Airtel 3G credit card recharge online never works

[Judyy]

I have been Vodafone customer since long time but as recently bought a Galaxy Grand Dual Sim i bought a Airtel connection as well. Its been six months to this connection and so far i have not succeeded a single time to recharge online for Airtel. I mean its 3G recharge. No matter i try to pay by my Credit card or net banking, transaction gets failed every time. This is not the case with Top up or any other recharge, only with 3G.

I dont know whats the reason behind this but i would like to know if there is any solution for the same? Did anyone else faced this problem or is it just me? I hope there might be several users who recharge their mobile phones online now a days.

[Atsushi]

Well, i don't have Airtel hence don't have any personal experience what is wrong with their 3G online recharge service. But i have an solution for the problem. Instead of buying the 3G pack online, alternatively you can simply buy a Full Talk time Topup for your number (transaction goes fine according to you, right?) and then activate the 3G pack by sending an SMS 3G to 121 or call 12134. Thats is much simpler way.

[Bindu-I]

No matter i try to pay by my Credit card or net banking, transaction gets failed every time. This is not the case with Top up or any other recharge, only with 3G.

Hello Judyy,

You or me cannot do anything in this because that problem is either from their server or bank redirection. One thing is sure that they have separate sites/servers for 2g recharge and 3G recharge, hence the 2G one goes fine and 3G one gives the problem. We have nothing to do in this. The best way is as suggested by Atsushi. Get topup and then subscribe the 3G plan you prefer.

[Judyy]

Instead of buying the 3G pack online, alternatively you can simply buy a Full Talk time Topup for your number and then activate the 3G pack by sending an SMS 3G to 121 or call 12134. Thats is much simpler way.

Thank you for your suggestions guys, appreciated. Now as I have never done this before and don’t want to contact their annoying customer care, can you please tell me the proper way how can I activate the preferred 3G plan? For example, I want to activate the Rs.252 plan. But the sms code you mentioned above doesn’t contain any tariff details?

[Ashlee_Techi]

When you send “3G” to 121, you will get a prompt message on your mobile screen. It will contain the tariff plans as per your location. Select the one you want to activate. That much of money will be detected from your account balance and the pack will be activate.
It is that simple.