STOP, HANG UP, CALL 159
If you think someone is trying to trick you into handing over money or personal details – stop, hang up and call 159 to speak directly to your bank
How it works
159 works in the same way as 101 for the police or 111 for the NHS. It’s the number you can trust to get you through to your bank safely and securely, every time. So if you think someone is trying to trick you into handing over money or personal details – stop, hang up and call 159 to speak directly to your bank.
What does it cost?
The cost of calling 159 will vary according to your phone provider. In many cases this will be the same as a national rate call. Please ask your provider for details.
Who can use 159?
The banks that can be reached through 159 are:
- Bank of Scotland
- Barclays
- Chase
- Co-operative Bank
- First Direct
- Halifax
- HSBC
- Lloyds
- Metro Bank
- Modulr
- Monzo
- Nationwide Building Society
- NatWest
- Revolut
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- Santander
- Starling Bank
- Tide
- TSB
- Ulster Bank
The telephone companies involved in 159 are:
- BT (including EE and Plusnet)
- Gamma
- O2 (including giffgaff)
- Sky
- Three
- Vodafone
- TalkTalk
- Virgin Media
Our story
We launched 159 in 2021. We wanted to provide a memorable simple way to connect UK banking customers safely and securely with their bank if they receive an unexpected or suspicious call about a financial matter.
This breaks the scam ‘journey’ at the critical moment when you are at most risk of being manipulated into making a payment. So, even if scammers can make contact with you, that link will be broken by your call to 159, before any information is shared, any payment is made, and any harm is done.
Our vision for the future
Over 400,000 calls have been made to 159, and we have ambitious plans for its future.
While it’s available to almost everyone already, we are working towards making 159 a universal number offered by all telephone providers, similar to 101, 111 or 999.
At The Co-operative Bank, we are huge supporters of 159. We know that dealing with fraud can be incredibly stressful, but 159 makes reporting fraud much easier for impacted customers and removes uncertainty about how to respond. We have received thousands of calls through 159 which shows what a lifeline this is to our banking customers. We are really pleased to have championed this initiative with Stop Scams UK and look forward to continuing our impact through our 159 partnership.
Simone Fox, Director of Specialist Services at The Co-operative Bank