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Verified 13 September 2026

Your airtime is disappearing. Here is how to find out why.

By David Wachira · Safaricom services hub · paybillke is an independent guide and is not affiliated with Safaricom services.

Dial *100# (prepay) or *200# (postpay) and open My Subscriptions or Premium Rate Services to see what is charging you and stop each one. The fast route is *456# and choose STOP, or dial *100*5*4*2# to stop everything at once.

Why airtime vanishes with no obvious cause

Premium-rate subscriptions are designed to be small and regular: a few shillings a day for horoscopes, jokes, sports alerts, games, or a Skiza tune. Individually none of them is worth investigating. Collectively, on a line that has picked up four or five over a couple of years, they are the reason a top-up does not last as long as it used to.

See everything, then stop it

  1. Dial *100# on prepay, or *200# on postpay.
  2. Open My Subscriptions or Premium Rate Services.
  3. Go through the categories: data and SMS bundles, Skiza, premium services and games, and marketing messages.
  4. Stop each one you did not knowingly choose.
  5. Or take the shortcut: *456# then STOP, or *100*5*4*2# to stop all subscriptions in one go.

The other route: reply to the sender

Every premium service charging you is doing it from a five-digit shortcode, and that shortcode is obliged to accept an opt-out. Sending STOP to the shortcode that appears in the charging message works, and is sometimes faster than hunting through a menu when you already know which one it is.

If charges continue after you stop

Call 100 or visit a Safaricom shop. Charges that survive an opt-out are a support matter rather than a menu problem, and they are worth pursuing rather than absorbing, because a subscription that ignores STOP will keep ignoring it.

About this page

paybillke is an independent payments directory and is not Safaricom or M-PESA. Checked 13 September 2026 against Safaricom’s published service pages. Safaricom will never ask for your M-PESA PIN or a one-time password: report anyone who does to 100, and forward suspicious messages to 333.

Frequently asked

Why is my Safaricom airtime disappearing?

Usually premium-rate subscriptions charging a few shillings a day. Dial *100# and open My Subscriptions to see them.

How do I stop all Safaricom subscriptions at once?

Dial *100*5*4*2#, or use *456# and choose STOP.

How do I see what I am subscribed to?

*100# on prepay or *200# on postpay, then My Subscriptions or Premium Rate Services.

Can I stop a subscription by SMS?

Yes. Send STOP to the five-digit shortcode that appears in the charging message.

Charges continued after I stopped. What now?

Call 100 or visit a Safaricom shop. A subscription that ignores an opt-out is a support matter.