Welcome to our new Frequently Asked Question section. We have designed a help topic menu that jumps to the answer. Our old section required you to read the entire section to find what you wanted to know.

About Portal32 Lines
•What is a Portal32 Line and How Does It Work?
•How Do I Know If Portal32 Is The Right Service For Me?
•How Many Portal32 Lines Can I Open or Have?

Savings & Costs
•How Does Portal32.Com Save On Inmate Calling Rates?
•Why Do I Need To Use Both Your Service & The Facilities Pre-Paid Account?

Making Changes To Your Portal32 Account
•What If I Change My House, Cell or Work Number?
•How Do I Cancel My Portal32 Line Number?

Setting Up Your Portal32 Line Number
•I Just Received My New Portal32 Line Number, What Do I Do Next?
•The Facility Is Asking For A Bill. How Do I Get One?
•The Facility Phone Provider Says My Portal32 Line Is Blocked or Third Party.

Buying More Minutes For My Portal32 Line Number
•How Do I Re-Charge My Minutes?
•Will My Minutes Carry Over To The Next Month If I Do Not Use Them?
•What If I Go Over On My Minutes For My Current Cycle?

Portal32.Com Transactions & Payments
•How Safe Is My Payment Transaction or Information?
•Do I Need A PayPal® Account To Pay At Portal32.Com?
•Why Does My Bill Show An Amount Due?
•How Long Does It Take to Get My Portal32 Line After Payment?

Account Troubleshooting
•I Registered and Was Never Able to Login.

FacilityPhone Providers Bad Practices, High Rates & Billing
•Where Can I Get Information About The Rules Provider Have To Follow?
•Who Do I Report These Practices To?

Portal32 services allows the inmate to place a phone call to you directly from the prison, jail or facility to your cell, home or office number with the same area code as the facility. By using your current pre-paid account purchased through the facilities Mandatory Phone Service Provider, you can use our service to convert your current pre-paid account rates. These rates go from long distance rates to same area code call rate. When you purchase our service plan, we issue you a local telephone number with the same area code as the facility. You give your current pre-paid account company the new number. When the inmate calls, they will call directly to that number using the current pre-paid account. That number then re-routes the call directly to the cell, home or office number you give us to setup as a connection.

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We convert your current pre-paid account rates from long distance to same area code calling rates. This slows your deposit or minute usage allowing you to use the deposited amount longer with less money deposited.

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Just select "Change Destination" from Member Service. There will be a $10.00 fee for each time the number must be changed and it can only be done once every 24 hours. You will not need to have your number re-approved with the current facility.

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If you already live very close to the inmates calling location the savings may be very small, but will make a difference on your phone bill collect call charges. If you are less than 5 miles away or are in the same area code as the inmate, our services are not for you. If you use Correctional Billing Services(CBS), chances are you may not save much regardless of your distance or location. CBS charges very high rates as they are not the primary phone provider for the prisons or jails. CBS is just a third party used by many facilities to handle inmate calls. Example: Sprint is the main provider and CBS handles calls, your rates are now going to both Sprint, CBS and any local taxes also apply to the rates. If you are just looking to get the call on your cell or work number and don't care about the rates then our service is perfect. Some friends and family members of inmates miss calls when they are away from home. Our service can connect you while your on the move or at work.

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You will now need to setup the number with the facility. You have three options depending on the type of facility the inmate is in.

County, City or Local Jails With No Existing Pre-Paid Account With The Jail: - You will need to contact the Mandatory Phone Service Provider for that jail and tell them you want to pre-pay collect calls or setup a pre-paid collect calling account because you cannot accept collect calls with your current phone plan. They will ask you to pay or deposit by Credit Card the amount you wish to pre-pay and when they ask you for the number, you give them the Portal32 Line number. Once setup, give the Portal32 Line number to the inmate and have him or her dial it direct from the jail. When the inmate calls you may still hear the system message from the jail depending on the provider. You can also setup on-line or through a virtual operator in some cases.

County, City or Local Jails With An Existing Pre-Paid Account With The Jail: - You will need to contact the Mandatory Phone Service Provider for that jail and tell them you want to change the approved number on the account. If you have no more funds on your account, will ask you to pay or deposit by Credit Card the amount you wish to pre-pay and when they ask you for the number, you give them the Portal32 Line number. Once setup, give the Portal32 Line number to the inmate and have him or her dial it direct from the jail. When the inmate calls you may still hear the system message from the jail depending on the provider.

State, Federal & Other High Risk Facilities: - You will need to contact the Mandatory Phone Service Provider for that facility and tell them you want to pre-pay collect calls or setup a pre-paid collect calling account because you cannot accept collect calls with your current phone plan. They will ask you for the number that you need approved. You will then give them the Portal32 Line number issue to you by us. In some cases, depending on the Mandatory Phone Service Provider for a particular facility, they will tell you the number is blocked or non-billable. This is normal since the Portal32 Line cannot be billed. this is why you are pre-paying the collect calls. They will ask you to pay or deposit by Credit Card the amount you wish to pre-pay. In addition, the Mandatory Phone Service Provider may in most cases ask you to provide a bill to prove that this is your number. The Mandatory Phone Service Provider will take several days to process your bill and approve your account. Once setup, give the Portal32 Line number to the inmate and have him or her dial it direct from the jail. When the inmate calls you may still hear the system message from the jail depending on the provider.

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Facilities Mandatory Phone Service Providers will not allow the inmate to dial out directly. So the facility uses this against you charging you high rates due to the fact that the inmate has no choice in providers. Our service works on top of the inmates current pre-paid account to eliminate the long distance rates and converting them into a same area code calling rates with very little charges.

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There is no need to cancel your Portal32 Line number when you no longer need it. When your monthly cycle ends, we will send you a message giving you the option to re-charge your minutes for another month or to advise us if you no longer require the number. If you do not reply within 7 days of the message, we will cancel the number.

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Login to your account and you can create, edit or print. Once you fax the the bill to the Facilities Mandatory Phone Service Provider, they may take a few days to process. Be sure your bill does not contain a PO BOX address. It will not be accepted. If you can, get a local address to the facility to use. Since your Portal32 Line number is only matching the facilities area code, you will need to get an address on your bill that matches the first three prefixes on the number in some cases. To find out exactly what city you need to get a matching address for, go to http://www.intelius.com and do a Reverse Phone Lookup on your Portal32 Line number. Example: You cant use an address in Texas when the Portal32 Line number is for California.

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Login to your account and select the "Re-Charge" option from the left Member Service list. Follow checkout instructions. If your monthly cycle is under 3 days from expiring we will automatically apply minutes to next cycle. If your cycle expires in more than 3 days we may apply the minutes to your current cycle and minutes will not carry over to next cycle.

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Your purchased minute will never carry over unless you re-charge minutes within 3 days of cycle expiration.

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You will need to re-charge your account. The re-charged minutes will not carry over to next cycle unless you re-charge within 3 days of cycle expiration.

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For security reasons, your payments are handled directly through PayPal®. Our site will at no time see your payment information. PayPal® accepts all major credit & debit cards as well as e-checks. PayPal® notifies us instantly that a payment has been made and sends us information about the plan you have purchased along with details.

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No, you do not need to open a PayPal® account to pay us. You can choose the option to pay without using a PayPal® account and just pay using your credit card, debit card or bank account. All transactions paid by check will take up to 5 business days to clear. PayPal® is very safe and also gives you protection on all transactions.

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You are only allowed one number per account. You will need to create another account and use a different email address if you require additional numbers.

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Our site allows you to be in your account environment upon new registration. If you did not receive an email from us when you registered, chances are your email service has restrictions to who you receive emails from. Login to your email account and go to your preferences or settings and allow emails from webmaster@portal32.com or www.portal32.com.

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Your bill shows an amount due that is automatically generated in the event that you need more service the following month and it does not have a due date nor does it require payment.

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All transaction may take up to 24 hours depending on the day of the week and time of day. Transactions are handled 24 hours a day, but take longer evenings, weekends and holidays. Your order may be handled in a few minutes in some cases where we are not too busy.

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That only means your Portal32 Line is blocked from being billed for a collect call. They check to see if the number can be billed by sending a test signal to the number. You will need to make it clear that you want to setup a pre-paid account with them. If you tell them you want to have a number approved, they will assume you want to have it billed too. Tell them you want to pay collect calls in advance or pre-pay them.

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These bad practices can be reported to the FCC by following the link and selecting:

Complaint Type: Wired Telephone

Complaint Category: Billing, Service, Privacy, Number Portability and other issues

Recommended Method: ONLINE FORM

Fill in to the best ability.

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More information about the rates, billing and practices facility providers provide for inmate calling can be found on the FCC
Consumer Facts page by clicking on the link.

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