How to buy a phone number with Monero (XMR)

Why pay with Monero

On most blockchains, anyone can follow a payment from one address to the next, and a single link to an exchange account can tie every later payment to your name. Monero was designed differently: amounts, senders and receivers are hidden by default, for every transaction.

Paying for a private number with a private currency closes the loop: no bank card, no email, and no public trail from your wallet to the number. Monero network fees are low, and a payment is usually detected within minutes.

Get a Monero wallet

Use a wallet where you hold the keys yourself:

• Desktop: Feather Wallet, which is lightweight, or the official Monero GUI wallet.
• Android: Cake Wallet or Monerujo.
• iPhone: Cake Wallet.

Write down the seed phrase when you create the wallet and keep it offline. Anyone with the seed can spend the funds, and nobody can recover it for you if it is lost — we will never ask for it.

Light wallets such as Feather connect to a remote node, so you don’t have to download the whole blockchain before your first payment. If you want the most privacy, run your own node, or connect your wallet to nodes over Tor — Feather and the official wallet both support it.

Pay step by step

1. Open Top up in your account, choose the amount — from $30, with a bonus from $100 — and choose Monero.
2. Note the amount and the address. The dollar amount is converted to XMR and locked for 45 minutes. The address is new and used for this payment only — no payment ID or memo is needed.
3. Send from your wallet. Scan the QR code, tap Open in wallet, or paste the address and the exact amount.
4. Check the fee your wallet shows before confirming. Monero fees are small, and they come on top of the amount you send.
5. Follow the status. The payment page moves from Waiting for payment to Confirming, then Credited, by itself. You can close it: your balance is credited, bonus included, as soon as the payment is confirmed.

How long it takes

A new Monero block is added roughly every two minutes. A payment is usually detected within a couple of minutes and confirmed about 20 minutes later. Larger amounts may wait for a few more confirmations before the balance is credited.

If your wallet shows the transaction as sent but the payment page still says Waiting for payment after 30 minutes, don’t send it again: keep the transaction ID from your wallet and use Report a problem on that payment, in your account.

Keep proof of payment for anything that matters. Most Monero wallets can show a transaction key for every payment you sent. Together with the transaction ID and the destination address, it proves that the payment reached us — without revealing anything else about your wallet.

Avoid the common mistakes

• Sending from a wallet that isn’t synced. A Monero wallet has to catch up with the blockchain before it can spend reliably. Wait until it shows as fully synchronized, then send.
• Typing the amount by hand. Scan the QR code or use Open in wallet whenever you can: both fill in the exact address and amount for you.
• Forgetting the fee. The network fee is added on top of the amount. If your wallet holds exactly the amount due, it won’t be able to send.
• Waiting too long. The amount is locked for 45 minutes, and the address keeps being watched for a couple of hours after that. Send well within that time.
• Paying twice. If the status doesn’t move, check your wallet’s history before sending again — and report the payment rather than sending a second one.

Sent too much or too little?

• Too little: the payment page shows what arrived and what is missing. Send the rest to the same address while the payment is open.
• Too much, or it closed short: use Report a problem on the payment, with the transaction ID. Once checked, what arrived is added to your balance.
• Too late: a payment detected while the address is still watched is processed normally. After that, report it the same way.

Your balance never expires, and what you paid in can be refunded in crypto from Billing — you only pay the network fee. See how payments work.

Privacy tips

• Pay from your own wallet rather than from an account that knows your identity.
• Each top-up uses its own address, so separate payments can’t be linked by address.
• Your Numonym account has no email and no name attached: the only identifier is a random 16-digit account number. Read more about accounts without email.
• Top up once in Monero and let renewals run from your balance, so you don’t have to make a payment every month.