Buy once, check five times
1300 Number Buy: The Pre-Purchase Checklist
A 1300 number is a small purchase with a long tail — it lands on everything you print. Five checks, run in order, turn an impulse buy into a number you keep for decades. Here they are, with the cost at each step.
- Five checks, in order
- Search costs nothing
- Plans from $10/month
Buying questions
What do I actually buy?
A lease on the number, hosted on a monthly plan. Standard numbers run from $10 a month with per-second call charges; phonewords add a premium word lease from $40 a month. No hardware, no installation, nothing to buy outright.
How long does the whole purchase take?
A standard number from the live pool connects once the plan is in place — the search and checkout are minutes, and routing is configuration. A premium phoneword can take longer if it passes through an auction.
What if I want to change carriers later?
Port the number — existing 1300s move between carriers, so the purchase is not a lock-in. Confirm porting support before buying anywhere; it is check five on this list.
Buying a 1300 number takes minutes; living with the choice takes years, because the number lands on vehicles, cards, signatures and search results. The five checks below take ten extra minutes and separate a considered purchase from an impulse one. Run them in order.
Check 1: availability, against a live pool
Search the availability pool — free, no account: available numbers. A listed number is connectable today; an unlisted one is in service or held. Distrust checkers without a visible pool behind them.
Check 2: tier, matched to budget
Standard patterns ride the base plan, from $10 a month. Phonewords — word-spelling patterns — add a premium lease from $40 a month, with the strongest words passing through auctions. The honest test: does a word earn its lease in your advertising, or would the money work harder in the marketing itself?
Check 3: plan fit, against your call volume
Call charges bill per second against per-minute rates once calls arrive; the plan fee is the floor, not the forecast. Take your expected monthly calls and durations against the published table on the pricing page, matched per the method in 1300 number plans.
Check 4: routing targets, before connection
Know where the number will point before you buy: a mobile, a landline, a team? The routing options — time rules, overflow, round-robin, location-based — are configuration, but the answer points are business decisions. The behaviour once live is in how 1300 numbers work.
Check 5: the exit
Ask what happens to the number if you leave: portability is the answer you want, and existing 1300s port between carriers — the purchase is not a trap. The porting mechanics, for future reference, are in how to get a 1300 number, and the product summary on 1300 numbers.
The purchase, compressed
Five checks, one sitting: live-pool search, tier decision, plan forecast, routing targets, exit confirmed. Then buy — connect on the plan, publish everywhere, and let the number do its one job: being the same digits, everywhere, forever.
Run the checks
Start with the live pool
See what is connectable today, priced upfront — free, no account.