Your minutes
never expire. Ever.
You bought those minutes. They're yours. No 90-day deadline, no monthly reset, no forfeit if you don't use them fast enough. Buy once, call whenever.
How long other services keep your balance
Most calling services set expiration dates on credits. Unused minutes at deadline are forfeited — and you bought them.
Skype Credits
Forfeited if inactive for 6 months
Viber Out Credits
Full balance lost at expiration
Calling cards (most)
Some expire on first use within 90 days
Google Voice
Account can be reclaimed by Google
Telvio minutes
No expiration, no activity required
Why we built it this way
Expiration dates on credits exist to generate revenue for the service provider, not to benefit users. When your balance expires, you lose money you already paid, and the service keeps it.
Telvio's business model doesn't depend on expiration revenue. You buy minutes at a fair price, use them at your pace, and top up when you're ready. The incentive is to make you happy enough to buy again — not to create urgency around an artificial deadline.
This makes Telvio particularly useful for occasional callers: people who travel a few times per year, expats who call home irregularly, or anyone who needs a reliable calling option without committing to a subscription.
No forfeiture
Every minute you buy stays available until you use it. There is no mechanism to forfeit your balance, no matter how long you wait.
No activity requirements
Some services reset your balance if you don't make a call within a set period. Telvio places no activity requirements on your account.
Balance accumulates
Top-up any time and your new minutes add to your existing balance. No need to use up your current minutes before buying more.
Perfect for occasional callers
Travelers
Buy 120 minutes before a two-week trip. Use 40 minutes calling home. The remaining 80 minutes wait for your next trip — no deadline.
Expats
Call family on birthdays, holidays, and emergencies. No subscription needed for sporadic calling. Buy when you need more.
Business callers
Keep a balance for client calls abroad. No monthly fee when you have a slow month. No panic about credits expiring during a vacation.
No subscriptions. No auto-renewal.
Telvio uses one-time in-app purchases through the App Store and Google Play. Nothing recurring, ever.
What you get
- One-time purchase — charged once
- Minutes added to balance immediately
- Balance visible on app home screen
- Top up any time with another package
- Balance never forfeited
What you never get
- Monthly subscription fee
- Auto-renewal charge
- Expiration date on your balance
- Activity requirements to keep minutes
- Surprise charges of any kind
Balance and expiration questions
Do Telvio minutes really never expire?
Yes. Once you purchase a minute package, those minutes stay on your account permanently. There is no expiration date, no activity requirement to keep them alive, and no deadline after which they are forfeited.
How do I check my remaining minute balance?
Your current balance is shown on the home screen of the Telvio app. Before each call, the app also displays the per-minute rate for your destination and your current balance so you can see how many calls you have left.
Can I top up without losing my existing balance?
Yes. When you purchase a new minute package, the minutes are added to your current balance. If you have 15 minutes remaining and buy the Starter package (30 minutes), you will have 45 minutes total.
Is there a subscription or auto-renewal?
No. Telvio uses one-time in-app purchases only. There is no subscription, no auto-renewal, and no recurring charge. You buy minutes when you want them and your account is never charged automatically.
What if I only call occasionally? Will my balance disappear?
No. Occasional callers benefit most from Telvio's no-expiration policy. Buy a package before a trip, use some minutes, and the remainder sits on your account waiting for your next need — months or years later.
What happens to my minutes if I delete and reinstall the app?
Your purchased minutes are tied to your App Store or Google Play purchase history, not to the app installation. When you reinstall Telvio, use the "Restore Purchases" option inside the app and your minutes will be restored within seconds.
Buy minutes once. Use them whenever.
No subscriptions, no expiration dates. Your balance is yours to keep.
Download TelvioExpiry is a price increase you do not see
Several large calling services expire unused credit after a fixed period — 180 days is the common figure — and some charge a monthly maintenance fee against a balance that has been dormant. Both are disclosed, both are legal, and both are almost never factored into a comparison.
The arithmetic is worth doing once. If you buy $10 of credit, use $6 of it over five months and lose the rest, your effective rate was two-thirds higher than the one advertised. If your calling comes in bursts — a family event, a move, an illness — the loss is larger, because the pattern that triggers expiry is exactly the pattern of occasional important calls.
There is no version of this where the customer benefits. It exists because unredeemed balances are revenue, and because the disclosure sits in a paragraph nobody reads before buying.
What Telvio does instead
- Credit has no expiry date. A pack bought for one call in March is worth the same in November and the same three years later.
- There is no dormancy or maintenance fee. A balance that is not used is not eroded.
- There is no monthly minimum, so a month with no calls costs nothing.
- Topping up adds to the balance rather than resetting anything or starting a new clock.
- Nothing recurs, which means there is no subscription to cancel and nothing to forget you are paying for.
Why credit rather than a minute bundle
Packs are a dollar amount, spent at the destination's per-minute rate, rather than a pool of minutes. That distinction matters more than it looks.
A minute bundle has to assume a destination in order to be priced, so it either restricts where you can call or averages across countries whose real costs differ by a factor of fifty. Credit does neither: the same $4.99 buys hundreds of minutes to Mexico and a handful to a German mobile, and both are the true price of that call.
It also means we cannot offer a volume discount without being dishonest about it. A larger pack is more credit at the same per-country rate — there is no tier where the rate improves. Several competitors present a larger bundle as a better rate; where that is a genuine discount it is worth having, and where it is an averaging artefact it is not, and the two are hard to tell apart from outside.
What to check on any calling service
- 1
Find the expiry clause
It is usually in the terms rather than on the pricing page, and the phrase to search for is "expire", "validity" or "dormant". A service with no expiry says so prominently, because it is a selling point.
- 2
Check for a maintenance fee
A monthly charge against an idle balance is the same cost in a different shape, and it is more common on calling cards than on apps.
- 3
Check whether topping up resets the clock
On some services a new purchase extends the validity of the whole balance, which softens the effect. On others it does not, and the oldest credit expires on its original schedule.
- 4
Check what happens when you stop
If you leave a service, does the balance survive long enough to be worth returning for? This is the question that matters most in a market that consolidates as much as this one.
Bottom line
Credit that expires after 180 days is a price increase hidden in the terms: buy $10, use $6, and your real rate was two-thirds higher than advertised. It hits occasional callers hardest, which is most people.
Telvio credit has no expiry, no dormancy fee and no monthly minimum, and packs are a dollar balance rather than a minute bundle — so the same money buys the true number of minutes for whichever country you actually call.
Frequently asked questions
Do Telvio minutes expire?
No. Credit has no expiry date, no dormancy fee and no monthly minimum. A pack bought for one call keeps its value indefinitely, and topping up adds to the balance rather than starting a new clock.
Why do other services expire calling credit?
Because unredeemed balances are revenue. It is disclosed, usually in the terms rather than on the pricing page, and it is almost never included in a comparison — which is what makes it effective.
How much does expiry actually cost me?
If you buy $10 of credit and use $6 before it lapses, your effective rate was two-thirds higher than advertised. The loss is largest for people whose calling comes in bursts, which is the normal pattern for occasional important calls.
Is a bigger pack better value?
It is more credit at the same per-country rate — there is no tier where the rate improves, and we would rather say so than present averaging as a discount. Buy the size that matches how much you expect to spend, since none of it expires.
What is the difference between credit and a minute bundle?
Credit is a dollar amount spent at the destination's real rate. A minute bundle has to assume a destination to be priced, so it either restricts where you can call or averages across countries whose costs differ by a factor of fifty.
What happens to my balance if I stop using the app?
Nothing. It is not eroded by fees and it does not lapse. That matters in a market where services close: a balance that never expires survives a service you stop using, and one with a 180-day clock does not.
