- Short code
- 282
- Type
- Text and dial short code
- Operated by
- Tesco Mobile
- Cost
- Free
- Category
- Mobile network self-service codes
- Verified
- 13 August 2026
What 282 is for
282 replies by text with your top-up balance and anything left in your current bundle. It works on a basic handset with no app and no data.
To top up or manage an Essentials bundle by phone, Tesco Mobile publishes 4488.
What it costs
Free. Tesco Mobile states that texting BALANCE to 282 is free.
Text or call 282 — how it works
- Text BALANCE to 282 from your Tesco Mobile SIM. Free.
- To top up by phone, call 4488 free instead.
Is 282 safe, and is it spoofed?
Messages arriving from a short code are a different matter. Sender IDs on inbound texts are easy to fake, and a fraudulent message can even land in the same thread as genuine ones. Never act on a link or a request for codes, passwords or payment in an inbound text, however convincing the sender looks.
If a text or call is trying to rush you, threaten you, or get a password, one-time code or payment out of you, it is a scam whatever number it shows. Read our guide to the UK number ranges scammers use and how to spot a smishing text, and forward anything suspicious free to 7726.
Where this came from
We do not guess short codes. Every entry in this directory was checked against the organisation that runs the code, or against gov.uk or the regulator:
Checked against these sources on 13 August 2026. Short codes and their charges do change — if the operator’s page now says something different, believe the operator.
Checking an ordinary number instead
Short codes are not in Ofcom’s numbering data — only full UK numbers are. If it is a normal 01, 02, 03, 07, 08 or 09 number you want to identify, put it into the phone number checker and you will get its type, its area and the provider Ofcom allocated the range to.
Other UK short codes
All verified UK short codes › · UK area codes › · UK network operators ›