership, free temporary service for the first 30 days or 100 minutes of use, up and working the next business day, and you can transfer it to whatever company you want to use for the ongoing service with no strings or ongoing cost from us at all.

Anything you get from us you own, with no strings, and you can transfer it to any phone company you want. That’s the whole idea.

Yes, it’s yours for as long as you keep it active with whatever company you want to use it with. You can’t disconnect it and walk away and come back a year later. Just like you own a domain name, but you have to maintain it.

You get a PDF with your detailed receipt, your official toll free number bill and your Toll Free Birth Certificate. The Birth Certificate is the important one. It is your proof of ownership, and it is what you hand your phone company along with their toll free transfer form.

The nice numeric numbers we have are in the purple Premium columns on your results, by value level: Random 800s and 1 Star are $99.95, 2 Star $299.95, 3 Star $599.95 and 4 Star $1,999.95. They’re not actually easier to remember, but they are easier to dial.

They’re hand-picked numbers, graded from 4 Star, the absolute best, down to 1 Star, plus a set of random 800s. The better the number, the higher the price. It’s a one-time price, and you own it.

The price is what the price is. There’s no haggling, because flat pricing is the whole point.

Just click on the green one you want and enter the number you want the calls forwarded to. If you want more than one, come back to your results, click the next one and add it to the cart, then continue to the checkout.

That’s the phone number where you want the calls to be sent. You can put in your cell phone number or any number you want there, and change it later or when you switch to your company; that’s why it says “initial.” It just has to be a local number, not another toll free number.

You get a receipt instantly and the documentation later that day via email, and it’s up and forwarding to your local ring-to number the next business day.

It’s not an ongoing account, it’s a one time purchase, and we’ll email you the documentation later today. You don’t have to do anything, just watch for that email. It gives you the documentation you need and explains the transfer process.

Your number is on our free temporary service for the first 30 days or 100 minutes, whichever comes first. The number stays yours after that, with a year of free parking. But once the free service runs out, calls stop ringing through until you transfer the number to a carrier for ongoing service.

If you don’t need it forwarding yet, you can wait a little bit. We give you a year of free parking after the temporary service expires, just waiting for you to transfer it to whatever phone company you want, so you have time to get your ducks in a row. After that it’s $24.95 for another year of parking.

You can forward it to your existing number. You don’t have to add anything to your cell phone to be able to forward the calls to it, even if you are forwarding multiple toll free numbers. After the free 30 days, you do need a toll free service provider to forward the toll free calls to your cell phone. You don’t have to use the cell phone company for the forwarding and probably shouldn’t, because they honestly don’t know anything about toll free.

The simple answer is UniTel. Depending on your state, rates start around 3.5 cents a minute and $2 a month, which is less than half what several of the major providers charge. They ring to any number in the USA, and you can change your ring-to number online any time. We are paid nothing for sending you there. It’s just a good default.

No. Per-minute rates depend on whatever phone company you pick, but they’re cents per minute. That’s less than $2/hour.

If you’re paying someone $10/hour to answer the phone, the call itself costs about a tenth of what the person answering it costs. The cost of generating the call (advertising) is much higher than either. Phone calls just don’t cost much any more and rarely matter the way people sometimes think they might.

For toll free numbers, everyone else is trying to sell you the ongoing phone service. We just help you find the best number you can use with whatever phone service you want, like the registrar of the toll free world, so they can’t hold you hostage with the number after it’s in all your advertising.

It’s first come, first served, so once someone takes it, it’s not available any more. If you’d like Bill to hold it for you for two weeks while you decide, just email him.

Just like Google and every search engine, it’s based on a cached database. Our system works mainly from a monthly update or snapshot of all numbers. We’re not keeping your money for something unavailable, and if you don’t want an alternative, we’ll just refund it, no problem.

You don’t initiate it here, you initiate it with the new company. Whatever company you pick will give you a form that basically just tells them where to send the calls and who to bill, and authorizes them to take over the number. Give it back to them with the PDF we emailed you when you placed the order.

We release numbers the same day we get the request. It’s not possible to tell you how quickly they will send it to us, but we do our part very quickly and send you an email to let you know it’s been released. Just because their representative said they submitted it doesn’t mean they submitted it to us.

Local transfers between phone companies take about two weeks, so we keep yours with a carrier where you can open your own account. When it’s paid off, we hand it over account to account, which is quick. Then it’s yours to move wherever you want.

Less than 1% of all the possible vanity numbers are actually available. The number you’re picturing has probably been held for decades, or won’t be issued for decades. That’s the bad news.

The good news: the right number for your business is almost never the most generic one you can think of. You don’t have ATTORNEY.com or think you need it for a great website. Generic equals expensive, generic equals everybody else.

When Lyft couldn’t get LIFT they went with Lyft, and the brand turned out to be ten times more valuable because it was theirs. The same is true for phone numbers. Search by category instead of by specific term and you’ll see options you never thought of.

There are tons of good numbers that are not available, just like there are good domain names that aren’t available. There isn’t a way to get something that’s unavailable. Bill isn’t really a bounty hunter, going out and trying to make something available when it’s not; he’s more like a real estate agent helping you find the best available property. Here’s every way to still get a number someone else has.

Usually not. It’s married to a customer of that phone company, and they won’t give out who it is. Rather than chase it, tap Prefix to see close versions that are available now. The green ones are $49.

Calling a number is kind of like typing a domain name into your browser and figuring that if it didn’t go to a website, it must be available. There are a lot of reasons why a phone number might be active in the database but not ringing to somebody from your area when you call it.

You can use the lookup tool on our website to see the phone company responsible for any number that’s in use, but they aren’t the customer. There really is no database of the owners, and no phone company is allowed to give out customer data. Phone companies use the customer name and address as part of the security for transfers. More at who owns this toll free number?

Not usually. It’s the phone company that manages the number for whoever uses it. Tap the name to see that company on our sister site, Resporgs.com. Phone companies won’t give out a customer’s name.

Not right now. A phone company has it on hold for one of its customers. Holds can lapse, but nobody can get it while it’s held. Tap Prefix on its row to see close versions that are available now.

Who has held the number, month by month, going back several years, and when it changed hands or went through a disconnect. If it’s sat with the same company for years, don’t wait on it.

You won’t find any 800 numbers in the available pool. There really haven’t been any 800 numbers in the available pool for a decade or more. They get taken within seconds when they come out. The purple Premium columns do have some true 800 numbers for a one time price, on the premium numbers page.

That’s one of nearly 16,000 833s left over from the 833 auction, which are on an indefinite hold. Bill thinks someone will eventually wake up and make them available, and he’ll try to help you be in the right place at the right time. But in the meantime you’ll probably have to be more creative.

Tap Notify, add your first name and email, and click the link we email you. Every month, when the new national data comes out, we check it and email you if its status changes. You can watch up to 8 numbers free.

Yes. Search your number, tap Notify on its row, and we’ll check it every month when the new national data comes out and email you if its status changes. A forgotten credit card shouldn’t cost you your number.

When a number goes into the aging process, we show it as able to be backordered. We will try to grab it in the first couple seconds when the aging process ends and it becomes available. You only pay for it if we’re able to get it when it comes out of disconnect. How backorders work.

For most backorders there’s no charge to place the initial request, and you only do an authorization right before we try to get it. If we can’t get it, we release the funds, and if we do, we capture them. Some we can get for you right away, and for those you pay at checkout.

The fee is only if we’re able to get it for you. It says for each number, and it’s based on the area code. It’s a one time fee, and you own it with no strings.

There’s a 120 day waiting period when a number is disconnected. When it comes out depends on where it is in that aging. The aging process gives the old customer a chance to reclaim it if it was disconnected by mistake, and reduces the amount of wrong numbers for the new customer.

It’s a race to grab them when they come out. It’s not guaranteed, but you only pay if we’re able to get it. We’re always competing with the phone sharks, and they’re the biggest ones!

For you, none. Both are steps in the same 120-day aging after a phone company disconnects a number. In transit just costs the phone company less to hold. You can backorder either one.

That means it’s with another vanity number vendor that you can negotiate with, and perhaps purchase the number from. That’s the most expensive way to get a number, typically thousands of dollars. The available ones are just $49. More at how much NOT to offer.

Just click on the blue requestable number and it should bring you to a form. The request form sends Bill your information, and he’ll dig into it and give you an idea of what it’ll be. If you want him to, he’ll then contact them to see if he can get a price, and it costs nothing to find out.

It depends on the vendor, but most run in the thousands, more for generic words. It’s free to ask, with no obligation. Tap it, leave your name and email, and Bill will come back with a real price, usually within a day.

It depends on the vendor. Most will sell them for the right money, usually thousands. A few only rent them by the month and keep them, but Bill can often negotiate a release with some prepayment. The green and yellow ones you own with no strings.

It’s rent to own over 72 months. There’s no term or commitment, but you’re paying it off like a mortgage rather than renting it, so every monthly dollar goes toward owning it. After 72 payments you OWN it with no strings, and you have a buyout at any point. Forwarding to your phone is included. More at should you rent a vanity number?

No. It’s $79 a month, about $2.63 a day, and every payment counts toward owning it. After 48 payments it’s yours, $3,792 in all, or prepay the rest any time. Forwarding to any phone is included.

Yes, you can cancel and walk away at any time, and you also have the option to prepay the rest of the months and transfer it away with no strings. You are totally in control, with the ability to walk away as well as the ability to port the number away if you need that too. That’s why Bill says rent to own gives you the best of both worlds.

Local if your customers are in a specific area. Toll free if you serve customers nationwide.

A local number like 619-ROOFING builds trust because 83% of Americans prefer local businesses. The area code signals you’re nearby, and the word makes the number memorable.

A toll free number like 800-FLOODED works everywhere in North America. Generic toll free terms cost six figures because they’ve been advertised for decades, but a branded toll free vanity (like 800-YOUR-NAME) is reasonably priced and works nationally.

Many businesses use both. A local number for their primary market, a toll free number for everything outside it.

There’s no central database for local numbers the way there is for toll free. They’ve been given out for 100 years, but you can only get the ones given to your local phone company within the past 18 months or so. If they were given out 10 years ago, they aren’t going to be available from that phone company anymore. Start with local numbers by state.

Local numbers aren’t in one national database like toll free. They go out to phone companies in blocks of 1,000 or 10,000, so most are already with customers. We show them all anyway: the ones we sell, the ones you might get yourself, and the ones nobody can get.

Yes. A local number rings wherever you forward it. The area code tells callers where you are, so it works best when your customers are in that area. Nationwide shows the ones we sell in any state, premium ones you can own, and ones just given to a phone company.

Numbers move between phone companies. Tap it and we look up who carries that number today, so you call the right company instead of the one it started with. We also check how much it’s being used: ACTIVE means it shows real use lately, INACTIVE means it’s been quiet, which is often your better shot.

Yes, for now. DIY checks every number that spells your word across your state, shows who carries each one today and which look available, and emails you who to call and what to say. If it helps you land a great number, pay what you think it was worth.

It increases the response rate to everything you do. Every ad, every truck, every business card, every yard sign.

The numbers, from independent research and customer data:

• 72% of people remember a vanity number after hearing it once. A regular number? 5%.
• A memorable vanity number increases the response rate to ALL your advertising by 10 to 30%.
• 83% of Americans choose a local product over a national brand when they can.

There is nothing else you can do for this kind of cost that gives you the same credibility lift. It’s also one of the only business assets that goes up in value the more you use it. The longer it’s been in your advertising, the more people associate it with you, the more it’s worth.

Yes, and you should redirect it to a focused landing page rather than your homepage.

If your truck has 858-GET-ROOF and 858GETROOF.com on it, the customer sees GETROOF twice without realizing it. That’s double the repetition for zero extra ad spend. Same goes for billboards, vehicle wraps, print, anything offline.

The landing page should match the message of the ad, not be a generic homepage. A truck that says “Roof leak? Call 858-GET-ROOF” should land at a page that says “Roof leak? Here’s how fast we can be there.” The whole ad campaign focuses like a laser on one message.

The matching .com is cheap. Skipping it leaves money on the table.

Yes. Same Bill, same numbers, since 1995. TollFreeNumbers.com is now VanityNumbers.com, and Bill’s email still ends in tollfreenumbers.com.

We are kind of like the registrar for toll free numbers. We don’t buy and sell them like a domain name reseller, and we don’t list individual numbers that people have for sale. Honestly, nobody in the vanity number business is going to give you very much for them, because they all have more numbers than they can sell already.