Prepaid credit and top-ups

Your workspace has a prepaid credit balance next to your plan. Credit pays for anything beyond your plan's included minutes, and for phone numbers your plan does not include. Because it is paid in advance, you never get a surprise bill for extra usage. You can also use credit on its own, without a plan.

What credit pays for

While your plan still has minutes, calls and messages use those minutes and cost no credit.

What a minute costs from credit

These are the prices for a US local number. A minute costs more on a toll-free number, on a number in another country, or on an outgoing call to an expensive destination. To see the rate for each of your numbers, open Billing → Credit and expand Your per-minute rates. To price any country, use Call rates in the sidebar.

Add credit

Only the workspace owner can add credit.

1. Open Billing and select the Credit tab.
2. Under Add credit, choose an amount: $5, $10, $25, $50 or $100, or type your own amount in the last field.
3. Check the estimate below the amounts. It shows how many minutes the amount buys on each of your numbers, and how many months of number rentals it covers.
4. Click Add followed by the amount, for example Add $25.00.
5. Pay on the secure checkout page.

When the payment goes through, you return to Billing and the new balance is shown straight away. If you see "Payment received. Your balance updates in a moment", refresh the page after a minute.

Each top-up is a one-off card payment, not a subscription. You get an invoice and receipt for your records. Credit does not expire.

Note: There is no automatic top-up. Add credit before your balance runs low, especially if you rely on calls beyond your plan or rent extra numbers.

Check your balance

The Credit tab shows:

• Credit balance, with an estimate of how many minutes it buys on your numbers.
• A status badge: Active, Low (under $3) or Empty. A red dot on the Credit tab also warns you when the balance is low.
• Credit history: your recent top-ups, call charges, message charges and number rentals.

On the Subscription tab, Paid from your credit balance shows the extra minutes charged this period and what your phone numbers cost per month. For every call and message, see the usage report.

When credit runs out

Your plan's included minutes keep working as usual. Once those are used and your balance cannot pay for at least one more minute:

• Incoming calls are refused before they are answered. The workspace owner gets an email the first time this happens.
• Outgoing calls cannot be placed. You see "Your credit balance is empty, so calls beyond your plan cannot be placed. Add credit under Billing."
• A call in progress ends before it runs into a minute that cannot be paid for.
• Texts and chat messages are not sent, and the assistant stops replying to texts and chats. Unsent messages show "Not sent: no credit left for messages beyond the plan."
• Phone numbers due for renewal are released. Numbers are renewed from credit at the end of each month. If the balance is short, the owner gets a warning email a few days before. A number that cannot be renewed is released.

Important: A released number cannot be guaranteed to return. Keep enough credit to cover your number rentals every month.

Using credit without a plan

You can top up and use Ringhum with no subscription. Billing then shows Free trial as your current plan. Every minute and message is paid from credit at the pay-as-you-go price of $0.09 a minute, which is more than any plan charges. Browser test calls also work on credit alone. If you use Ringhum regularly, a plan is cheaper. See Plans, upgrades and cancelling.

Common questions

My balance went up after a call. When the phone company's final call length is shorter than first measured, the difference is returned to your balance. It appears in Credit history.

Who can see the balance? Owners, admins and members can see Billing, including the balance. Only the owner can add credit or change the plan.