Why Your Included Minutes Are Not Being Used

Minutes belong to a number, not to your account

An included-minutes allowance is attached to one specific phone number on your account. It is not a shared pool that every line draws from.

So if you have more than one number, or a number plus an internal extension, only the line carrying the allowance gets the included minutes. Calls made from any other line are charged per minute, even though it is the same account and the same bill.

How to check which line has them

1. Log in to the portal and go to Account then Plan.
2. Look for a line described as your number followed by minutes, for example 61XXXXXXXXX - minutes. That is the number the allowance sits on.
3. Now go to Account then Records and look at the calls being charged. The Billed Number column tells you which line each call was billed to.

If the charged calls show a different number or an extension, that is your answer.

The most common cause: a divert

When an incoming call is diverted out to another number such as a mobile, the outbound leg is billed to whichever line performs the divert. If your call flow hands the call to an internal extension and the extension dials the mobile, the call is billed to the extension, which does not carry your allowance.

The fix is to set the divert on the number that holds the minutes, so the leg is billed there and draws on the allowance.

What to do next

If the calls are coming from the right line and your allowance still is not being used, send us the account number and one or two example calls with their date and time. We can look at how each call was rated and tell you exactly what happened.

If you have several lines and want the allowance to cover all of them, that is a different product to a per-number allowance. Email [email protected] and we will go through the options with you.