How to Top Up Your Balance

Your balance is the money on your CallTuv account that pays for your calls. When the balance is empty, calls can't be made - so "topping up" simply means adding money to it. It takes under a minute, and whatever you add never expires; it stays on your account until you use it.

One thing to know up front: topping up is a team owner action. If someone added you to their team, they handle the credit for everyone - you don't need this guide, just ask them.

Topping up on the website (recommended)

This is the easiest and most flexible way to add credit:

1. Open your internet browser, go to calltuv.com, and sign in if needed.
2. Click Balance in the menu. You'll see your current balance and, below it, the top-up choices.
3. Choose an amount. There are four ready-made buttons - $5, $10, $25, or $50 - or you can type any amount of your own between $5 and $500 into the custom amount box. Not sure how much? $10 is the most popular choice, and you can always add more later.
4. If CallTuv sent you a discount code in an email, type it into the promo code field now - the discount shows immediately. (More about codes in Using Promo Codes.)
5. Click the payment button. A secure checkout page opens, run by Stripe - a trusted payment company used by millions of businesses worldwide. Pay with your credit or debit card, or with Apple Pay or Google Pay if your device has them - those skip typing card details entirely.
6. After the payment completes you're returned to CallTuv, your new balance appears right away, and a receipt is emailed to you automatically (more on invoices here).

Paying in your own currency

CallTuv prices everything in US dollars, but you don't have to pay in dollars. On the secure checkout page, Stripe looks at where you are and shows the total in your local currency - pounds, euros, rupees, Australian dollars, and many more - so you can see exactly what leaves your account. If you'd rather pay in US dollars, there's a switch on that same page to change it back.

Which is better? Paying in your own currency uses Stripe's exchange rate, which includes a small conversion fee (a few percent). Paying in US dollars avoids that fee, but then your bank does the conversion at its own rate and may add a foreign-transaction fee of its own. For most people the difference is small either way - pick whichever you find clearer.

Whichever you choose, the credit arrives on your balance in US dollars, and your invoice is in US dollars too. Note that the local-currency choice appears only on the website checkout page: one-click top-ups with a saved card and top-ups in the mobile app are charged in US dollars, and your bank converts.

Those are the payment methods available - PayPal, bank transfer, and cash aren't among them, and Can I Top Up with PayPal? explains the ways around that if PayPal is where your money sits.

If the payment button seems stuck or your card is refused, don't worry - Payment Not Going Through at Checkout walks through the usual causes.

The quickest way: the top-up panel

When you're short of credit you don't have to go to the Balance page at all. A small panel slides up from the bottom of the screen with everything you need to pay:

1. On the Call screen, if your balance can't cover the call you'll see a red Insufficient balance note with a Top up button next to it. Click it.
2. The panel opens over whatever you were doing. Pick $5, $10, $25, or $50 - $10 is already chosen for you.
3. If you had a phone number typed into the dialer, the panel tells you roughly how many minutes that amount buys to that country, so you can judge the right size.
4. Click Continue to payment and the same secure Stripe checkout opens.
5. When you're done paying you land back on the Call screen, with your number still in the dialer and your new credit ready - so you can press call straight away.

This panel is for your first top-up, so you can start calling in as few taps as possible. It appears wherever you start from that first time, including the small + button beside your balance at the top right of the screen.

After that first payment your card is saved, and every later top-up takes you to the full Balance page instead - which is the better place for it, because that's where your saved card, one-click payment, promo code box and billing details live.

Even faster: one-click top-ups with a saved card

Once you've paid by card once, future top-ups get delightfully short: your card is saved securely, so next time you just pick the amount and press Confirm Payment - no checkout page, no retyping card details. One click and the credit is on your balance.

Some banks - including every bank in India - ask you to approve each card payment yourself. If yours does, a small window from your bank opens on the page after you press the button. Approve the payment there (with the code sent by SMS, or in your banking app) and the credit lands on your balance as soon as you do. If you close that window without approving, nothing is charged and you can simply try again.

A promise worth putting in writing: nothing charges your card on its own unless someone on your team switched it on. Every top-up happens because you pressed the button. The only automatic charges are auto top-up, which runs only if it was switched on and which you can switch off anytime, and the monthly fee for a rented US number, which renews until it is cancelled.

Topping up in the mobile app

The iPhone and Android apps take payment the same way the website does - securely through Stripe:

1. Open the CallTuv app, go to the Balance tab, and tap Add credits (you'll also be offered it if you try to call with an empty balance).
2. Choose an amount - $5, $10, $25, or $50. Underneath you'll see roughly how many minutes that buys to the country you pick, so you can judge the right amount.
3. Got a discount code? Tap Got a promo code? and enter it - the discount appears straight away.
4. Tap the Continue button, which shows the exact total you'll pay.
5. A secure payment sheet slides up. Pay with a card, or with Apple Pay or Google Pay if your phone has them set up. You can also tap the camera icon to scan your card instead of typing the number.
6. The app confirms the payment and your new balance appears. A receipt is emailed to you, exactly as with a website payment.

Using an older version of the app? Before this change, app top-ups went through the App Store or Google Play instead. Those still work perfectly - if you see the familiar App Store or Google Play confirmation box rather than the payment sheet described above, you're on the older version, and nothing is wrong. Updating the app gives you the newer payment screen, promo codes, and proper invoices.

You can review past top-ups anytime: open the Balance tab and tap Top-up History. It shows every top-up on the account together - ones paid in the app and ones paid on the website.

Never run out in the middle of a call

If the balance can't cover the next minute of a call, the call ends on its own. Two easy ways to make sure that never happens to you:

• Turn on auto top-up - CallTuv then automatically adds $10 whenever your balance drops below $5, so it simply never runs dry.
• Keep in mind that starting any call needs enough credit for at least 3 minutes at that destination's price - explained in Minimum Balance to Start a Call.

Managing your saved cards

On the Balance page there's a button called Manage Payment Methods. It opens a secure page where you can add a new card, remove an old one, or choose which card is your main ("default") one - that default card is the one auto top-up uses, and the one a rented US number's monthly fee moves to (a card typed in is used ahead of an Apple Pay or Google Pay one).

In the app you can do the same: Balance tab, then Payment Methods under Billing & payments. Full instructions: Managing Saved Payment Methods.

Where the money goes

Every dollar you top up becomes calling credit on your team's shared balance, and every call by any team member draws from it. You can always see exactly what was spent, by whom, in your call history - and what each minute costs in Understanding Rates and Per-Minute Billing.