Table 10. Prison and jail phone companies' inactive account policies, 2021
For the sourcing on each of these independent rate surveys, see the methodology in State of Phone Justice 2022.
Policies in this table were collected by the Prison Policy Initiative in 2022, chiefly from public-facing language on provider websites and from providers’ filings with government agencies.
| Carrier | Inactivity Period | Policy Language | Source |
| CPC | Unknown | Unknown | N/A |
| Encartele | None | Encartele treats prepayments as advance “purchases” of data. The company’s terms state that “For data that is purchased and not used, Encartele allows you to sell back your data at the price then in effect. If you agree to sell back your unused data at the price then in effect, funds will be paid via check sent to you in the mail.” | Terms of Service |
| GTL | 180 days | Under the settlement agreement approved in early September 2022 (in in Githieya v. GTL (U.S. Dist. Ct., N.D. Ga., Case No. 15-cv-986)), “GTL shall adopt a baseline policy that lengthens the period of time before the Inactivity Policy will be applied to any AdvancePay Account from 90 days to 180 days nationwide.” (The terms of the Inactivity Policy itself have not been announced yet.) | Githieya settlement (see Exhibit 1 in our August 2022 filing to the FCC) |
| HomeWAV | Unknown | No inactivity policy found. Customer website states “All refunds are subject to a $7.50 processing fee. Refunds are at the discretion of HomeWAV.” | Refund Request form |
| ICSolutions | 6 months | “Prepaid Account phone services expire six months from the date of your last purchase (funding) to the account, unless otherwise required by state law. In other words, if you do not fund the account for a period of six months, you will forfeit any funds remaining the account.” | Frequently Asked Question #13 |
| NCIC | Unknown | NCIC’s website states that “available minutes balance never expires,” but it is not clear whether customers can obtain a refund of unused prepaid funds. | Terms and Conditions |
| Pay Tel | 6 months | “In the event that Customer’s Prepaid Account has been inactive for a period of not less than six (6) months, and the Customer has not requested a refund, the Company may classify the account as inactive and transfer any Prepaid Account balance with more than a de minimis balance to an Inactive Prepaid Account Phone Card.” Prepaid phone cards are subject to a monthly maintenance fee of an unspecified amount. | Pay Tel Sept. 27, 2021 comments filed with the FCC |
| Prodigy | 6 months | “The Available Usage Balance expires six months from the date the last call is made on the Prepaid account. No refunds of unused balances will be issued after the expiration date.” | Oklahoma Tariff § 3.4.1 |
| Securus | 180 days | “AdvanceConnect account holders have 180 days from the date of the last call received on the AdvanceConnect account to request a refund of any unused balance.” | AdvanceConnect Terms and Conditions |
