10DLC, which stands for “10-Digit Long Code,” is the carrier-managed registration framework for business-to-consumer SMS in the United States. Since 2023 and now fully enforced in 2026, the major US carriers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, US Cellular, Dish) require any business sending SMS through a 10-digit phone number to register the brand and the messaging campaign through The Campaign Registry (TCR) before the messages can be delivered reliably.

For loan officers sending texts to borrowers, this matters more than it sounds. Unregistered SMS isn’t just non-compliant in some abstract sense — it’s actively being filtered or blocked by the carriers. Many LOs are sending texts they think are reaching borrowers when in fact a significant percentage are silently dropped at the carrier level. Borrowers don’t get the message. The LO doesn’t know. The deal goes cold.

Why 10DLC exists

The carriers introduced 10DLC to address a specific problem: business SMS volume had grown massively, and consumers were complaining about spam, scams, and unwanted texts. The carriers’ tools for filtering had to either block business SMS broadly (bad for legitimate businesses) or accept everything (bad for consumers). 10DLC is the compromise: businesses register their identity, declare their messaging use case, and submit to a vetting process. In exchange, carriers grant deliverability based on the trust score from that registration.

For unregistered business SMS, the carriers default to aggressive filtering. The message either doesn’t deliver, delivers to spam, or gets throttled to the point of unreliable delivery.

What 10DLC registration involves

The registration process has three components: brand registration, campaign registration, and trust score assignment. Each has a specific fee and a specific timeline.

Brand registration

Brand registration is the entity-level step. Your business is registered as a sender, with verifiable details: legal business name, EIN or tax ID, business address, business website, vertical (mortgage, insurance, healthcare, etc.). For sole proprietors, this can be a sole-prop registration; for incorporated businesses, the EIN ties to the IRS records.

Cost: roughly $4 one-time vetting fee for a “low-volume” brand (the typical LO category). Higher-tier vetting (Standard or Verified) costs $40-300+ and unlocks higher throughput and trust scores.

Timeline: 1-2 business days for vetting if all information is submitted correctly.

Campaign registration

Campaign registration is the use-case-level step. You declare what kinds of messages you’ll send (lead nurture, status updates, marketing, customer service), expected monthly volume, sample message content, and the consent capture flow you use. The campaign is approved if the use case is legitimate and matches the brand vertical.

Cost: $1.50-15 per campaign per month plus a $4-100 one-time registration fee, depending on the campaign type. For most LOs, two campaigns are needed: one for marketing/lead nurture, one for transactional (loan status, document requests).

Timeline: 1-3 business days for approval if the use case description and sample messages match the brand and follow industry guidelines.

Trust score

The trust score is assigned by the carriers based on a combination of the brand vetting tier, the campaign vetting tier, and your sending history once active. Higher trust scores mean higher throughput (messages per second), better deliverability, and lower likelihood of carrier filtering.

For a Sole Prop or Standard brand vetting on a typical mortgage marketing campaign, the trust score lands in the medium tier, with throughput around 10-30 messages per second. For most LOs, this is more than enough; the throughput limit only matters if you’re sending bulk SMS to thousands of contacts at once.

What happens if you don’t register

The carriers progressively filter and block unregistered SMS. The exact behavior varies by carrier and by the trust signals on your specific phone number, but the general pattern is:

• AT&T: Aggressive filtering. Unregistered business SMS frequently gets blocked at the carrier level. The LO sees the message as “sent” in their tool but the borrower never receives it.
• Verizon: Throttling and filtering. Higher-volume sends get throttled or routed to spam folders.
• T-Mobile: Surcharges plus filtering. Unregistered business SMS to T-Mobile numbers incurs additional carrier fees, and a portion are filtered.
• US Cellular and others: Generally follow the major carriers’ lead.

The result for an unregistered LO sending SMS to borrowers: somewhere between 20% and 60% of messages don’t reach the recipient, with no error message back to the LO. The LO concludes the borrower isn’t engaged, when in fact the borrower never received the message.

How to register: the actual steps

Step 1: Choose your registration path

Three paths:

• DIY through The Campaign Registry directly. Possible but operationally complex. Requires direct relationship with TCR, which most small businesses don’t have.
• Through your messaging provider (Twilio, Bandwidth, Plivo, etc.). If you’re using a programmable SMS platform, they typically have a TCR registration flow built into their platform.
• Through your CRM, if it handles SMS. If your CRM provides SMS as a built-in feature (BNTouch is one example), the CRM provider typically handles 10DLC registration on your behalf as part of the platform setup.

For most LOs, the third path is the simplest: the CRM handles the registration paperwork, the brand vetting, and the campaign submissions, and the LO is delivered a registered, ready-to-send setup.

Step 2: Gather the required information

Whatever path you choose, you’ll need:

• Legal business name (matches IRS records)
• EIN or tax ID number
• Business address (verifiable, not a P.O. box)
• Business website URL
• Industry/vertical (Financial Services / Mortgage)
• Description of your business (1-2 sentences)
• Authorized contact name, email, phone for the registration

For campaign registration, you’ll also need:

• Use case description (e.g., “Mortgage marketing and customer service messages to opted-in loan applicants and past clients”)
• 3-5 sample messages that match what you’ll actually send
• Description of how you obtain consent from recipients
• Estimated monthly message volume
• Opt-out keyword list (STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, END, CANCEL, QUIT)

Step 3: Submit and wait

Submit through your chosen platform. Brand vetting typically completes in 1-2 business days. Campaign registration follows in 1-3 days. Total elapsed time from start to active: usually 4-7 business days.

Step 4: Activate and test

Once approved, your phone number is registered for the campaign. Send a test message to your own phone (or a colleague’s) to verify delivery. If you’re sending through a CRM, test using the CRM’s outbound flow with a registered consent record.

Ongoing requirements

Registration isn’t a one-time event. Maintaining 10DLC compliance has ongoing requirements:

• Per-message compliance. Every message must include opt-out language (e.g., “Reply STOP to opt out”) and identify the sender by name.
• STOP keyword handling. Inbound STOP messages must immediately stop sending and be honored permanently.
• HELP keyword handling. Inbound HELP messages must return a description of the messaging program and how to opt out.
• Volume staying within declared range. If you registered for 10K messages/month and start sending 100K, the carriers will flag the campaign for re-vetting.
• Content matching declared use case. A campaign registered for transactional updates can’t be used for promotional messages, or the campaign gets flagged.

Most platform-handled registrations (CRM-managed) include the per-message compliance automatically. DIY registrations require you to handle these yourself.

Common mistakes

1. Submitting “marketing” as the campaign type when the actual use is mixed. Use the most accurate campaign type. Mismatched campaigns get flagged.
2. Sample messages that don’t match what gets sent. Carriers do verify samples against actual message content. Submitting bland samples and sending aggressive promotional content is a common cause of campaign suspension.
3. Reusing personal phone numbers for business SMS. 10DLC registration is for dedicated business numbers. Personal cell phone numbers can’t be used for business SMS at scale.
4. Skipping the brand vetting tier upgrade for high-volume senders. If you’re sending more than 5,000 SMS per day, the Sole Prop or Low Volume tier won’t have the throughput. Standard or Verified tier costs more but unlocks the necessary throughput.

For most LOs, the registration is straightforward when handled through the CRM. The complexity is in the operational details, which is why most platforms now offer this as part of the SMS setup rather than asking the LO to navigate TCR directly.

Common questions