I heard
some youths talking about “borrowing” money from Airtel. Surprised, I moved
closer to see if they had found a crooked way of getting credit without paying
for it. They said “No” and that it was legitimate and a friend of theirs
introduced it to them 3 days ago and that it worked.
Well I
said if it was true, that would really be magnanimous of Airtel. I then browsed
the Airtel Nigeria website to find out if such a service existed and I found it
– Airtel Talk Time Advance. I think this is truly a first and quite interesting
that Nigerians would be trusted with such a product.
Airtel Talk Time Advance service is a service that enables
customers to request for advance airtime (credit) without physically recharging
their airtime balance. The customer is required to send a request through a
zero-rated code *500# which will provide all the denomination of airtime
available to lend.
Use
of service is only by customer’s request. A pre-qualified Airtel customer
simply initiates a request by dialing *500# and his/her line (MSISDN) is
credited with requested airtime which can be used for voice calls (on-net and
off-net), SMS and Data.
The
borrowed airtime credit is deducted when the customer recharges his/her line.
The denominations of airtime available for lending on the Airtel Talk Time
Advance service are: N50, N100, N200 and N500.
Users
borrow denominations they qualify for directly by dialing:
*500*50#
for N50 airtime
*500*100# for N100 airtime
*500*200# for N200 airtime
*500*500# for N500 airtime
Please
note that there is a 10% service charge for any amount borrowed. The 10%
service charge is deducted directly from the borrowed credit implying that if a
customer borrows N50, he will only get N45.
I wonder
if some people may use a SIM card, borrow money and throw away the SIM card.
Note that to get another SIM card you will have to register the SIM card and
you have to provide your personal details. So if you are thinking of loopholes,
don’t bother; it is not worth it. But I do belive it is a good product that
will help in times of emergency.
Check out
the Airtel Nigeria for more information.
