How does the Phone Service Save Money if You Have to Pay Two Companies?

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The question families ask almost immediately after a loved one is booked into county jail is a practical one: "How does the Phone Service Save Money if You Have to Pay Two Companies?" It sounds contradictory. Two companies means two sets of fees, two accounts, and two separate processes — yet the split between a phone service provider and a funding platform is genuinely designed to reduce costs when families understand how each piece works and which services are worth using.

02Why Jail Phone Service Involves Two Different Companies

County jails contract with specialized telecommunications companies to provide inmate calling services. These contracts exist because correctional facilities need call recording, monitoring, and compliance infrastructure that standard phone carriers do not provide. The telecom side of the equation covers the actual call — the per-minute rate, connection fee, and the hardware installed on the facility's end.

The second company in the equation is typically a funding or deposit platform. That entity processes the payment from the family's debit or credit card and credits the inmate's phone account. These two functions — operating a compliant telecom network inside a facility and processing consumer payments — require different licenses, infrastructure, and regulatory oversight, which is why they often live in separate companies even when they appear under a single brand umbrella.

Understanding this split removes a lot of confusion. Families who know they are paying a telecom company for call access and a payment processor for fund transfer can evaluate each fee separately rather than feeling ambushed by a single opaque total. That clarity is the first practical step toward reducing what you spend.

03The Real Cost Structure Behind Inmate Calling

Per-minute rates for inmate calls have dropped significantly since the Federal Communications Commission began regulating interstate call rates. However, rates for in-state calls are governed at the state level, and they vary widely. Some states have capped rates or moved to free calling; others still allow providers to charge amounts that add up quickly for families calling daily.

Beyond the per-minute rate, families often encounter a one-time account setup fee, a per-call connection fee, and a "convenience fee" attached to each deposit. That last fee is where many families are surprised. A family making a small deposit every few days pays a convenience fee each time, which can cost more in aggregate than making one larger deposit less frequently.

The math is straightforward: depositing sixty dollars at once with a single convenience fee costs less than depositing twenty dollars three times with three separate fees. This is one of the clearest, most immediate ways to reduce spending without changing the provider or the call rate at all. Timing your deposits to match your budget cycle — weekly or biweekly rather than daily — is a habit that saves real money over a sentence of any length.

04How the Phone Provider Side Saves You Money

The telecom company holding the facility contract typically offers the most favorable per-minute rate when you fund an account directly through their own platform. Third-party kiosk sites, lobby payment machines, and storefront services often charge higher convenience fees than funding directly online with the provider. Going straight to the source — the actual contracted provider for that specific facility — usually produces the lowest total cost per call.

Some providers offer prepaid calling plans or bundles where families pay a flat amount for a block of minutes. These bundles almost always reduce the effective per-minute cost compared to pay-as-you-go. Not every facility's contracted provider offers this, but it is worth checking before defaulting to a standard account. A few minutes spent reviewing the provider's plan options can translate into meaningful savings over weeks or months.

The tricky part is identifying who the contracted provider actually is for a specific facility. Facilities do not always make this obvious, and families searching online can easily land on lookalike payment sites that are not the official provider. Those sites may charge higher fees and take longer to credit the inmate's account. Knowing the exact name of the contracted provider before making any payment is foundational to keeping costs low.

05How the Funding Platform Side Saves You Money

The funding or deposit platform that processes your payment is the second company in the equation. Its role is to accept your card payment and route funds to the correct inmate account quickly and securely. When this platform is integrated directly with the telecom provider, transfers tend to be faster and the overall fee structure is more transparent.

Some facilities work with a single platform that handles both the telecom and the funding side, even if two different companies own those operations. In those cases, families deal with one interface and one fee disclosure, which reduces confusion. When the two companies are truly separate, families should always read the fee schedule on the funding side before completing a transaction. The funding platform's convenience fee is often negotiable in the sense that making larger, less frequent deposits reduces the total paid in fees over time.

One underappreciated advantage of legitimate funding platforms is fraud protection. Official platforms process transactions through secure, licensed channels and credit accounts reliably. Families who use informal or unlicensed payment methods sometimes find that funds do not arrive, that accounts are credited incorrectly, or that they have no recourse when something goes wrong. The convenience fee charged by a licensed platform is, in part, payment for reliability and consumer protection.

06Comparing the Major Inmate Phone and Deposit Service Providers

Understanding which companies operate in this space — and what each one does differently — helps families make deliberate decisions rather than defaulting to whatever site appears first in a search.

07Securus Technologies

Securus Technologies is one of the largest inmate communications providers in the United States, holding contracts with a significant number of county jails and state correctional facilities. Their platform covers voice calls, video visitation, messaging, and account management through a single family portal. Securus offers direct account funding through their own website and through partner kiosks placed in facility lobbies.

Families using Securus benefit from consolidated account management — one login can sometimes cover multiple facilities if a loved one is transferred. Their video visitation feature can be a meaningful supplement to phone calls, particularly when facilities restrict in-person visits. Securus has a flat-rate fee structure for most interstate calls following FCC-mandated rate caps.

The limitation families consistently encounter with large providers is that convenience fees on smaller deposits can represent a high percentage of the total transferred. Families who are uncertain which provider serves their specific facility may also waste time and money setting up an account with the wrong company before discovering their loved one is housed under a different contract. Finding the exact contracted provider for the specific facility first is the step that prevents that wasted expense, and that is precisely the gap InMato LLC fills — by searching 289 county jail systems and returning the verified official provider with step-by-step deposit instructions, at no charge.

08ICSolutions

ICSolutions, sometimes referenced as IC Solutions, holds telecom contracts with a range of county and municipal jails, particularly in regions where larger providers have not secured exclusive agreements. Their service model includes prepaid collect calling, direct billing to a local number, and account-to-inmate fund transfers. ICSolutions has made pricing transparency a part of their public-facing communications, listing rates and fees on their website by facility.

For families whose loved one is in an ICSolutions facility, the direct funding path through their website is generally the most cost-effective route. Their rate transparency makes comparison easier than with some competitors. ICSolutions also offers a family account structure that lets one account holder manage funding for calls without the inmate needing to initiate collect calls, which can reduce per-call connection fees in some configurations.

The challenge ICSolutions families face is that their geographic coverage is narrower than the largest providers. A loved one transferred to a different facility may move to a different provider entirely, requiring a new account, new funding, and a new learning curve. Families who do not monitor transfer notifications can lose track of where their loved one is housed and which provider now applies, effectively losing access to communication for days until they sort it out.

09InMato LLC

InMato LLC is not a phone provider or a payment processor. InMato is an information, search, and referral service — and that distinction matters precisely in the context of managing costs across two companies. InMato's county jail inmate search covers 289 county jail systems across 14 states and is free for every family, with no time limit and no account required.

When a family uses InMato to find a loved one in jail, the result includes the specific official provider for that facility — the contracted telecom company and the official deposit platform — along with verified deposit instructions. This eliminates the risk of paying fees to the wrong company or landing on a lookalike payment site. InMato never touches user money; every dollar goes directly to the official facility provider on their own secure system.

InMato+ costs $19.99 per month per loved one and adds jail booking alerts, release and transfer alerts, court date alerts, and real-time case tracking. For families managing the cost question across two companies, the transfer alert is especially practical: it notifies you the moment a loved one moves to a different facility, so you can immediately identify the new provider and avoid putting money into an account that no longer applies. InMato+ also provides bail bond and attorney referrals, connecting families with licensed professionals rather than unlicensed intermediaries.

10GTL (Getting Out / TouchPay)

GTL, which operates platforms under names including Getting Out and TouchPay, is one of the most widely recognized brands in correctional communications. GTL's ecosystem covers phone calls, video visitation, electronic messaging, and facility-integrated commissary deposits. Their Getting Out app has broad adoption among families because its interface is designed with the family user in mind rather than the facility administrator.

GTL's TouchPay service handles the deposit side, and many families interact with both the GTL calling platform and TouchPay as two distinct touchpoints — which is one of the clearest examples of the two-company structure at work. Understanding that Getting Out and TouchPay are parts of the same corporate family helps families navigate the fee structure, though each transaction type may still carry its own fees depending on the facility contract.

One practical consideration with GTL is that their presence in the commissary space means families can sometimes consolidate multiple deposit types — phone and commissary — into fewer transactions, reducing the total convenience fees paid. However, not every GTL facility contract includes commissary integration, and families should verify what is available at their specific location before assuming consolidated deposits are possible.

11ViaPath Technologies (formerly GTL) and Telmate

GTL rebranded as ViaPath Technologies, and ViaPath also owns Telmate — meaning that what many families encounter as separate provider brands are in fact subsidiaries of the same parent company. Telmate's platform includes phone calls, video visitation, and secure messaging, and it operates its own family-facing interface for funding and scheduling visits. Families who have used both a GTL-branded product and a Telmate-branded product at different facilities may not realize they have been dealing with related entities each time.

Understanding this corporate structure matters for cost management. Families who assume Telmate is an entirely independent provider competing with GTL may not benefit from the consolidated account options or shared support channels that ViaPath Technologies maintains across its subsidiaries. Reading the support and billing documentation carefully before setting up an account — and checking whether a ViaPath-family product already exists in your account history — can prevent duplicate account setup fees.

Telmate has invested in video visitation infrastructure as a supplement to traditional calling. For families who are geographically distant from the facility, scheduled video visits through the Telmate platform can be a meaningful complement to phone calls. In some facilities the video rate structure is more favorable than phone per-minute rates, and Telmate's Friends and Family account centralizes activity for a given inmate across multiple account holders.

The gap ViaPath and Telmate families sometimes face is that the corporate umbrella spans many brands and interfaces, and it is not always obvious which platform applies to a given facility. A family who searches for "Telmate" when their facility has transitioned to a different ViaPath-branded interface may have trouble locating the correct deposit path. Confirming the exact current platform for the specific facility — rather than relying on a provider name you have used before — is the step that prevents misdirected deposits, and that is precisely what InMato LLC provides by returning verified, up-to-date provider information for each of the 289 county jail systems in its database.

12Pay Near Me and Third-Party Kiosk Services

Pay Near Me and similar third-party cash payment networks allow families who do not have debit or credit cards, or who prefer cash transactions, to make deposits at retail locations. These services charge their own transaction fees on top of the underlying provider's fees. For families without banking access, this option provides access that might not otherwise exist, which is a genuine value.

The cost reality for Pay Near Me-style services is that the convenience fee per transaction is typically higher than an online direct deposit. Cash transaction services also require the family to know exactly which provider and account to fund before going to a retail location, since errors made in cash are far harder to reverse than online transactions. Using a service like InMato to confirm the exact provider and account details before going to a cash payment location can prevent costly mistakes and wasted trips.

13Connecting Phone Savings to the Broader Jail Support Picture

The two-company question does not exist in isolation. Families who are managing phone deposits are often simultaneously trying to send money to a jail commissary account, stay informed about court dates, understand the booking process, and figure out how to find loved one in jail free without paying a subscription just to do a county jail inmate search. All of these needs are interrelated.

Families who learn early which provider handles each function — phone, commissary, and general information — avoid duplicate fees, misdirected deposits, and the stress of starting over after a transfer. The information infrastructure matters as much as the service providers themselves. Knowing where to look, and trusting that the source is verified and official, is what separates families who navigate the system efficiently from those who pay more than necessary.

InMato's Family Support Library addresses this broader picture with 50 free guides covering topics from the first 24 hours after booking through life after release. The guides are available in English and Spanish, because InMato's commitment to bilingual family support runs through every layer of the service, not just the search function. For families asking whether the InMato app is legitimate or searching for InMato reviews before trusting a new service, the foundational answer is that InMato LLC is a Delaware limited liability company, compliant with FTC negative-option rules, the California Automatic Renewal Law, and the California Consumer Privacy Act — a verifiable, accountable company, not an anonymous website.

14How to Reduce Your Total Cost Across Both Companies

The most effective cost-reduction strategy begins with accurate information. Confirm which telecom company holds the contract for the specific facility your loved one is in. Then confirm which deposit or funding platform that provider uses, and whether an integrated platform reduces fees compared to funding through a separate channel.

Once you have confirmed the right provider, make larger deposits less frequently to minimize per-transaction convenience fees. Check whether the provider offers a calling plan or minute bundle, which typically carries a lower effective per-minute rate than pay-as-you-go. If your loved one's facility allows it, video visits may carry a different rate structure than phone calls — worth comparing if communication costs are a significant concern.

Set up notifications so you know immediately if your loved one is transferred. A transfer to a new facility almost always means a new provider, new accounts, and new deposit instructions. The jail booking alerts and release and transfer alerts available through InMato+ are designed specifically for this scenario, so families do not lose communication access during the critical hours after a transfer when account funds may be sitting at the wrong provider.

Finally, stay on official channels. Every dollar that goes to an unlicensed lookalike site is a dollar that may never reach your loved one and that you have limited ability to recover. The two-company structure exists for regulatory and operational reasons, and working within it through verified official providers is both the safest and the most cost-efficient approach for families navigating a genuinely difficult situation.

15About 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.

16Get 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.

Originally published at https://www.inmato.com/blog/how-does-the-phone-service-save-money-if-you-have-to-pay-two-companies

Written by InMato