Moneypenny answering service
Moneypenny PAs start at £55 a month on weekdays and its AI charges per call, while Jodie answers 24/7 for a flat £49.
John from Bristol
Jodie answering...
Lead texted to you
12 seconds after the call started
Moneypenny sells two kinds of call answering: human PAs, from £55 a month for weekday message taking with 24/7 from £35 extra, and an AI Receptionist from £25 for 25 calls. Both have a minimum term of at least 3 months, and the AI only reaches a PA if you also keep a Telephone Answering plan. Jodie answers 24/7 for a flat £49 a month with unlimited minutes.
Moneypenny figures come from moneypenny.com (message taking, telephone answering and AI Receptionist pages) and its UK terms and conditions (updated May 2026), checked 5 October 2026. Telephone Answering and AI plans above 25 calls are quoted, so those cells show published terms, not prices. Both sides exclude VAT. Jodie AI is not connected with Moneypenny.
Moneypenny quotes its PA answering. Here is the band from its published entry price to a reported quote, against Jodie's flat plan.
Pricing band
From £55 for weekday message taking to a £282 quote for 100 minutes of PA answering.
£55 is Moneypenny's published 'from' price for message taking on weekdays, checked 5 October 2026; 24/7 cover adds from £35. £282 a month for 100 minutes of its Virtual Receptionist service, then £2.25-£2.35 a minute, is a June 2026 emailed Moneypenny quote published by a third-party comparison site, so treat it as indicative. Moneypenny AI starts from £25 for 25 calls and larger AI plans are quoted. Jodie Basic is £49 a month with unlimited minutes.
Price, setup and human backup: where Moneypenny and Jodie differ most.
Jodie is £49, £99 or £199 a month with unlimited minutes and 24/7 cover on every plan. Moneypenny's message taking starts from £55 for weekday hours, adds from £35 for 24/7, then bills minutes in 30-second blocks.
Moneypenny message taking with 24/7 cover starts from £90 a month, plus any minutes over the plan.
Forward your phone and Jodie starts answering, with no setup fee. Moneypenny's PAs need a briefing period, and its AI is built by a Solutions Architect over a few days for a one-off setup fee.
Most users go from signup to taking calls in under ten minutes.
Moneypenny AI passes calls to you, or to a PA only when you pay for a Telephone Answering plan as well, and only in that plan's hours. Jodie Professional transfers urgent calls to your own phone for £99 a month, all on one plan.
Moneypenny's UK terms require "an active Telephone Answering Service plan alongside" for escalation to its PAs.
Moneypenny says complex or high-value calls should go to a person. Here is a 9pm boiler emergency answered by a PA on a plan with 24/7 cover, and by Jodie.
Scenario: New lead at 9pm: boiler leaking, pressure dropped, needs same-night callout
Competitor
PA
Good evening, [your business name], how can I help?Caller
My boiler is leaking. Pressure has dropped right down. I need someone tonight if possible.PA
I am very sorry to hear that. May I take your name and number?Caller
Yes, Mark Davies, 07700 900123.PA
Thank you Mark. The team will be back in tomorrow at 8am - I will get this through to them first thing.Caller
OK, thanks.Jodie
Jodie
Hello, this is Jodie answering for [your business name]. How can I help?Caller
My boiler is leaking. Pressure has dropped right down. I need someone tonight if possible.Jodie
That sounds urgent - leaking boiler with low pressure. Is the water turned off at the stopcock? Where roughly are you and what's the postcode?Caller
Yes, I turned the water off. SW6 6BD. Can someone come tonight?Jodie
Got it. I've logged a same-night emergency callout in SW6: water off, leaking boiler, low pressure. The on-call engineer will ring you back inside fifteen minutes. What's your name and best number?Caller
Mark Davies, 07700 900123.Jodie
Thanks Mark. The engineer will call 07700 900123 inside fifteen minutes. If you don't hear back, ring this number again. Stay safe.Both calls were answered politely. The first took a message; the second captured the job, confirmed the safety question, and set a callback window the trader can act on.
Moneypenny publishes entry prices and its full terms. The gaps are the numbers that decide your bill.
| Jodie | Moneypenny | |
|---|---|---|
Entry prices Jodie: £49 Basic, £99 Professional, £199 Premium. Moneypenny: from £55 (message taking) and from £25 for 25 AI calls. | ||
Full plan and overage rates Moneypenny quotes Telephone Answering and larger AI plans, and publishes no UK overage rates, only billing units and transfer charges. | ||
Setup fee Jodie: £0. Moneypenny's terms confirm a one-off AI setup fee but not the amount. | ||
Free trial Jodie: 7 days, no card. Moneypenny: one-week trial on PA services, arranged with sales; no AI trial published. | ||
Minimum term and notice Jodie: none, cancel any month. Moneypenny: 3, 6 or 12 months by plan size, then 1 or 3 months' notice, in its terms. | ||
First-year cost from public info Jodie: 12 x the flat plan. Moneypenny: not without a quote for minutes, overage and setup. |
Moneypenny suits firms with a front-of-house brand to protect. If you just need every call answered without a meter running, these are the businesses Jodie is built for.
Moneypenny's standard PA hours end at 6pm, so a 9pm leak goes to voicemail unless you pay for 24/7. Jodie answers it and asks if the water is off at the stopcock.
See Jodie for plumbersSelf Assessment calls spike in January. Moneypenny bills minutes over your bundle and unused ones do not roll over, while Jodie's flat plan stays the same.
See Jodie for accountantsA power cut is an emergency and a new socket is a quote. Jodie checks whether the whole house is out or just one circuit, then texts you the job marked urgent or not.
See Jodie for electriciansA buyer browsing Rightmove on a Sunday evening calls the next agent if no one picks up, and Moneypenny's standard PA hours are weekdays only. Jodie answers, takes their budget and viewing request, and texts you the lead straight away.
See Jodie for estate agentsMoneypenny's message taking starts from £55 a month for 9am-5pm on weekdays, 24/7 cover adds from £35 a month, and its dedicated PA answering is priced on a quote. Its AI Receptionist starts from £25 a month for 25 calls, with extra calls charged at a rate it does not publish. Jodie is a flat £49, £99 or £199 a month with unlimited minutes and 24/7 included.
You divert your calls to Moneypenny, where UK PAs, its AI Receptionist or a blend of both answer in your business name. Its Telephone Answering service runs 8:30am to 6pm on weekdays as standard, and messages reach you by email or text. Jodie works the same way with AI, answering 24/7 and texting and emailing you each message.
It is Moneypenny's AI voice agent, launched in August 2025, which answers 24/7, qualifies leads, books appointments and routes calls. UK plans start from £25 for 25 calls, with a one-off setup fee and a minimum term of at least 3 months; larger plans are quoted. Jodie starts at £49 a month with unlimited minutes, no setup fee and no minimum term.
Only if you also keep a Moneypenny Telephone Answering plan, according to its terms; otherwise escalations come to you. PA escalations follow that plan's hours, 8:30am to 6pm on weekdays unless you pay for more, and that plan has its own minimum term. Jodie Professional, at £99 a month, transfers urgent calls to your own phone on one plan.
All three sell human call answering in the UK for a monthly fee plus minutes or calls. Moneypenny is the premium option, from £55 a month for weekday message taking with PA answering quoted; AllDayPA runs from roughly £90 a month plus about £1 a minute; AnswerConnect charges £205 a month for 150 minutes plus £1.75 a minute. Jodie is the AI option, with one flat fee and no per-minute or per-call charges.
Customers consistently praise the PAs themselves: well briefed, friendly and quick to use their initiative. The complaints are commercial, mainly overage charges that make a busy month cost more than expected and minimum terms with notice to exit. If a human voice on every call is what you want, reviewers say Moneypenny delivers it; the friction is predicting the bill.
Jodie sounds natural and is trained on your business, so most callers think they are speaking to your office. If a caller asks directly whether they are talking to a person, Jodie will not pretend to be human - we think that is the right line, and it has not put off the trades and service businesses we work with.
Move from a Moneypenny PA or AI plan to one flat price. Run both for a week, then give notice under Moneypenny's terms.
Total time: Under 1 hour active, 5-7 days in parallel, then 1-3 months' notice
Sign up on the register page. No card needed. You get your Jodie phone number straight away.
Set conditional forwarding (busy, no answer or always) from your phone provider to your Jodie number.
Jodie picks up first and Moneypenny stays as backup. Listen to a few call recordings to confirm Jodie handles your calls: intake, messages and qualified hand-offs.
Moneypenny's terms set a 3-month minimum on plans up to 150 minutes or calls, and 6 or 12 months on larger plans, then 1 or 3 months' notice. If Moneypenny supplies your number, ask how to keep it.
Give Moneypenny notice as your terms require. When the final billing period ends, leave the forward to Jodie in place and make a test call.
Buyer's guides
This comparison is part of our independent buyer's guides ranking the whole field.
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First 7 days free, then pricing from £49/month
