Summary: how to buy SMS credits
Log into your Airship account
Go to Settings > SMS Credits
Enter the number of credits you want and a purchase reference
Click 'Purchase'
After this you'll see a message on the page saying "Your credits have been assigned to your account" and the credit balance will be updated.
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FAQS
Will I be notified if I run out of SMS credits?
Nope! This is important to know. At the moment, Airship doesn't have a built-in warning system to let you know if you are running low - or have run out - of SMS credits. In the future we hope to make this possible.
For now, we recommend you keep note of your SMS credits on the Settings > SMS credits page of your account.
The Airship developer team do get notified if an account has an SMS campaign send and has run out of credits - and we'll also let you know if this has happened - however it's best you are proactively aware of your own account's current credit balance and buy more as needed, to prevent delays to SMS campaign sends.
How long does it take to buy more SMS credits?
It's very quick! If you go to Settings > SMS Credits on your Airship account you only have to fill out a few things. Once you click 'Purchase' the credits will be added to your account immediately (or within a few seconds!).
Who can buy SMS credits on my account?
The Settings > SMS credits page is only accessible to users who have the permissions to visit that page.
Users who have "Purchase SMS credits" under their user permissions can access this page and buy credits. (Go to Settings > Users and Roles > Manage roles to find out who has access already).
If you want to remove user access from this page you might need to create a new user role with this permission removed and assign that role to the relevant users.
More info about this can be found on the guide linked below.
What is my current credit balance?
To find your account's current SMS credit balance go to Settings > SMS credits.
Here you'll see the credits currently available to use on the account. See picture below as an example.
If it says, for example, 13,959 this means you can send 13,959 SMS messages to your database.
If you are planning to send, for example, an SMS to 15,000 contacts on your database you will need to go Settings > SMS credits and buy more credits to ensure your SMS campaign doesn't have issues sending to all the contacts.
What happens if I send an SMS campaign but don't have enough credits?
Airship will send out SMS's until your account runs out of credit.
After this, Airship will stop sending SMS's and you will need to buy more credits from Settings > SMS credits for the remaining contacts to get their SMS.
How many credits should I buy?
You can buy as many credits (within the purchase limit for your account) as you think you'll need for any SMS campaigns you are doing.
The amount you want should be entered into the 'Credits' field on the Settings > SMS credits page. See picture below for reference.
We advise you check the Settings > SMS credits page on your Airship account before sending an SMS campaign and buy more if you think you will need them.
Can I buy more credits beyond the limit set?
Yep! When you go to Settings > SMS credits you will notice there's a section saying "You can buy up to...". See picture below as an example.
This number will change depending on your current credit balance.
If you need to buy more than what is available to purchase please reach out to Airship support (success@airship.co.uk) and we can raise that purchase limit for your account.
What's the minimum number of SMS credits I can buy?
All Airship accounts are set to a 1000 minimum purchase amount. If you try and purchase less than 1000 credits you will see a message pop up saying "You must buy at least 1000 credits".
Please reach out to the Airship support team (success@airship.co.uk) if you want this minimum purchase amount lowered.
How much does it cost to buy more SMS credits?
The price per SMS is dependent on the package you're on with Airship or any other agreement you have.
The price per SMS for your account is found on the Settings > SMS credits page.
In the example picture below is where this price is shown.
What do I put in the 'Purchase ref' field?
This is a free text field and it'll be used as the reference the Airship finance team adds to your invoice. We recommend making it clear so you know what the invoice is about from what the reference is e.g. you could put your account name + SMS + date so something like this: JoinersKitchen-SMS-180926.
But it's up to you!
How and when is the SMS credit purchase invoiced?
The Airship finance team usually send invoices at the end of the calendar month. For example, if you made a purchase for SMS credits on September 18th they will likely send the invoice on September 30th (or thereabouts).
The invoice will be sent to the main contact of your Airship account. If you're unsure who that is, or you want to update who gets it, please reach out to the Airship support team (success@airship.co.uk).