Help

How it works

1. Choose how long you need the number and pay. It’s a real US number, and it’s ready a few seconds later.
2. Enter it where you’re signing up. Tap the number to copy it. It copies the ten digits (like 6285550113), which is what most US forms want. If a form asks for the country code, use “Copy with +1” underneath.
3. Wait on the number’s page. When the text arrives, the code shows up large; tap it to copy. You don’t need to refresh, and you can leave and come back: the text waits for you.

The number is only yours while you have it. Its texts go only to your account, and you can open it on any phone or computer you sign in on.

When you’re charged

When you get a number, we hold the price on your card. A hold isn’t a charge: your bank sets the money aside, and it may show as “pending”.

We take the payment when the first text arrives, or 24 hours after you got the number, whichever comes first. If we couldn’t get you a number at all, we release the hold and nothing is charged; your bank can take a few days to remove a pending amount.

Extensions and renewals are charged straight away. Prices are in US dollars: 1 day $3.99, 1 week $7.99, 1 month $12.99, 1 year $34.99.

Getting your money back

If a number hasn’t received any texts, you can cancel it from its page, from 5 minutes after you got it until 24 hours after. When you cancel, we ask the company that supplies our numbers to cancel it too.

They usually accept, and then all of your money comes back: the hold is released, or, if the payment was already taken, it’s refunded to your card, which usually shows within 5 to 10 days. Now and then they refuse. When that happens the number stays yours, it keeps working until its end date, and its page tells you straight away. We can’t refund money our supplier hasn’t returned to us, so we never promise a refund before they’ve answered.

Once a number has received a text, it has done its job, so it can’t be cancelled for a refund. The full rules are in our refund policy.

What a number can’t do

• It can’t send texts or reply to them.
• It can’t make or receive calls, so a code sent by voice call won’t reach you.
• Picture messages (MMS) may not come through. Codes are almost always plain texts, which do.
• It’s a US number. Services that only accept numbers from another country won’t take it.

Apps that won’t send to it

Most apps and websites send their codes to our numbers. A few check what kind of number they’re sending to and refuse numbers that aren’t from a mobile carrier’s own customers. Some banks, payment apps and dating apps do this. We can’t tell in advance which ones will, and it can change.

If an app says the number isn’t valid, or the code never comes: check you entered the number as the form asked (with or without +1), ask the app to send the code again, then wait a couple of minutes. If it still doesn’t arrive and the number has had no texts, cancel it within 24 hours to ask for your money back.

When a number ends

It stops receiving texts at the time shown on its page. The texts it received stay in your account for 7 days after that, then they’re deleted for good.

After it ends, the number can be given to someone else. If you used it for an account you’ll sign in to again, for example on a new phone, keep the number longer, or change the account to a number you own before this one ends. We email you before a number ends.

Auto-renew

Auto-renew is off unless you turn it on, at checkout or on the number’s page. When it’s on, the number renews by the same length of time at the price you first paid, even if our prices go up later. We email you before each renewal with the date and the exact amount, and you can turn it off at any time before then.

If the payment is declined, we try your other saved cards, tell you, and try once more before the number ends. If nothing works, the number ends and you don’t owe anything. A one-day number can’t renew by a day; it can renew by a week or longer.

Talk to a person

Write to [email protected]. Tell us the number (or the last four digits) and what happened. A person reads every email, usually within a day.

Never send us a code you received, or your card number. We’ll never ask for either.