JPay Fees Explained — And How to Avoid Them

You load $20 onto your JPay account to send messages. Before you've sent a single one, $4.95 is gone — that's the deposit fee. You buy 10 message stamps: $3.50. You send your first message. Then a second. Then you get a video call alert and spend another $2.50 getting connected. By the time the month is over, that $20 barely covered two weeks of basic contact.

This is by design.

JPay's fee structure isn't complicated by accident. It's layered to make the total cost hard to see until after you've already spent it. A deposit fee here, a per-message charge there, a connection fee per video session, an inactivity fee if you step back for three months. Each individual charge sounds small. Together, they add up to hundreds of dollars a year for families who are already stretched thin.

This article breaks down every JPay fee, which ones you can actually avoid, and what to do if you'd rather pay nothing.

What Is JPay?

JPay is a prison financial services and communications company currently owned by Securus Technologies — one of the two companies (the other being GTL) that together dominate the prison telecom market in the United States. JPay was acquired by Securus in 2015 and continues to operate under its own brand.

JPay's services include messaging, money transfers, video calling, and tablet distribution. The company operates in correctional systems in more than 35 states, meaning that for a significant portion of incarcerated people and their families in the U.S., JPay isn't a choice — it's the only option the facility has contracted with.

JPay's business model has two primary revenue streams: transaction fees charged to families sending money and messages, and revenue-sharing arrangements with state Departments of Corrections. The DOC receives a percentage of what families pay. This creates a structural incentive for both the company and the state to maintain high fees — and a structural incentive to resist reform.

JPay's Complete Fee Breakdown

Here is every fee JPay charges, what it costs, and what you need to know about each one.

A few things worth noting about this table. The deposit fee percentage varies by state because each DOC negotiates its own contract with JPay. Some states have pushed for lower fees through regulatory pressure or advocacy; others have not. If you're in a high-fee state, the deposit fee alone can wipe out a meaningful portion of every transfer before any messages are sent.

The inactivity fee deserves special attention. It's triggered at 90 days of no account activity — which catches families who take a break, whose incarcerated family member gets transferred to a facility without JPay access, or who simply forget about a balance. JPay will drain that balance at $2.99/month until it hits zero. There is no notification that warns you this is about to start.

Why These Fees Are Legal (But Ethically Wrong)

The short answer: because state governments allow them, and in many cases profit from them.

Prison telecom contracts work through a site commission model. JPay or another provider bids for an exclusive contract with a state DOC. Part of the bid is how much revenue the DOC will receive from fees collected. States have chosen providers based partly on how much money the state gets back — which means states have a financial incentive to select providers with higher fees, not lower ones.

This is regulatory capture in practice. The entities that should be regulating these fees — state governments and the FCC — are either benefiting from them or have historically lacked the will to act. The FCC has taken steps to cap per-minute rates on prison phone calls after years of advocacy pressure, and some of those caps have extended to video calling. But messaging fees remain largely unregulated at the federal level.

Several states have moved independently to ban or cap prison telecom fees — including California, Colorado, and Connecticut, which have made in-facility calls free. The movement is gaining ground. But for families in states that haven't acted, the fees stand.

Organizations like Worth Rises, Prison Policy Initiative, and the Human Rights Defense Center have been central to the reform movement. If you want this to change in your state, connecting with their advocacy work is where to start.

The Fees You Can Actually Avoid

Not every JPay fee is unavoidable. Here's what you can skip:

Inactivity fees. This is the easiest fee to avoid — just don't leave money sitting idle. If you know you're going to be inactive for more than 90 days, withdraw or spend your remaining balance before the 90-day window closes. JPay does have a balance withdrawal process, though it's not prominently advertised. Alternatively, stay active — even a single message purchase resets the 90-day clock.

Expedited processing fees. Never use expedited processing. Standard processing typically takes one to two business days, which is almost always fine for money transfers. The $2.95 expedited fee is pure profit for JPay. There is no legitimate reason to pay it for routine transfers.

Video call fees. If budget is tight, skip video calls entirely and use messaging. The per-minute fees plus the session connection fee make video calls the most expensive way to stay in contact through JPay. Text-based messages deliver the same information at a fraction of the cost.

High deposit fees. If JPay offers a bank transfer or ACH option in your state, use it. Card deposit fees (4–10%) are higher than bank transfer fees in states where that option is available. Check your account settings before loading money via card by default.

What You Actually Can't Avoid on JPay

If your facility has an exclusive JPay contract and no alternative messaging platforms are approved, you will pay for stamps. That's the baseline cost of messaging. You can minimize it — buy larger stamp bundles where the per-stamp cost is slightly lower, send efficient messages rather than short back-and-forth exchanges — but you cannot eliminate it while staying on JPay.

The deposit fee is also unavoidable if you need to add funds. Even if you use the lowest-fee payment method, something between 4% and $5.95 will be taken before your balance reflects your deposit.

Alternatives That Don't Charge Per Message

Several platforms offer free or lower-cost messaging, depending on your facility:

YardLink — Free messaging with no per-message fees, no stamps, no deposit charges, no inactivity fees. Where YardLink is available on facility tablets, the cost of messaging is zero. Create a free account and check if your facility is supported.

CorrLinks — Used in the federal Bureau of Prisons system. Free for family members. If your family member is in federal custody, CorrLinks is likely the right platform — and it doesn't charge per message on the family side.

Edovo — Education-focused platform with messaging capabilities. Some features are free depending on the facility contract. Worth checking if your facility uses Edovo primarily for education programming.

For a full comparison of JPay alternatives, see our guide: Best JPay Alternatives in 2026.

How Much the Average Family Pays JPay Per Year

Most families don't tally this up until they're looking back at a year of bank statements. Let's do it explicitly.

That's for one message per day, two video calls per month, and modest use of the platform. Families who message more frequently or have more video calls can easily spend $500–$700 per year — per incarcerated family member.

Stamp costs alone, at one message per day: $146/year. That's just to say hello and hear back once a day. The cost of transmitting that message over the internet is a fraction of a cent. The difference between what it costs and what you're charged is the margin that funds executive salaries, facility revenue sharing, and shareholder returns.

How to File a Complaint About JPay Fees

If you've been charged incorrectly, had money disappear to inactivity fees without warning, or simply want to register that these fees are wrong, there are formal channels:

FCC Consumer Complaint Center. The FCC has jurisdiction over some prison telecom rates and has used complaint data to justify regulatory action. File at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov. Select "phone" as the service type and describe the specific fee issue.

State Public Utility Commission. Many states have PUCs that regulate telecom services. Filing a complaint creates a record and may trigger investigation. Find your state PUC at naruc.org/about-naruc/state-utility-commissioners/.

Worth Rises. This advocacy organization specifically tracks prison telecom abuses and uses complaint data to build regulatory and legislative cases. Their website at worthrises.org has resources for filing and escalating complaints.

State Attorney General's consumer protection division. If you believe you've been deceived about fees — for example, if fees were not clearly disclosed before you were charged — a consumer protection complaint is appropriate. Most state AGs have online complaint portals.

If your goal is simply to stop paying JPay's fees altogether, the most direct path is switching to a platform that doesn't charge per message. See our full breakdown: JPay Alternatives in 2026 — Free & Cheaper Options.