Credits and payment
Talkif is prepaid: you add money, calls draw it down. This page is the mechanics of adding it and keeping it topped up. How the balance is spent — buckets, the $1.00 admission minimum, what happens at zero — is in Credits and pricing; if you haven’t read that, the rules below will feel arbitrary.
Topping up
Billing → Overview → Add balance. Choose an amount between $10 and $10,000; pay with a saved card, or through a hosted checkout if you haven’t saved one yet. The balance updates the moment the payment succeeds — no invoice cycle, no waiting.
Purchased balance never expires and is spent last, after any subscription, promotional or bonus credit.
Payment methods
Cards are handled by Stripe; Talkif stores only a reference and the card’s last digits. Billing → Payment Methods lets you add cards and bank accounts, label them (“Corporate Visa”), and choose a default — the one used for manual top-ups by default and for auto-recharge. 3-D Secure is supported for cards that require it.
Each method carries a health status from its last charge:
A successful charge resets a method to active. Auto-recharge never attempts expired or blocked methods.
Auto-recharge
The single most useful thing to switch on. When the balance falls below a threshold, Talkif charges your default card for a fixed amount — so a busy campaign never stalls on an empty balance and a long call never suspends the account.
Billing → Overview → Auto-recharge. Pick a threshold above your biggest plausible hour of spend and an amount that covers a day; you can always change both.
When a recharge fails
The charge is retried on a schedule — immediately, then after 1, 3 and 5 days. At most 5 recharge attempts run per day, so a broken card can’t be hammered. If every retry fails, auto-recharge stops trying for that shortfall and the balance behaves as if auto-recharge were off: calls are refused below $1.00 and the account is suspended if it goes negative. Fix the card (or top up manually) and it resumes.
Auto-recharge and suspension
With auto-recharge on, a charge that takes the balance to zero triggers a recharge instead of a suspension. The recharge is what keeps you calling — which is why the retry schedule matters: if the card fails on the first attempt, the account will be suspended until a retry succeeds or you top up by hand.
When a manual payment fails
The balance simply doesn’t change; nothing is charged twice. The method’s status shows the decline reason. Common causes: a card limit, 3-D Secure not completed, a bank blocking an unfamiliar merchant. Retry with the same card after the bank clears it, or use another.
Disputes
If you dispute a charge with your bank, the disputed amount plus a $15 processing fee is held from your balance while the dispute is open. If it resolves in your favour the hold is released; if not, it’s deducted. Contact support before disputing — a billing error is fixed far faster as an adjustment.