Upon registering your A2P Brand alongside your Business Profile, LC Phone will promptly forward your business details to The Campaign Registry for assessment, gauging your eligibility and messaging throughput for campaigns. This article outlines the Brand approval process and offers indispensable best practices to ensure swift approval for your Brand.

How Brand Approval Works

The approval process begins with a comprehensive evaluation of your brand by The Campaign Registry. Following this, LC Phone will conduct a Secondary Vetting procedure as a crucial part of the approval process. This additional assessment has the potential to optimize your messaging capabilities and efficiency. Once this vetting is completed, you’ll receive a Trust Score, which determines both your long code messaging capacity to US networks and your daily message limits to T-Mobile. These details are outlined in the Message Throughput MPS and Trust Scores for A2P 10DLC in the US. For detailed assistance with brand registration, consult our comprehensive A2P 10DLC Onboarding Guide.

How To Maximize Your Trust Score

To ensure your Brand is approved and you receive the most accurate Trust Score, you want to submit your business data properly. Below are some best practices to follow along with some frequently asked questions regarding Brand registration.

Use a valid EIN for US-based companies – not a DUNS number

Ensure that the provided EIN and Legal Company Name align with the business registration details for both private and public for-profit enterprises. Please verify:

• For Standard A2P 10DLC brand registration, customers with a US presence must use an EIN.
• A DUNS number is unacceptable for US companies creating Standard A2P Brand registrations. A DUNS number should only be used in Business Profile creation if you do not want to use US A2P messaging and only want to use Stir/Shaken for Voice.
• For Non-Profit and Political Organizations, the EIN has to match the Legal Company Name available in the Tax-Exempt Organizations or Registered Political Organizations list. Learn more in Nonprofit and Government Guide to A2P 10DLC Text Messaging.
  

Enter your Legal Company Name exactly as registered with the IRS

When registering a US entity, ensure to input the precise Legal Company Name as registered with the IRS, as indicated on the CP 575 EIN Confirmation Letter. A perfect match between the Legal Company Name and the EIN, as shown on the CP 575, is necessary for successful brand registration. Avoid using the Legal Company Name from W2 or W9 forms, as it may differ from what is listed on the CP 575 notice.

If you do not have access to your company’s CP 575 notice then contact your company’s accountant or financing office and ask for it.  If the CP 575 notice has been misplaced, you may request a 147c letter from the IRS and use the information there for registration.

How to find your EIN (for US companies)

• Review your CP 575 / 147c forms for your EIN
• Contact your company’s accountant or financing office and ask for the EIN
  
  

Use a Valid Tax ID for companies based outside of the U.S.

The provided EIN and Legal Company Name has to match registration sources for private and public profit companies. Please ensure:

• ALL customers creating a Business Profile must provide a valid Tax ID. 
• A Tax ID from their country is required for Standard A2P 10DLC brand registration or customers with an International presence.
• For Businesses outside US /Canada there may be a requirement for additional vetting to verify their brand successfully.
  • In such cases, they will no longer be able to register as Low volume standards.

Guidance for companies in Canada

Effective July 27th, Canadian companies are required to provide only their Business Number (BN) for Canadian Brand Registration. We will exclusively accept the first nine numeric digits of the BN (BN-9). Refer to the format example provided below for clarity:

Tax/Corporation ID field: 123456789RT0001

Ensure that your legal company name and address match your business registration accurately to avoid any discrepancies.

Guidance for companies in the rest of the world

• European companies should use the VIES VAT number validation lookup to look up their brand information before submission.
• Companies in Australia should use their Australian Business Number (ABN) and use the official ABN Lookup tool to look up the information.
• Companies in New Zealand should use New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) and use the official NZBN lookup tool to look up the information.
• Companies in Hong Kong should use your Companies Registry (CN) number. You can use the official CN lookup tool to find it.
• For other countries, please enter the numeric portion of your VAT ID number. If you don’t have a VAT ID, please provide your country’s primary corporation registration number or tax ID number.

Common customer errors for EIN/Tax ID

• It is using an incorrect business name, such as the name of the messaging provider, DBA, or the trade name of the company instead of the official legally registered name. The Legal Name must not be abbreviated and must appear exactly as it is filed with the IRS (US) or the equivalent tax authority in other countries.
• It is entering a number in the EIN or Tax ID field that is invalid for the EIN or home country company ID number.
• We provide a DUNS number instead of an EIN for a US-based company.
• You are using SSN to register your brand. If you used your SSN to file your taxes, you are a sole proprietor and should await further guidance from LC Phone on registering your brand.
  

Further recommendations:

• For US businesses, to ensure you’re providing accurate information, enter your business’s EIN into the HIPAASpace lookup website. If your business appears in the results, please fill in your name according to the business listing information.
• If you are an ISV-type customer and need to validate and enter information for multiple brands in the US, you could use the subscription-based EIN verification service provided by TINCheck.
• For validating a brand’s status as a nonprofit, you can use Results for Tax Exempt Organization Search from the US IRS.
• a Newly issued EINs or equivalent tax ID won’t propagate across the relevant databases validation systems for a few weeks. So, if your brand registration failed due to tax ID mismatch and you recently registered your business for a tax ID, please share documentation with support to help your brand get verified manually by the third-party vendors. Any such documentation must be from the federal level, not the state level.

Check Your Business Address

For all entity types, a mismatch in one of the following might produce a lower Trust Score:

• Address/Street line
• City
• State
• Postal Code/Zip Code
• Country

Please note:

Providing a local branch address or any address diverging from the officially registered company address could result in a discrepancy, potentially lowering the Trust Score and impacting credibility adversely.

Supported Stock Exchanges

Publicly traded companies under the Public Profit category must ensure that their stock ticker symbol aligns with the designated stock exchange as per reliable sources. Here are the available stock ticker values:

• NONE
• NASDAQ
• NYSE
• AMEX
• AMX
• ASX
• B3
• BME
• BSE
• FRA
• ICEX
• JPX
• JSE
• KRX
• LON
• NSE
• OMX
• SEHK
• SGX
• SSE
• STO
• SWX
• SZSE
• TSX
• TWSE
• VSE
• OTHER

Other Factors

The following factors will impact the Trust Score but cannot be influenced by data submitted:

• Company size: For all companies, points are earned for the detected size of the company based on independent sources of employee count and revenue.
• Years in operation: All companies earn points for their years in operation and domain age.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you are getting this error “Maximum 3 tries exhausted, please reach out to support team for next steps.”, please provide the location ID: 

Please send us the CP 575 form for the sub-account. Once that’s done, we will send that form along with the Account SID / Brand SID for Brand approval, they would be able to take care of it.  

NOTE: When registering a US entity, ensure to input the precise legal business name as recorded with the EIN, accessible via the CP 575 EIN Confirmation Letter. An exact alignment between the legal business name and the EIN as indicated on the CP 575 is imperative for successful registration. Avoid relying on the legal business name provided on W2 or W9 forms as they might differ from the CP 575 notice. If the CP 575 notice is misplaced, you can request a 147c letter from the IRS and utilize the details therein for registration purposes.

Please note that your full legal business name may span multiple lines on your CP 575 / 147c letter. If that is the case, you must input all the lines above the address line (which constitutes your full legal business name) instead of just using the first line.

E.g. Enter COMINSPECT INC COMINSPECT % MARK COHEN as the business legal name

Is an EIN mandatory and what do businesses outside the US use for Standard Brand Registration?

An EIN is compulsory for US entities seeking A2P standard brand registration. Attempting to use a DUNS instead will trigger an error, rendering the brand unverified and halting progress for customers. DUNS format is not suitable for A2P brand registration.

For businesses outside the US, different country-specific tax IDs are acceptable for Standard Registration. For instance, BN9 for Canada, Company Number for the UK, and ASIC (ACN) Company Number for Australia.

I received an error stating “We are unable to retrieve your TCR Trust Score” What does that mean?

While brand approval typically involves an automated vetting process, we’re currently experiencing vetting challenges with our vendor, Aegis. Consequently, there’s a delay in updating the Secondary Vetting score. If your TCR Trust Score isn’t retrievable during brand registration, it’s likely undergoing review, which may extend up to 7 business days. Should your brand remain unapproved beyond this period, please reach out to Support for assistance.

I received an error message stating, “Your brand registration failed” what does that mean?

Should you encounter any error notifications indicating a failure in your brand registration, kindly adhere to the provided instructions to rectify your brand details. Your brand registration undergoes rigorous evaluation by TCR, and if your brand information is rejected during the vetting process, this error message will be displayed. Various factors may contribute to the registration failure, including:

1. The business registration number (e.g., EIN or Tax ID) does not match your legal name. You need to update one or both fields to resolve such an error.
2. The stock symbol or ticker you provided does not match your brand information. You need to update one or both fields to resolve such an error.
3. The organization could not be verified as a US-registered non-profit organization or government entity. To resolve such an error, you need to update your entity type (a.k.a company type) or provide documents for manual verification of your entity type. For more, see Nonprofit and Govern+-ment Guide to A2P 10DLC.
   

I received a low Trust Score; how can I increase the score?

To enhance your Trust Score, it’s crucial to adhere to the aforementioned best practices, such as having a valid EIN and maintaining an accurate Business Address. Should you find your Trust Score remaining low despite following these guidelines, feel free to reach out to our Support team. It’s important to recognize that your Trust Score is determined by your brand’s overall footprint.

Another company acquired my company; whose information do I provide?

The guidance is always to provide the same business information you would use for your tax reporting at that given time.

My company’s business information has changed; how can I update my A2P Brand? 

It’s vital to maintain accurate and current business information for your brand. After approval of your Brand and Business Profile, any modifications cannot be made through the Console or API. Should updates be required, please reach out to Support with the necessary changes.