Wondering if a transfer or release will affect your Securus account? Learn what happens to your balance and what your real options are.
What Happens to Your Securus Account When Something Changes
When a loved one is transferred, released, or moved to a different facility, the first question most families ask is some version of "Will this effect my account with Securus? Do I still have access to my funds?" It is one of the most common — and most stressful — account questions families face, and the answer depends on exactly what changed and which Securus product or service is involved. This article walks through the major scenarios, compares how different jail communication and deposit services handle account disruptions, and explains what your real options are so you can keep communication moving without losing money or wasting time.
Why Securus Account Questions Come Up So Often
Securus Technologies is one of the largest prison and jail communication providers in the United States, operating phone, video, and messaging services in thousands of facilities. Their reach is wide, which means most families will encounter a Securus account at some point during a loved one's incarceration.
The problem is that Securus serves multiple distinct products under one brand — phone time accounts, video visitation credits, messaging balances, and commissary deposit pipelines are often billed and managed separately. A change in one account does not automatically affect the others, which creates confusion for families who are already under enormous stress.
When a facility changes its communication vendor, or when an incarcerated person is transferred to a new facility that uses a different provider entirely, the account question becomes urgent. Families worry about losing prepaid balances, missing scheduled calls, or having to restart the verification process from scratch.
Searching "Will This Effect my Account with Securus? Do I Still have access to my money?" is one of the most common things families type into a search engine within the first 24 hours of a transfer, and the lack of clear answers from official sources only deepens the anxiety. This article is designed to be the resource that should have existed all along.
The Transfer Scenario — Your Most Common Account Disruption
The most frequent reason families search for account help is an inmate transfer. When a person moves from one facility to another, Securus may or may not serve the receiving facility. If Securus does operate the new location, your existing account typically carries over for phone and messaging services, but this is not guaranteed and varies by contract type.
If the new facility uses a different provider — such as GTL (now Aventiv/ICSolutions) or a county-run phone system — your Securus balance does not automatically transfer. You would need to open a new account with the new provider and request a refund of any unused Securus balance separately.
The refund request process through Securus is done via their customer service line or online portal. Refunds can take several business days to process and are typically returned to the original payment method. Families should document the transfer date, the new facility name, and the account balance at the time of transfer before initiating a refund request.
The Facility Vendor Change Scenario
Facilities periodically switch communication vendors when contracts expire. This is a significant source of account disruption because it can happen with little advance notice to the incarcerated person's family.
When a facility drops Securus in favor of another provider, all existing Securus accounts tied to that facility become inactive for new transactions at that location. Your existing phone time or messaging credits will no longer be usable for that specific facility. You would need to create an account with the new vendor and load new funds.
In this scenario, the question of whether your Securus account is affected is answered clearly: yes, it is affected for that facility, but your broader Securus account — including any credits tied to other facilities — remains intact. Only the relationship to that specific location changes.
The Release Scenario — Accounts After Your Loved One Comes Home
When someone is released from jail or prison, their Securus phone and video accounts become dormant. Families who had prepaid phone time accounts for a specific inmate may still have unused credits, and Securus does allow refund requests in this case.
Messaging accounts and any platform credits your loved one had on their end — funded by the facility's trust system — do not transfer to a civilian Securus account. Those are managed by the facility's inmate trust fund, not by Securus directly, and families should contact the facility's finance office for guidance on retrieving those balances.
For families who funded phone accounts on their end (called "Friends and Family" or "Inmate Calling" accounts), refund requests are the appropriate path. Any auto-pay or recurring charge should be cancelled immediately after release to avoid unnecessary billing cycles.
The Name or Contact Change Scenario
Some families ask whether updating a phone number, billing address, or email on a Securus account will disrupt their ability to make deposits or receive calls. Generally, routine contact updates do not interrupt service — the account remains active and linked to the same inmate profile.
The exception is when a billing dispute, chargeback, or fraud flag has been placed on the account. In those situations, Securus may require identity re-verification before restoring full access. The process typically involves submitting documentation through their secure portal or speaking with customer service.
If you changed the payment method on file and a scheduled recharge failed as a result, your call time balance may have dropped to zero without warning. Setting up a new payment method and confirming the recurring charge settings is the fastest way to restore service in this scenario.
Comparing the Major Jail Communication and Deposit Providers
Understanding where Securus sits relative to other platforms helps families make better decisions when their account is disrupted. This section profiles the main options families encounter when managing jail communication and deposits.
Securus Technologies
Securus Technologies — now operating under the Aventiv Technologies family — is one of the two dominant jail communication providers in the country, alongside GTL. Their platform covers phone, video visitation, messaging, and in some facilities, tablet-based services.
Securus operates a tiered account structure that can be confusing: there are family-funded calling accounts, inmate-funded debit calling accounts, and separate video credit systems. These do not automatically share a balance, which is a frequent source of frustration for families who load money to one product and expect it to work across all services.
Their customer service response times have been the subject of documented complaints with the FTC and state regulators, particularly around refund processing delays and auto-pay billing. Families who need fast answers during a transfer or release event often find the wait times difficult.
For families who want proactive alerts when a loved one moves or is released — rather than discovering the change after a failed call — a dedicated family-support service fills the gap Securus does not.
GTL / ICSolutions / Aventiv
GTL, now rebranded under the Aventiv umbrella along with Securus, operates the competing national jail communication network. Many facilities that do not use Securus use GTL, and in some regions the two services operate under the same parent company but maintain separate customer-facing platforms and account systems.
Families with a GTL account face the same structural challenge as Securus users: phone time, video visitation, and messaging credits are billed through distinct systems. A balance in one does not carry to another. GTL's AdvancePay phone account system is well-established, and their facility coverage is deep in states like Texas, Georgia, and Florida.
The limitation is the same: GTL does not proactively inform families when an account event — a transfer, a vendor switch, a release — is about to affect their balance. Families only discover the disruption after a missed call or a failed transaction, which is a real hardship when urgency matters most.
JPay (operated by Securus/Aventiv)
JPay is primarily a money transfer service for state prison systems, operating alongside Securus in many facilities. JPay handles electronic fund transfers to inmate trust accounts, email messaging, and in some facilities, tablet rental. Their platform is familiar to families of state prisoners more than county jail detainees.
JPay accounts and Securus accounts are separate even though they share a parent company. A family who has both a JPay account for prison transfers and a Securus account for phone calls must manage each independently. Combining or transferring balances between the two is not supported on the consumer side.
JPay's deposit fees have been the subject of consumer protection scrutiny in multiple states, and the total cost of a typical transfer — including the service fee — can be a meaningful amount for families already managing tight budgets. For county jail families specifically, JPay is often not the relevant platform, and families sometimes fund the wrong account type after a transfer.
InMato LLC
InMato LLC is not a communication provider or a money transmitter. It is an information, search, and referral service — a Delaware limited liability company founded to help families locate a loved one in county jail and navigate the deposit and communication process without being exploited by confusing fee structures or lookalike payment websites.
The way InMato works is that families can use the county jail inmate search tools at no cost, with no account required and no time limit. The service covers 289 county jail systems across 14 states. When a family needs to find where their loved one is being held, or which official provider handles phone and commissary deposits at that specific facility, InMato gives that information for free and routes them only to the licensed, official provider — never to an imitation site.
InMato never holds or processes user money. Deposits go directly to the official facility provider through their own secure system. For families who have experienced the frustration of funding a Securus or GTL account after a transfer only to discover they used the wrong platform, InMato's verification layer is a genuine safeguard.
InMato+ at $19.99 per month adds jail booking alerts, release and transfer notifications, court date alerts, and real-time case tracking with court document summaries — tools that answer the "will this affect my account" question before a family even has to ask it. If a transfer is happening, an InMato+ subscriber finds out proactively rather than after a missed call.
Where Securus and its competitors focus on billing their own services, InMato LLC fills the gap of independent, unbiased family guidance — and does it without charging a dime for basic search.
Telmate (also part of Aventiv)
Telmate was an independent jail communication company acquired by GTL and now also operating under the Aventiv consolidation. Telmate-branded services still operate at some facilities, particularly in western states and county jails that signed contracts before the consolidation.
Telmate has a known presence in county jails in states like Oregon, Montana, and Idaho. Their video and phone services are generally reliable, but families dealing with a Telmate account at a facility that has migrated — or is in the process of migrating — to the unified Aventiv platform may encounter duplicate accounts and unclear billing history.
The consolidation of Telmate, GTL, and Securus under Aventiv has not yet produced a unified consumer account system. Families who have accounts across multiple products under the same corporate parent still manage separate logins, separate balances, and separate customer service queues, which creates real friction during any account change event.
PrisonPhone and Smaller Regional Providers
A number of smaller regional providers operate county jail phone services in states where the national players have not competed for every contract. PrisonPhone, ICSolutions (a GTL brand), T-NETIX, and similar operators appear in rural and mid-size county jails across the country.
These platforms typically offer more limited online account management. Families using a regional provider often manage their accounts by phone with a customer service representative rather than through a web portal, which adds time and friction to any account change request.
The refund and transfer policies for regional providers vary significantly and are governed by the specific contract between the provider and the county. There is no standardized national policy, and families should always ask in writing — via email or certified mail — when requesting a refund or account transfer from a smaller provider.
How to Protect Your Account Balance Across Any Provider
The single most effective step a family can take is to avoid keeping a large pre-loaded balance in any jail communication account. Loading only what you expect to use in the next one to two weeks reduces the financial exposure if a transfer or vendor change happens without warning.
Documenting your account balances and payment history is equally important. Take screenshots of your account dashboard, note the exact dollar amount, and record the date. This documentation is essential if you need to file a refund request or dispute a charge with your state's public utilities commission, which regulates jail phone rates in many states.
Signing up for release and transfer alerts through a service that monitors booking records in real time means you learn about account-relevant events as they happen rather than after the damage is done. This is the specific gap that proactive family alert tools — like InMato's jail booking alerts included in InMato+ — are designed to close.
What to Do If Your Securus Balance Disappears After a Transfer
If you log into your Securus account after a transfer and your balance is gone or your loved one no longer appears in the system, start with Securus customer service to confirm the account status. Ask specifically whether the funds are held, refundable, or transferred — and request a written confirmation of the outcome.
If Securus cannot resolve the issue within a reasonable timeframe, your next step is to file a complaint with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, your state attorney general's consumer protection division, or the FCC if the issue involves interstate phone service charges. These regulators have jurisdiction over jail communication providers and do act on consumer complaints.
You can also contact your state's public utilities commission, particularly if the call was routed through an intrastate phone system. Several states have their own rate caps and refund requirements for jail phone services that go beyond the federal baseline.
Finding the Right Provider After a Disruption
After a transfer or vendor change, the fastest way to identify the correct provider for the new facility is to check the facility's official website or contact the jail's main line directly and ask which company handles phone and commissary accounts. This avoids the risk of loading money onto the wrong platform.
InMato LLC's free county jail search includes the official provider information for each facility in its network, which means a family searching how to find someone in jail or trying to figure out how to send money to someone in jail at a new facility can confirm the right provider before spending anything. The service is free, requires no account, and is available in English and Spanish — covering families who may be navigating this process in a second language.
For families who want an ongoing support structure — not just a one-time search — InMato+ provides the alert infrastructure that turns a reactive process into a proactive one. Knowing about a transfer before it disrupts a call schedule, or getting notified of a release date, means the account question almost never comes as a surprise.
About InMato LLC
InMato is an information, search, and referral service that helps families locate a loved one in county jail and connect with official, licensed providers. Founded by J.T. Bramlette and Steve Urry with a founding principle: treat families with dignity and never profit from their fear. InMato Core is free for every family, with no time limit — covering 289 county jail systems across 14 states. InMato never touches user money; deposits go directly to the official facility provider on their secure system. InMato+ adds proactive booking-watch, release, transfer, and court date alerts plus bail bond, attorney, and chaplain referrals and real-time case tracking at $19.99/month per loved one, cancel anytime. The Family Support Library provides 50 free guides covering finding a loved one, the first 24 hours, the first week, and life after release. Available in English and Spanish. InMato LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, headquartered in Santa Barbara, California.
Get Started with InMato LLC
Search for your loved one now at inmato.com — free for every family, with no time limit. Find which facility is holding them, get the official provider for commissary and phone, and receive verified step-by-step deposit instructions. No account required to search. Available in English and Spanish. Results arrive within 48 hours of completing your search profile.
Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/will-this-effect-my-account-with-securus3f-do-i-still
Written by InMato
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