Rules around charities using regular SMS donations have been relaxed following a trial which found that few complaints, and much more money, was generated by a more relaxed regime.

Premium rate services regulator PhonepayPlus has announced that charities will now be able to enable their monthly SMS donors to ‘SKIP’ rather than ‘STOP’ their donations each month, with an offer to cancel now only having to be made every three months. Charities will also no longer need to get pre-approval from PhonepayPlus for transactions which are worth more than £4.50 within a week period.

The changes follow an 18-month trial of the new regime during which 150,000 donors were recruited by SMS giving and the regulator concluded that an additional £2.7m was raised.

PhonepayPlus found that the changes were popular with donors and charities, noting that charities had far lower attrition on regular payments than commercial enterprises, with just 25 per cent of regular givers dropping out within six months.

Save the Children’s deputy director of individual giving and legacies Annie Moreton said that 5 per cent of new donors recruited to the charity were done so via SMS and that the charity has raised £100,000 through the channel to date. “The monthly option to STOP or SKIP payments is clear and simple and we can see that 40 per cent of donors who choose to SKIP three or more consecutive payments do then choose to donate again,” she said.

The changes followed a consultation about the regime launched in November 2013.