How to Transfer Airtel Kenya Airtime

Did you know that you can share your Airtel airtime similar to Safaricom’s sambaza and Telkom’s PEWA? The procedure may be a little different from what we’re accustomed to in Safaricom, but the end result of transferring your Airtime is the same.

Airtel calls their service ME2U. The minimum amount of airtime you can transfer is set to Ksh5 while the maximum is capped at Ksh2500. The airtime transfer can be completed in 3 different ways:

1. Using USSD Short Code
2. Using SIM Menu
3. Using SMS

1. Transfer Airtime using USSD Short Code

1. Dial *140# with your Airtel line.
2. Reply with the Airtel number of the recipient.
3. Next, reply with the amount to transfer between 5 and 2500.
4. You’ll then get a message that your request has been received and is being processed.
   
5. Shortly after this you’ll receive an SMS from ME2U confirming the transfer and the amount that you’ve been charged if any.
   
6. The recipient will also receive an SMS confirming the received amount.
   

Now, let’s see how to transfer using the SIM Menu/Toolkit.

2. Transfer Airtime using the SIM Menu

1. On your phone go to your SIM Card menu (STK / Sim Card Toolkit / SIM Applications) and select Airtel Services.
2. Inside the services’ menu select the ME2U option.
   
3. Depending on your SIM card you’ll find either one or two options in the menu — Send airtime credit and Change PIN. Select the first option.
   
4. Now enter the amount you wish to transfer followed by the Phone number of the recipient in the next menu. You may also enter the phone number by searching it using the Phonebook option instead of entering it manually.
5. You will then be prompted to enter your ME2U PIN. If it’s your first time using the service, the default pin is 0000. You can change this later on, as explained at the end of this article.
6. You’ll shortly after this receive an SMS from ME2U confirming a successful transfer.

3. Transfer Airtime using SMS

1. Open your SMS Messaging app and compose a message in this format: 2u [phone number] [amount] [password] e.g. to send Ksh10 to the number 073333333 you’ll compose: 2u 0733333333 10 0000
   
2. Next, send this SMS to 5050.
3. You will shortly after this receive an SMS from ME2U confirming whether the transfer was successful.

How to Change your ME2U PIN

As mentioned earlier, the default ME2U pin is 0000. To change it, you can use the Change PIN option that can be found by going to the ME2U option inside the Airtel SIM card Menu.

You can also change it using SMS by sending the following message in the format Pin [old password] [new password] to 5050 e.g Pin 0000 1234

Please note that the password should be a 4-digit number. For security reasons, make sure to use a unique PIN that you don’t use anywhere else.