Does a Burner App Show Up on a Phone Bill?

iEditorial Note: These blog posts represent the opinion of DoNotPay’s Writers, but each person’s situation and circumstances vary greatly. As a result, you should make sure to do your own independent research. Because everyone is unique, our self-help tools are never guaranteed to help with any specific situation. DoNotPay is not a law firm and is not licensed to practice law. DoNotPay provides a platform for legal information and self-help.

Does a Burner App Show Up on a Phone Bill or Not?

Burner phones and fake phone number apps are all the rage now as the numbers of Americans concerned about online privacy skyrocket. People worry for a good reason, since the newspapers report an increasing amount of big data breach cases worldwide—the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal is one of the most significant examples of personal data misuse.

A phone number is a private piece of information that nobody should share lightly unless they don’t mind robocalls or spammy text messages. Many free and paid apps claim they can generate fake phone numbers to increase your online safety and overall privacy. It is a good idea to also be careful about the information showing up on your phone bill.

Does Using a Burner Number Show on a Cell Phone Bill?

Using a temporary phone number created by an app is a good way to protect your identity in some cases, but you should know that these apps don’t have unlimited power—no matter what their ads say.

If you install a burner app on your primary phone and use its fake number to call someone, your mobile service provider company won’t turn a blind eye all of a sudden. The monthly phone bill will include the records of all incoming and outgoing calls involving your device, and they will count against your minutes.

While it won’t hide the fact that you used your phone, the phone bill won’t disclose the number you called. You can think of burner phone apps as forwarding services. When you use them to make or receive calls, the phone bill shows the communication between your real and fake phone number.

Can Someone Trace the Burner Number to My Personal Phone Number?

If you want to conceal your call history from the prying eyes that have access to your phone bill, burner phone apps can help to a degree since they won’t show whom you called or who called you on the monthly statement. This fact doesn’t mean you can use burner numbers for some nefarious activities and get away with it.

Spies and secret service agents in movies made using burner phones look cool and effortless, but, in reality, users’ identity or location won’t stay a secret for long when push comes to shove.

No matter how efficient your burner phone app is, your device can still be traced by:

  1. The service provider—Your provider can identify your location without trouble by using the data from cell phone towers
  2. Law enforcement—If you use your burner phone number for illegal activities, the police have various methods of discovering your location and identity. These methods may include forcing the company behind the burner app to disclose the information you used when signing up, gaining access to the mobile service provider’s information, or using voice matching

While law enforcement won’t use all of their resources for every minor issue, they can if they need to, so don’t let your imagination run wild.

Are Burner Phone Apps the Best Choice for Me?

The answer to this question depends on what you’re protecting yourself from. The most popular methods of protecting your real phone number all come with specific advantages and disadvantages.

The following table gives a good overview of the benefits and shortcomings of work phones, burner phones, and burner phone apps:

MethodProsCons

Work Phone

  • Free and more cutting-edge than usual burner phones
  • Useful for separating private life from work
  • Limited availability—you will need to return it if you change jobs
  • Inappropriate for more private matters—setting up Tinder, for instance

Burner Phone

  • Disposable—you can easily get them at shops like Walmart, Target, and Amazon
  • Cheap—burner phone prices go as low as $20
  • More expensive than burner phone apps
  • Impractical for one-time use

Burner Phone Apps

  • Convenient—no need for separate mobile devices
  • Practical—some apps offer more than one burner number
  • Traceable despite the advertising
  • Paid recurring subscriptions or premium features

Use DoNotPay To Avoid Disclosing Your Phone Number to Companies

Protecting your privacy from unnecessarily nosy companies is DoNotPay’s priority. If your main reason for looking into burner phones and fake phone number apps is avoiding yet another phone number verification, you’ve come to the right place.

Our app will provide you with a temporary phone number that will work like a charm and receive any verification text messages hiding your actual phone number in the process. You don’t have to settle for one number only—DoNotPay lets you create as many temporary numbers as you require without leaving any trace on your phone bill.

Not confident in your skills with new technologies? With DoNotPay, you don’t have to be. The process of creating a temporary phone number is so easy that it won’t matter if you’re a smartphone buff or have a passing acquaintance with the newest trends.

How To Get a Fake Phone Number With DoNotPay

To start using your first temporary phone number, follow these steps:

  1. Sign up for DoNotPay in your favorite
  2. Log in and select the Burner Phone feature
  3. Enter the name of the service you’re trying to sign up for
  4. Click on Create a temporary number

After DoNotPay generates your fake phone number, enter the digits on the signup web page. It will be valid for ten minutes, which is more than enough to receive the registration text message.

When the company sends you the SMS verification code, it will show up in our app. You can copy it, paste it into the registration form, and proceed with the signup process.

Check Out DoNotPay’s Free Trial Card

Many companies hide their free trials behind a paywall of sorts. While they don’t charge you right away, they do like to get your credit card details during the registration process. Companies use this well-known trick hoping that you will forget to cancel before the free trial expires, and they will take at least one monthly charge from your pocket.

This obstacle doesn’t have to mean you should stop enjoying free trials. DoNotPay’s virtual credit cards have all the necessary credit card information to ensure a valid registration for the new service, but the risk of getting charged doesn’t exist because a virtual credit card doesn’t have any funds.

To make your user experience seamless, DoNotPay has joined the Burner Phone and Free Trial Card features into one convenient process. When you finish creating your temporary phone number with our app, our chatbot will ask you whether you want to create a virtual credit card as the next step.

DoNotPay’s free trial cards are indispensable when it comes to free trials for services like Netflix, Spotify, or Tinder Gold. Our platform will help you protect your phone number and your finances with one powerful method.

Let DoNotPay Sort Out Your Other Problems

Not sure how to bypass Uber or Instagram phone verification? You can follow DoNotPay’s step-by-step guides, but don’t stop there.

By setting up your DoNotPay account in your default , you will gain access to other useful features, including:

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