How to call Companies House from abroad

The contact centre number is 0303 1234 500 inside the UK and +44 (0)303 1234 500 from outside it - Companies House prints both on its contact page and calls it a national call rate number. There is also a Minicom number, 02920 381245.

Opening hours are Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 6pm. All offices and telephone lines close on bank holidays, so a UK public holiday means no phone service at all that day, wherever you are calling from. Online services stay available on bank holidays.

Companies House has offices in Cardiff, Belfast and Edinburgh, each with its own local closures on top of the standard bank holidays. The main office in Cardiff is not open to the public.

Companies House says plainly that if you need to contact them, you will usually get a faster response by email, at [email protected]. From a different time zone that is doubly true: a 6pm UK cut-off is early evening in Europe, the middle of the night in East Asia and before lunch on the US west coast.

Filing itself is quicker online than on paper, and certain forms can be uploaded rather than posted. If your question is really "how do I file this from another country", the answer is usually the online service rather than the phone.

Companies House requires your full company name and number on every document, written out with no abbreviations - a company called "A Demo Company Limited" cannot be shortened to "A Demo Co Ltd". Have both in front of you before you call, exactly as they appear on the register.

If your call is about a deadline, check your company's record first: you can search it to see your filing deadline dates and confirm the details on the register are current. Missing an accounts deadline means a late filing penalty, and Companies House does not accept delays in transit as a reason to appeal one - worth knowing if you are posting documents from another country.

One thing not to do from abroad: do not post identity documents to Companies House. Identity verification has its own process.

Companies House writes the international form as +44 (0)303 1234 500. The zero in brackets is the one you drop when dialling from outside the UK.

GOV.UK lists 03 numbers at up to 16p a minute from UK landlines and 3p to 65p from UK mobiles, but what your own network charges to reach a UK number from abroad is a separate matter. Browzerphone dials the same +44 number from a browser tab, charged per minute at the rate for the United Kingdom, with no SIM card and nothing installed.

On a laptop you can keep the company record open beside the call. Check the per-minute rate to the United Kingdom before you dial.