Verify Your Own Number as Caller ID

Normally, people you call see a number from CallTuv's shared pool on their screen. If you'd rather they see your own number - so your family recognizes you instantly, and can call you back on your regular phone - you can set that up once, and it applies to every call afterwards.

The setup is called verification: a short, free, automated phone call that proves the number really belongs to you. It takes about a minute. Here's the whole thing, slowly. (For the bigger picture of why calling with your own number matters, we have a page on exactly that.)

What you'll need

• The phone itself. You'll receive a call on the number you're verifying, so have that phone next to you, switched on, with normal reception. If it's the same phone you run the CallTuv app on - that's fine, no second device needed.
• A little credit on your account. Verification itself is free, but the account needs a positive balance to begin - see How to Top Up Your Balance if yours is empty. On the website, opening the setup without credit shows a lock with an Add credit button, and the setup opens as soon as you top up. On a team, only the owner can add credit, so a member is asked to check with them.
• Your number in international format. That means starting with a plus sign and the country code - for example +14155552671 for a US number or +972501234567 for an Israeli one. If you normally write your number starting with 0, drop that 0 and put the country code in front instead.

The verification, step by step

1. Open the caller ID settings:
   • On the website: open the Call page and click the caller ID button at the top of the dialer (it says Caller ID: and the number your calls show now, as a flag and the last four digits). In the list that opens, click Use a number you own.
   • In the app: tap Settings, then Caller ID, then add your number.
2. Enter your phone number:
   • On the website: the box has two parts. On the left is the country, shown as a flag and a code like +972 - click it to pick your country. On the right, type the rest of your number. If you'd rather paste the whole number with the + at the front, that works too: the country switches by itself. A green Valid line under the box tells you the number looks right. Then press Call me now.
   • In the app: type your number in international format (with the +) and press Call me now.
3. Your code appears, and within a few seconds your phone rings. The incoming call comes from +1 415 723 4000.
   • On the website the 6-digit code shows as soon as you press Call me now, usually before the phone even rings. Below it, a short list follows the call as it happens and tells you what to do at each point: Calling your phone..., then Your phone is ringing, then You answered the call and Enter the code now once you pick up.
   • In the app the code appears as soon as the call starts ringing.
4. Answer the call. A voice asks you to enter the verification code.
5. On your phone's keypad (the number buttons you'd use to dial), type the 6 digits shown on your CallTuv screen.
6. That's it - the call ends, CallTuv confirms the number is verified, and it becomes your caller ID immediately. Everyone you call from now on sees your number.

Verifying on the same phone you're reading this on? The incoming call will cover the screen, so read the code before you answer. If it slips your mind, you can switch back to the browser during the call without hanging up.

If your phone never rang, don't worry - it's usually a spam-blocking app quietly intercepting the call, and it's easy to fix: Didn't Receive the Verification Call?

If the call arrived but your code wasn't accepted

Sometimes the call comes through, you type the code carefully, and the voice still says it's wrong. That is frustrating, and it is very often not your mistake.

When you press a key during a call, your phone sends a little tone down the line. On some mobile connections a few of those tones get lost on the way, so only part of your code reaches us. From your side you pressed six digits. On our side only three or four arrived, which of course doesn't match.

CallTuv now tells you which of the two actually happened, right on the screen where you started:

• "We only heard part of your key presses" - your tones are getting lost. The tips below fix this.
• "We did not hear any key presses" - nothing arrived at all. Check that you're using the phone's keypad, not the CallTuv screen.
• "That code did not match" - all six digits arrived, but they weren't the right ones. Look at your CallTuv screen again and read the code carefully.

Here is what reliably helps, in the order worth trying:

1. Press each key slowly, about one per second. Rushing is the single most common cause - the tones run into each other and get dropped.
2. Take the call off speakerphone and hold the phone to your ear normally.
3. Turn off WiFi calling in your phone settings, then start a new verification. Calls carried over WiFi lose these tones far more often than normal mobile calls.
4. Use the phone's own keypad during the call. On many phones the number buttons are hidden once a call connects - look for a Keypad button on the call screen and tap it first. Typing the code into the CallTuv screen won't work; the code has to be pressed on the phone.
5. If it still fails twice, try a different phone if you have one handy. A number verified from any phone works the same afterwards.

You get a few tries within each call, and if you run out, simply press Call me now again for a fresh code. Nothing is charged for these attempts, and nothing is held against your account.

Limits, so nothing surprises you

• One verified number per account. Want a different one later? Remove the current number first.
• Five verification calls per hour. If several attempts fail in a row, take a break and try again later.
• Each attempt's code is valid for 30 minutes - after that, simply start again.
• After removing a number you can add the same one back straight away, but a different number can't be verified for 24 hours. Removing won't fix how a number displays, so don't remove it just to "refresh" things.

A few destinations where your own number can't be used

Some countries have strict rules against showing a local number on a call arriving from abroad, because scammers use that trick to appear local. The phone companies there simply refuse those calls. CallTuv checks for this before you dial, so you find out in advance instead of paying for a call that never arrives.

• Singapore. Calls to Singapore can't display your own number at all, no matter which country your number is from. This one is the strictest.

• Finland, Czechia, Thailand, India, Malaysia, and Hungary. Here it's narrower: you can't use a number from that same country to call it. A Finnish number calling Finland won't go through - but a Finnish number calling Sweden is perfectly fine, and so is a US number calling Finland.

• Australia, when your own number is Australian too. This one is softer and less predictable. Australian phone companies are allowed to refuse a call arriving from abroad that shows an Australian number, but they don't always do it, so CallTuv can't warn you in advance. When they do refuse, the call shows as No answer in History after a few seconds and nobody is charged. If that keeps happening on calls to Australia, use Shared Numbers for those calls - Why Your Call Won't Connect has the details.

Everywhere else, your verified number works normally.

On the website, type the number as usual and the dialer explains it right there, in place of the price - for example: "Due to Singapore anti-spoofing regulations, calls to Singapore cannot use a custom caller ID. Please use a shared number." In the app, the price stays as a dash and the green call button stays greyed out - if that happens on a call to one of the countries above, this restriction is the reason.

The fix takes a second: switch to Shared Numbers for that call, and switch back afterwards. Your verification is not affected - it stays on your account, and every other destination keeps showing your number.

Full instructions for switching are in Switching or Removing Your Caller ID, and Shared Numbers explains what the person you're calling sees instead.

After verifying

Your number now shows on calls from the website, the app, and the extension alike - it's an account-wide setting, set once. You can switch back to Shared Numbers any time without losing the verification, and switch forward again just as easily - see Switching or Removing Your Caller ID.

Two honest footnotes:

• Using your own caller ID may change the per-minute price for some destinations. Nothing hidden: the dialer always shows the exact price that applies before you press call.
• On rare routes, the receiving phone company may still hide or re-label your number - it can show as "Private" or get a spam label. That's the carrier's doing, not a problem with your verification - explained in Verified Number Showing as Private or Spam.