The time I bought excess airtime

As technology is ruling the world, so are its other sides fighting us in different forms and from different angles. I'm saying this with respect to this week's writing prompt, which is about the losses and mistakes we've made when making transactions in the digital space. I doubt there's anyone who hasn't made a mistake when making transactions using digital apps, like making payments from banking apps and mistakenly adding an extra zero, or buying a very large amount of airtime, or even something as simple as sending a message to someone who was not supposed to see it.

Well, among my numerous oopsies, the one I would like to talk about is buying excess airtime. This used to be a regular occurrence for me because I was always fond of buying airtime in haste, and I wouldn’t even realize when I had added an extra digit to the amount.

The worst of these experiences was when I mistakenly recharged my line with fifty thousand naira. I was meant to recharge my phone with five thousand naira in order to buy a data plan, and I didn't realize when I added an extra zero (0) to the amount, and that was it. When I saw it reflected on my phone, it was as if I had been charmed, and the moment I noticed it, the charm faded immediately.

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There was no way I was going to keep fifty thousand naira worth of airtime on my phone. To do what? Absolutely nothing.

I reached out to people around so I could sell it to them, but because they saw how desperate I was, they charged me a very high percentage, 40 percent. I couldn’t just settle for that kind of loss, because I was already looking at losing about twenty thousand naira. At that moment, I deeply regretted making such a mistake.

I went online and asked some friends how to convert airtime back into cash. I was given a list of apps and websites to try. I searched through all of them and finally settled for one that offered a 20% cut, which meant I would lose ten thousand naira. I accepted my loss and moved on.

Ever since then, no matter how hasty or pressured the situation is, I never rush to make airtime transactions on my phone again. Not just airtime transactions, but regular transactions as well.

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On that day, I almost ran mad because that fifty thousand naira in my account was money I had been saving for a long time and had planned to use for something important. Losing ten thousand naira from it was extremely painful, but it was far better than leaving the airtime on my phone just to make calls. I would have been so angry during those calls if they had even happened at all.

Thanks!

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