You need to make sure enough minutes remain on your phone to keep making calls. You will be the one responsible for noticing when your phone is low on minutes. There will either be a screen display on the phone showing how many minutes remain, or you can call a toll-free number to hear this information. You can then purchase more minutes, often in the form of a prepaid phone card. This card will contain a scratch-off pin # along with the toll-free number to call where you will be given instructions on how to add these minutes. Depending on your wireless provider, you may need to call from a land-line phone in order to add your minutes. With some prepaid plans, you will need to have your cell phone with you when adding minutes. In these cases, this is necessary because you will be asked to enter some code numbers directly into your cell phone's keypad as they are recited to you. There is also the option of purchasing minutes online from your wireless provider's website using a credit card.
How often must you purchase more minutes?
You can purchase minutes as often as you need them, but the important thing to realize is that you may have to purchase minutes even when you do not need them. A prepaid plan user must purchase and add more minutes to the phone before the next due date or expiration date. This is a date set by the wireless provider and is usually 60 to 90 days from the last time minutes were purchased. If more minutes are not purchased and added by this date, the phone will become inactive. If the phone is left inactive for a certain period of time, the user may lose his current phone number and need to be issued a different one should he decide to reactivate the phone.