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The short answer
Airtime often disappears into value-added service (VAS) subscriptions such as content, tips or alerts billed to your line. Cancel each subscription through its short code or your network's self-service menu, and text STOP to 2442 to opt into the NCC's Do Not Disturb register for promotional messages. If charges continue, complain to your network and keep the reference.
What VAS charges are
Value-added services are extras billed to your phone line: content subscriptions, caller tunes, news or tips by SMS, games and promotions. Some charge once, others renew daily, weekly or monthly. They are often started by replying to a message, tapping a pop-up while browsing, or dialling a code during a promotion. Because they come out of airtime, many people only notice when their balance falls faster than expected.
Two different problems
| Promotional messages | VAS subscriptions | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Unsolicited SMS and calls | A paid service on your line |
| Costs you money? | Usually not directly | Yes, from airtime |
| Main fix | Do Not Disturb (2442) | Unsubscribe from each service |
| Does 2442 fix it? | Yes, for marketing messages | Not reliably; cancel the service itself |
Using the 2442 Do Not Disturb code
Following an NCC directive in 2016, with a warning that operators who did not comply would be sanctioned, mobile networks set up the 2442 short code so subscribers can join the Do Not Disturb register. Text STOP to 2442 to block all unsolicited promotional messages. You can instead opt out of particular categories by texting a number, for example:
- Banking, insurance and financial products
- Real estate
- Education
- Health
- Consumer goods and automobiles
- Communications, broadcasting, entertainment and IT
- Tourism and leisure
- Sports
- Religion
These categories were published when DND launched in 2016. Networks may have updated the menu since, so check your network's current instructions. Messages from your network about your own account, and from your bank about your transactions, are service messages and may still arrive.
Cancelling VAS subscriptions
- Find what you are subscribed to. Use your network's app or self-service menu, or call customer care and ask for a list of active subscriptions on your line.
- Cancel each one. Many services stop when you text STOP to the short code that bills you. Your network can also cancel them for you.
- Confirm it worked. Check your balance over the next few days. A charge after cancellation is a complaint, not a mistake on your part.
- Ask for a refund of charges for services you did not knowingly subscribe to. Give dates and amounts.
- Escalate to the NCC if your network does not resolve it, quoting your complaint reference.
Worked example
Example only. Mr Okafor tops up ₦2,000 of airtime for calls, and it is gone in four days though he rarely calls. His daughter checks the network's self-service menu and finds two daily content subscriptions he does not remember starting. She texts STOP to each short code and calls customer care to confirm both are cancelled and to ask about a refund. She also texts STOP to 2442 to cut down promotional messages. For the next month his airtime lasts as long as expected. She now checks his line's subscriptions when she does his monthly top-up.
What to say when you call your network
- Give the phone number and ask for a list of all active subscriptions and renewals on the line.
- Ask for each one to be cancelled and for confirmation by SMS.
- Ask when each subscription started and how it was activated.
- Ask for a refund of charges for any service you did not knowingly agree to.
- Write down the agent's name, the date and the complaint reference.
If you are calling for an elderly parent, have them with you or get their permission first, since networks may only discuss a line with its registered owner. Keep the reference: if charges start again, it shows the network was already told.
Signs you have a hidden subscription
- Airtime falls on the same day each week or month
- A recurring subscription renewing.
- Small, regular deductions with no calls made
- A daily content service.
- Messages from an unfamiliar short code
- A service you may have joined by replying.
- Data runs out sooner after a promotion
- A bundle swap or add-on you agreed to without noticing.
Preventing it happening again
- Do not reply to unknown promotional messages, even with "no".
- Be careful tapping pop-ups and banners while browsing on mobile data.
- Read the terms in any promotion that asks you to dial a code.
- Check active subscriptions monthly on lines you pay for, especially elderly relatives' phones.
- Check data renewals too. The NCC has directed that prepaid data should not auto-renew without the subscriber's approval.
- Treat messages asking for your BVN, PIN or OTP as scams, not promotions. See is it safe to share your BVN.
Under Nigerian data protection law you also have rights over how your number is used for marketing; see your data rights under the NDPA. For keeping data costs down more generally, read airtime and data: stop wasting money.
Where Pryme fits
When you buy airtime and data on Pryme, each top-up is in your history with the number and amount, so if airtime vanishes you can show exactly when it was loaded. That makes a VAS refund request easier to support.
Questions people ask
How do I stop my airtime from being deducted?
Check your active subscriptions in your network's app or self-service menu, and cancel each one by texting STOP to its short code or asking customer care.
What does STOP to 2442 do?
It adds your number to the Do Not Disturb register for unsolicited promotional messages. It does not reliably cancel paid subscriptions you already have.
Can I get a refund for VAS I did not subscribe to?
You can ask your network for one. Give dates and amounts, keep the complaint reference, and escalate to the NCC if it is not resolved.
Will 2442 stop bank alerts?
No. Transaction alerts and account messages are service messages, not promotions.
Sources
- Techpoint Africa: NCC Do Not Disturb code (2442) explained · accessed Oct 2026
- The Guardian Nigeria: NCC to sanction erring operators over SMS regulation (2442 and data auto-renewal) · accessed Oct 2026
This article is general information, not financial, legal or tax advice. Products described are provided under the terms on this site and are subject to regulation and eligibility.