Use amaana for instant secure payments from your cell phone or Web browser. This page will help you get started with our intuitive payment service. If you have any further questions, bug reports, or useful feedback, please email us at amaana@amaana.com. You will also find answers to some common questions at the bottom of this page.

SMS Help

Text 'help' or 'h' from your cell phone for our interactive SMS help menu:

+92 301 4 262262 Mobilink
+92 322 4 262262 Warid
+92 334 4 262262 Ufone
+92 313 3 262262 Zong

You can also get specific help on SMS commands by texting 'help' followed by an SMS command, like 'help send' for sending money:

send
request
air
cancel
balance
add
withdraw
name
id
pin
broadcast
register

Registration

SMS

Text 'register firstname lastname' to +92 33 44 262262 (amaana).

You will need to have your own cell phone to register with amaana for instant secure payments. Just follow the simple instructions we send you over SMS (or email) and you will be up and running within 5 minutes.

Logging In

SMS

Once registered you will be able to use amaana with your cell phone without the need to log in or enter a password.

Web

You can log in on the Web by entering your cell phone number or email address, and your password. If you are logging in on the Web for the first time after registering with your cell phone, please use the one-time initial password that you received on your cell phone at the end of the registration process.

When logging in with your cell phone number, please enter the number in full international format, like 923335551212 for Pakistan or 16505551212 for the United States.

Checkout

You can copy and paste a few simple lines of HTML on to your Web site to start accepting instant secure payments from anyone with a cell phone. Go to Tools to get up and running in a few minutes.

Earning Rewards

Registration

You will get an instant registration reward when you successfully complete our registration process.

Referrals

You will get an instant referral reward when someone registers with amaana to accept your payment. You can send money to or request money from anyone with a cell phone number or an email address.

Please go to Rewards on the Web to check registration and referral reward amounts.

Sending Money

SMS

Text 'pay [amount] [cell phone number]' or 'pay [amount] [email address]', like 'pay 10 923335551212' or 'pay 10 email@address.com' to send money to +92 333 555 1212 or email@address.com. The amount '10' will convert to Rs.10 if you are a Pakistani user or $10 if you are a US user.

Web

Go to Send Money and you will be able to send money to a cell phone number, an email address, or a contact from your pre-populated address book.

Requesting Money

SMS

Text 'ask [amount] [cell phone number]' or 'ask [amount] [email address]', like 'ask 10 923335551212' or 'ask 10 email@address.com' to request money from +92 333 555 1212 or email@address.com. The amount '10' will convert to Rs.10 if you are a Pakistani user or $10 if you are a US user.

Web

Go to Request Money and you will be able to request money from a cell phone number, an email address, or a contact from your pre-populated address book.

Sending Airtime

SMS

Text 'air [amount]' like 'air 100' to get a top up PIN for Rs.100 worth of airtime sent to your cell phone.

Text 'air [amount] [cell phone number]' or 'air [amount] [email address]' like 'air 100 923335551212' or 'air 100 email@address.com' to send a top up PIN for Rs.100 worth of airtime to +92 333 555 1212 or email@address.com.

We will intelligently figure out which carrier's PIN to send out based on the receiving cell phone's area code, like 321 for Warid in Pakistan. For airtime sent to an email address we will use your carrier by default. You can specify a carrier by adding the name of the carrier to any airtime command like 'air [carrier] ...' e.g. 'air warid 100 email@address.com' will send a Warid top up PIN for Rs.100 worth of airtime to email@address.com.

Canceling Payments

SMS

You can cancel your last cancelable payment or request by texting 'cancel'. You also specify if you would like to cancel a payment or a request like 'cancel payment' or 'cancel request'.

Web

You can click on Cancel next to the cancelable payment in your transaction history or within transaction details.

You can cancel pending requests sent from you to others or uncollected payments sent to unregistered cell phone numbers or email addresses.

Checking your amaana Credit

You can see your current amaana credit on your Summary page on the Web or by texting 'balance' from your cell phone.

Adding Funds

You can add funds to amaana in Pakistan and the United States.

SMS

Pakistan

Text 'add 1000 cheque' to add Rs.1000 to your amaana by cheque. We will ask you to mail us a cheque* with your cell phone number on it and we will assign a transaction ID to your add funds transaction. We recommend overnight shipments by TCS so that your add funds transaction can be conveniently tracked and completed in a couple days.

* Please do not mail us cash cheques for your own security. Use crossed cheques, pay orders, demand drafts, or money orders.

Text 'add 1000 deposit' to add Rs.1000 to your amaana by bank deposit. We will ask you to make a direct deposit into our bank account with your cell phone number on the bank deposit slip. We recommend deposits in our Bank AlFalah account so that your deposits can be conveniently tracked and completed by the next day.

United States

Text 'add 100 bank' to instantly add $100 to your amaana from your verified bank account via the United States Automated Clearing House or ACH. Before you can instantly add funds from your cell phone, you will need to verify your US bank account through our Add Bank Account process on the Web. During this automated process, we will make two penny deposits in your bank account and we will send you an email with instructions on verifying the amounts of those deposits.

Web

Pakistan

Go to Add Funds and choose from add funds via cheque in the mail or direct bank deposit.

For a cheque in the mail we will ask you to mail us a cheque* with your cell phone number on it and we will assign a transaction ID to your add funds transaction. We recommend overnight shipments by TCS so that your add funds transaction can be conveniently tracked and completed in a couple days.

* Please do not mail us cash cheques for your own security. Use crossed cheques, pay orders, demand drafts, or money orders.

For a direct bank deposit we will ask you to make a direct deposit into our bank account with your cell phone number on the bank deposit slip and we will assign a transaction ID to your add funds transaction. We recommend deposits in our Bank AlFalah account so that your deposits can be conveniently tracked and completed by the next day.

United States

Go to Add Funds and choose to add funds from your verified bank account via the United States Automated Clearing House or ACH. Before you can instantly add funds from your cell phone, you will need to verify your US bank account through our Add Bank Account process on the Web. During this automated process, we will make two penny deposits in your bank account and we will send you an email with instructions on verifying the amounts of those deposits.

Withdrawing Funds

You can withdraw funds from amaana in Pakistan. You will have to add a primary mailing address to your amaana under Profile on the Web so that we can courier the withdrawal cheque to you. We use overnight shipments by TCS so that your withdraw funds transaction can be conveniently tracked and completed in a couple days.

SMS

Text 'get 1000' to withdraw Rs.1000 to your primary mailing address.

Web

Go to Withdraw Funds and choose the mailing address you would like your cheque to be couriered to. Your primary mailing address will be selected by default.

Adding a cell phone number

You can add a new cell phone number to your amaana or remove an old one.

SMS

Text 'cell 923335551212' to add +92 333 555 1212 to your amaana. We will send a verification code to your new cell phone and an email to you with further instructions on adding your new cell phone number to amaana.

Web

Go to Profile and a add a new cell phone number under Phones. We will send a verification code to your new cell phone and an email to you with further instructions on adding your new cell phone number to amaana.

Adding an email address

You can add a new email address to your amaana or remove an old one.

SMS

Text 'email email@address.com' to add email@address.com to your amaana. We will send an email to you with further instructions on adding your new email address to amaana.

Web

Go to Profile and a add a new email address under Emails. We will send an email to you with further instructions on adding your new email address to amaana.

Fees & Limits

Please go to Fees & Limits on the Web to check our fees and limits.

We only charge a fixed percentage fee when you withdraw funds from amaana. All payments are free!

We have minimum and maximum limits on transactions and monthly limits on volume.

Security

We offer risk free payments that are tracked in real time between users with verified cell phone numbers. We monitor our transactions for fraudulent activity and reserve the right to track and report suspicious activity on our payment system to law enforcement agencies.

Please do not give your cell phone to someone that you do not trust.

Please deactivate your lost cell phone immediately to avoid unauthorized access to your funds.

Please do not share your password with anyone or note it down anywhere.

Every transaction in our system happens between verified sources so we can track any stolen funds in the event that the security of your amaana account has been compromised and your funds have been inappropriately used.

How can payments be free?

We make payments free by charging a small percentage fee from those who withdraw money from amaana, like merchants who may need monthly cash flow. In this manner, those who need the money the most pay for the entire community, and as a result everyone stays happy - you for not paying anything, the merchant for accepting payments safely and easily, and we for making everyone else happy :) Free payments also make micro payments possible, down to one rupee or one dollar, and we think that is really cool!

What does amaana mean?

amaana means trust in Arabic and is at the root of the same meaning in many languages, like amanat in Urdu and Persian, and emanet in Turkish.

Who are the people at amaana?

Most of our thought leaders come from Stanford University in the Silicon Valley and most of our engineers come from FAST in Lahore. We have professional backgrounds in technology from leading companies like Palm, Apple, and Morgan Stanley.

Why is amaana based out of Lahore?

We see Pakistan as the perfect place to develop an alternate payment platform that will enable ecommerce in the emerging world. Pakistan has the fastest growing cellular subscriber base in the world, is ranked 6th on the planet by population, is in a state of economic hyper growth, and is very nicely placed between the Middle East, Central Asia, China, and India.