Business prepaid SIMs: whose line is it, and who keeps it loaded
A company running prepaid lines has one decision that shapes everything else: whether the line belongs to the business or to the person carrying it. This page is that decision, what follows from it, and where a top-up service fits.
What a top-up service can and cannot do for a SIM estate
Worth settling in one paragraph, because two of the things companies arrive looking for are not here at all.
What this does
- Puts credit or an operator's own pack on any prepaid number you can type, across 47+ countries, whoever the line is registered to.
- Returns a receipt and the operator's reference code on every completed order, and keeps them searchable in a free account.
- Takes a company card at a checkout that never stores it, with the service fee shown before anyone confirms.
What it is not
- Not a SIM seller. No cards are stocked, shipped or activated here, and there is no wholesale or distributor supply of them.
- Not a reseller programme. No API, no commission, no dealer pricing — the eight settled absences are in the limits table on the parent page, with the questions worth asking a platform that does offer them.
- Not a mobile account manager. Tariffs, itemised billing and line transfers stay with the operator that issued the number.
Company-owned or staff-owned?
Most prepaid lines a business pays for are registered to the person holding the phone, because that is what local rules require. That is workable — but it changes five things, and only one of them is about money.
| Registered to the employee | Held by the company | |
|---|---|---|
| Registered to | The employee, in their own name, wherever local law requires an ID on a prepaid line. | The company, where that operator and that market allow a business to hold prepaid lines at all. |
| Who can change the tariff | Them. The operator takes instructions from the registered holder, not from their employer. | Whoever the company named on the account, through the operator's own business channel. |
| Who can top it up | Anyone with the number — that is the whole requirement, and it is why an employer can fund a line they do not own. | Anyone with the number, same as above. |
| The paper trail you get here | A receipt per order in the payer's account, with the operator's reference code. The operator's own bill goes to them, not to you. | The same receipt per order. Itemised call and data billing, if it exists, comes from the operator. |
| When the person leaves | The number leaves with them, and so does any credit already on it. | The line stays, but transferring or closing it runs through the operator's process, not ours. |
Whether the second column is even available is the operator's answer, not ours, and it varies by market: in a good many countries a prepaid line must carry a named individual's ID before it will activate. How that registration works, and why a SIM can sit in a tray showing no service until it clears, is on buying a prepaid SIM online. No top-up service can activate a line — credit sent to one that is not live yet is refused by the operator and refunded in full, service fee included.
What changes when the payer is a company
Prepaid against a monthly contract is a well-worn comparison, and the six practical differences are on the prepaid SIM page. Four of them land differently when the person paying is not the person using the phone.
Create a free account- The spend ceiling is real and it is yours. A prepaid line cannot run up a bill you have not already funded, which is the usual reason a company chooses prepaid for contractors and short-term staff.
- No credit check and no minimum term means a line can start and stop with a season, a site or a project.
- No central visibility. Prepaid lines usually sit outside a corporate account, so there is no single operator bill listing them and no itemised breakdown of what each one did.
- No control over use. Funding a line does not let you cap, restrict or monitor what it is spent on — that is between the holder and their operator.
Staff working in another country
This is where the international prepaid searches usually come from, and the employer's version of the question is not the traveller's. Two arrangements, and they reconcile very differently.
Their home line, used abroad
One number, reachable on the contact details everyone already has. What it costs to use is set by their own operator's roaming terms, which the company does not control and cannot see in advance.
Funding it is simple: the number keeps its home country at checkout no matter where the person is standing, and a company card issued anywhere can pay for it.
A local line in that market
Usually cheaper for a long posting and better for local calls, at the cost of a second number that colleagues have to be told about — and one that needs keeping alive between assignments.
It is also a second line to register, in a market where the person, not the company, is usually the one who can do it.
Whichever they carry, the top-up runs the same way and the receipt looks the same in your history: the country you pick is the one that issued the number, not the one they are in. The traveller's own side of this choice — roaming against a local SIM against a multi-country line — is set out on prepaid travel SIM, and sending credit to a number in another country is covered on international airtime.
When someone leaves
The part that catches companies out, because it is decided months earlier by the ownership question rather than at the exit interview.
Stop funding it first
Nothing here renews or repeats on its own, so there is no standing order to cancel — the line simply stops being topped up when you stop choosing to. Remove the number from your contact book so nobody repeats a past order by habit.
Credit already sent stays sent
A load that reached the number cannot be recalled or refunded — it was delivered and the operator applied it. On a line registered to the leaver, that balance goes with them. It is an argument for funding little and often rather than in advance.
The number itself is the operator's
Transferring a line to a colleague, or closing it, runs through whoever issued it and whoever it is registered to. We hold no account for the line and cannot move, suspend or release one.
What you keep is the record: a receipt for every completed order, the operator's reference code with it, and those references retained for at least eighteen months. The invoicing side — receipts by email and a VAT invoice on request — is on the business solutions page.
Business prepaid SIMs, question by question
Invoicing, refunds and procurement questions are answered on the parent page and in the help centre.
Open business solutionsCan we buy prepaid SIM cards from you in bulk?
No. No SIM cards are sold here at all, in ones or in thousands — there is nothing to ship and no wholesale supply behind it. SIMs come from the operator or an authorised seller in the market you need; what happens here afterwards is keeping those lines funded.
Do we need an account for each employee?
No, and it is usually the wrong shape. One account holds the numbers you fund in a contact book with the whole order history behind it, whoever carries the handsets. Each order still goes to one number — there is no batch upload.
Can we top up a line that is registered to the employee?
Yes. The number is the entire requirement and nothing is asked of the person holding it — no account, no app, no code to read back. That is precisely why an employer can fund a line they do not own.
Will the operator invoice our company for the lines?
Not through us. A prepaid line has no monthly operator bill, and we are not on their account — what you get from us is a receipt per order with the operator's reference code, and a VAT invoice on request.
Can we set a monthly budget per line?
Not as a setting, but prepaid gives you the same result by default: the line can only spend what has been put on it, and nothing here renews or charges you on its own. The budget is simply how much you choose to load, and when.
Where to go next
This page is the estate and who owns it. The pages around it are the account, the data and the lines themselves.
For lines in routers, trackers and tablets rather than handsets, prepaid SIM for devices covers which of them even have a number to top up. What arrangement a given line is on — plain balance, a pack, or an operator tariff — is on prepaid plans and tariffs.
Start with one number
An account is free and takes no card until you send something. Add the numbers you fund once, and the second and third orders are a couple of taps.