Please Note – The links to ‘Buy or Renew a PPC On-line’ or ‘Login or Register Interest to Sell’ (a PPC) have now changed. Please amend your bookmarks if required.
If you will have to pay for four or more prescription items in three months, or more than 14 items in 12 months, you may find it cheaper to buy a PPC. The charge for a single prescription item is £7.40, whereas a three month PPC will cost you £29.10 and a 12 month PPC £104.00.
Note: You must be resident in England to purchase a PPC from us. Some people can get free prescriptions on age, income or medical grounds. Check the other pages in the help with health costs area to see if you can get free prescriptions before buying a PPC. Your browser must support 128-bit encryption to buy a PPC using our on-line applications. 
Direct Debit - the most convenient way to pay
The most convenient way to pay for a 12 month PPC is by Direct Debit, which allows you to spread the cost over 10 monthly instalments. By using this option we can also normally automatically renew your PPC. You would not have to worry about forgetting to renew your PPC.
Once your Direct Debit is set up, we will send you an advance notice letter showing the amount we will debit from your bank or building society account each month. We will then collect that amount without you having to do a thing. You cannot choose the date of the month that your first instalment will be collected, but the date of the month can be changed once the first instalment is paid. You should expect to receive your PPC seven to 10 working days after your first payment has been collected.
What a PPC covers
A PPC covers you for all of your own NHS prescriptions, no matter how many items you need.
Before your PPC arrives
If you have to pay a prescription charge while you are waiting for your PPC, you may get a refund as long as you have an NHS receipt and refund form FP57. The pharmacist or dispensing doctor can only issue an FP57 at the time you pay the prescription charge - they cannot issue you one later. You can claim the prescription charge(s) back up to three months after paying. The FP57 tells you what to do. But remember the PPC itself can only be backdated by one month.