This day celebrates those individuals who give “top ups.” What are top ups, you ask? It’s the practice of adding time to a person’s prepaid phone so they can receive global charges. During this day, expatriates will get together online and top up the phones of their friends and family members. This day is observed every November 10th.

The History of World Top Up Day

During the 1990s, the prepaid mobile phone market began as mobile phone operators started their campaigns to expand their market reach. Before this, prepaid phones required people to have good credit ratings, but that began to change during this time.

They are used by people all around the world now, and that led to the creation of this holiday. Prepaid phones need to be constantly “recharged” with time — a process that is known as “Topping off.”

And this can be quite expensive for people who are living paycheck to paycheck. This is particularly true if they’re far from home and want to be able to stay in contact with friends and family members.

That is why World Top Up Day was created in 2015. It was a day of the year for expatriates to come together and top one another off so they could contact friends and family members back home. This holiday has been observed every year ever since.

Some Quick Facts About Prepaid Phones

Since we’re on the subject of “topping off” prepaid phones, we thought that we’d take a few moments to list some quick facts about prepaid phones that we think our readers are going to appreciate.

• People tend to get prepaid phones for one of three reasons: They want a phone for occasional use, they don’t have a good credit rating, and/or they don’t want to lock into a contract.
• Prepaid cell phones can be expensive to operate, although some companies now offer unlimited talk plans for a flat monthly fee.
• People making international calls are going to want to get a GSM phone and not use a CDMA phone.

Observing World Top Up Day

On this day, people are encouraged to top off the phones of their friends so that they can stay in contact with family. People can also take the time to spread the news about this holiday to everyone who needs to hear about it using the hashtag #WorldTopUpDay on social media.