Checking Red Pocket Mobile Balance

I've been using Red Pocket Mobile for a few years now whenever I go to the US and have already written a few blog entries on my experience using their service. Red Pocket Mobile has undergone a lot of changes since I last wrote about them back in 2009. Because of these changes, I've decided to write about one of the changes that based on Google seems to be getting a lot of search hits on my blog. This blog entry will cover checking your airtime balance with Red Pocket Mobile.

One of the most dramatic changes is that they have started to offer prepaid monthly plans. I won't discuss this in my blog because as an occasional visitor to the US, I use their pay as you go plan. However, the methods that I'm writing about in this blog entry should also apply to their prepaid monthly plans.

There used to be 3 ways of checking your balance with Red Pocket Mobile (2 work outside of coverage area and 1 works within coverage area). I will cover each of them as well as the new way to verify your airtime balance.

The first method of checking your airtime balance involves using the phone which has your Red Pocket Mobile SIM in it and key in a code (and press "Send" or "Call"). You must be in a Red Pocket Mobile coverage area in order for this method to work. The code is *777# . The phone will display the airtime balance remaining on your account as well as the expiry date for your account.

One of the 2 methods for obtaining the airtime balance on your Red Pocket Mobile account that work outside the coverage area (but in Canada/US) is by calling their customer service number at 1-888-993-3888 and speak with a customer service agent.

The other method for obtaining your airtime balance on your Red Pocket Mobile is to send an e-mail to Red Pocket Mobile's customer service e-mail address. Their e-mail address is CS at REDPOCKETMOBILE.COM. Replace the "at" with the "@" sign. I find that they reply normally within 1 hour but that depends on the time that you send the e-mail.

Recently Red Pocket Mobile created a webpage where you can get your balance easily. The webpage is: http://goredpocket.com/checkyouraccount. You are required to enter your phone number without any hyphens or brackets (ex: (123) 456-7890 -> 1234567890) and the last 4 digits from your SIM card's ICCID number.

You also have to enter the random graphical "words" in order for the webpage to give you your account balance. I've found that if you get most of the characters correct (since sometimes, some of the characters are hard to distinguish), the website will still give you your balance.

For me, I ran into a problem because my SIM card was worn out and I could not make out the ICCID number from the SIM card. I managed to still get the last 4 digits from my SIM card's ICCID number by inserting the SIM card into my phone and using one of the options in the phone (Blackberry Bold 9700) menu to display the information about the SIM card (part of the information that was displayed was the ICCID number). I tried to get the same information from my Samsung Nexus-S and my iPhone 3GS but neither phone displayed my SIM card's ICCID number in the menu option screens.

Now, whenever I want to obtain my Red Pocket Mobile balance (and I'm not in a Red Pocket Mobile coverage area), I go to their webpage and get my balance (along with the expiry date). It gives me the information quickly and I don't need to call their customer service number nor do I need to send them an e-mail.

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