Verizon offering $20 credit for those affected by the service outage

Verizon experienced a very large service outage for seven hours on Wednesday, January 14, 2026. Thousands of customers had no cell service for much of the day.

Verizon is offering a $20 credit on the bills of customers who were affected by the outage, but the catch is that you have to redeem the credit. Perhaps the motivation is that many people will not take the steps to claim the $20 credit.

Verizon is sending texts to customers who are eligible for the $20 credit. Be very wary of texts with links, because there may also be phishing schemes going on. The text I received was legitimate, but there may be others that are not.

Accepting the Offer

Instead, you can simply log onto your Verizon account (from the website or the app) and check for the offer.

You should see a button that says “Take Action.” Click on that. Then you should see an item for redeeming the credit. Click on that to redeem your $20 credit.

What if you don’t see the “Take Action” Button?

If you don’t see the “Take Action” button, here is a workaround: Click on “Contact us” and then “Chat With Us.” When I did that, there was a link to go to a version of the Verizon homepage that does have the “Take Action” button.

Here’s the chat screen: