Smartphones have truly become everyone’s lifeline in today's world. One feels like a fish out of water in the event of a sudden blackout due to a low balance of mobile talk-time, SMS, or data. Here comes the idea of temporary borrowing from your telecom operator.
Can we afford to remain offline for long just because of a cash crunch at any point in time? Since the world has become a global village, communication happens instantly and connects different sections of the world.
Today's smartphone can do many things that used to be exclusively done on a laptop or desktop PC.
With adequate mobile data balance, we can afford to continue an urgent official zoom meeting or video call with an employee. Airtel allows you to stay connected throughout the presentation/talk through their special loan program.
Airtel is one of India's biggest mobile network operators, having a wide subscriber base. In today's highly competitive market, no operator can afford to lose a customer by letting him switch to a competitor.
Hence, they facilitate you with two advance credit programs - one for an advance Talktime loan and the other for an advance data loan (3G/4G), if your balance has gone critically low for sustaining calls or surfing the net.
Remember, such a loan is refundable along with a service charge governed by specific terms and conditions. Such a loan enables you to make a call in an emergency when your balance has gone low. Let's know it in detail.
You can get an advance credit of INR 10 subject to the following terms and conditions.
An Airtel USSD (unstructured supplementary service data) code *144*10# or *14/# is to be dialed from your mobile running an Airtel sim for this. The same can be alternately done by calling the number 52141 if it is a prepaid sim.
You must be using the particular Airtel sim for at least 3 months (90 days, to be specific). Else you are not eligible for such credit.
Your Airtel main account balance must have gone below INR 5.
You are liable to pay a service charge for such credit.
The loan amount will be automatically debited from your main account balance on the next recharge.
You must not have any previous outstanding balance.
There are two ways to get such a credit balance.
1. Via USSD dialing
2.Via Airtel Thanks app
The user should dial Airtel USSD code *144*10# or *14/# to avail of the Talktime loan.
Users will be presented with three denomination options on their mobile screen- INR 10, INR 30, and INR 50.
After choosing the required denomination for the estimated call time on loan, the user is prompted to press 1 to submit the request.
USSD code for May 2022 for Airtel advance Talktime loan is *121*7# followed by 7
You have to go to Google Play Store on your mobile, then download and install the Airtel Thanks app first.
Launch the app and log in to your user account using OTP received on mobile.
Go to the 'Services' menu and select 'Advance Talktime.'
Select the required denomination of advance Talktime needed from INR 10, INR 30, and INR 50
In the event of a low balance, Airtel customers can get an advance mobile data loan of 80 MB (2G) or 80 MB (3G/4G) against INR 27, which remains valid for 2 days. Data credit loan is only available to prepaid customers.
The following methods need to be followed to avail data loans.
Go to the phone dialer.
Dial the required USSD code *141*567#
Wait for a message response from Airtel.
Select your option of the network (2G or 3G/4G).
Data loans can also be had by dialing 52141 from your Airtel mobile. Availing loan packs allows you to enjoy internet services until you recharge afresh or buy an internet pack.
Airtel once offered 5 GB free mobile data coupons to buy a new Airtel prepaid sim, which has been suspended.
Airtel used to allocate 5 GB data coupons to your user account, which you could consume at the time of exhaustion of data balance 1 GB at a time. This was almost equivalent to taking a data loan, the only difference being you were taking a loan or consuming from what had been issued free to you.
New Airtel prepaid subscribers may watch out for such offers of free mobile data, which the company rolls out from time to time.
The internet is replete with USSD codes claimed as 'trick codes' to get free mobile data issued against a prepaid Airtel sim. In times of low balance, it is up to the user to check and verify the authenticity of such claims to try out as an alternative to taking advance credit balance from the operator.
To sum it up, an Airtel user can take advantage of this facilitating feature of the network operator that can save them at the time of emergency when Talktime/data balance goes critically down, preventing sustenance of an imminent call/access to the internet. The user can dial the relevant USSD code from the phone dialer app or call the specific number to get the Talktime/data on the loan needed to meet such an emergency. Alternatively, you can do the same from Airtel Thanks mobile app. You must remember that you have to recharge the sim to clear up any such loan where a service charge by the operator will be applicable. For example, Airtel will charge you INR 12 towards the payment of the advance Talktime loan of INR 10.
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