How to Borrow Airtime from Telkom
Are you looking to borrow airtime from Telkom? If yes, then you have come to the right place. Telkom is South Africa’s biggest landline company. It however, has a mobile telecommunications arm. And that arm has been growing steadily over the past few years. If you are a Telkom Mobile South Africa customer, you may be looking to do a Telkom Emergency Top Up. The following is how to do it;
Steps to Borrow Telkom Airtime
The following are the steps to borrow airtime on Telkom;
- On your Telkom Mobile phone, dial *180#.
- Next, you need to select the Emergency Top Up option.
- From there, you are required to opt into Emergency Top Up.
- Finally, you choose R10 for the amount of airtime that you wish to borrow.
What’s the code to borrow airtime from Telkom?
The Telkom Emergency Top Up code is *180#. That’s the code that you use to borrow airtime from Telkom.
How much airtime can I borrow from Telkom?
There is a set amount for the airtime that you can borrow from Telkom at any given point in time. At the moment, you only have the option to borrow R10. That may not be much, but it should probably be enough to get you to make a couple of calls in an emergency.
Who is this service available to?
- The facility to borrow airtime, which is referred to as Telkom Emergency Top Up, is available to Topup and Prepaid Telkom customers.
- On top of that, the facility will only be available to people who have been using Telkom Mobile for at least 6 months. So, if you have just joined Telkom, or if you have just ported from MTN to Telkom, then you will not be able to use this service.
- Another requirement is that you should have recharged your Telkom line with at least R10 during those previous 6 months.
- Your line needs to be RICA registered for you to qualify to receive emergency Telkom Airtime Credit.
Do I get charged when I borrow money?
Yes, each time that you borrow airtime from Telkom, you get charged R1. So this is something that you need to keep in mind. It’s not much, but it can add up if you get emergency Telkom airtime credit every now and again.
How does Telkom get back its money?
Some people borrow emergency airtime from Telkom, then they forget all about it. After a while, they get surprised when Telkom starts deducting money from their airtime. Fact is, if you borrow Telkom airtime, you will have to pay for it as later.
In this case, later is as soon as you recharge your phone. So, if you borrow R10 today, and you later recharge your phone tomorrow, Telkom will immediately take R10 from the amount with which you have recharged your phone. If you topup your phone with less than the R10 rand, then, Telkom will take everything. In total, you will have to pay back R11, including the R1 service fee.
Can Emergency Telkom Airtime be used for anything?
Some people are worried about this. They want to know whether they can airtime borrowed from Telkom to buy data as an example. The good news is that yes, Telkom emergency airtime can be used for any transaction. You can buy data, call or SMS using this airtime. So, you are not limited in what you can do.
Can Borrowed Telkom Airtime be transferred to other Telkom users?
Like most other telecommunication companies in Africa, Telkom has a facility to transfer airtime from one number to another on the same network. Some people want to know whether the Airtime that they borrow from Telkom can be transferred to other Telkom users.
The answer is yes, emergency Telkom credit can be transferred to other people on the Telkom network. So, you don’t have to worry. Of course, this airtime cannot be transferred to people on other networks.
Why is Telkom Emergency Top Up Useful?
We will close this article with some motivation. Why should anybody bother borrowing Telkom Airtime? Well, as the name of the facility implies, most people do it in emergencies. Perhaps you have run out of airtime while in the middle of a call to your boyfriend or to your girlfriend.
Whatever the case, this is a useful facility to have on your fingertips. It means that you never have to worry about being stranded. Borrowing airtime is something that’s possible on most networks on the African continent.