Get a local business phone number in Merritt, MI

What area code is Merritt, MI?

Merritt township is a Census town in Bay County, Michigan, with an estimated 1,330 residents in 2024. All 3 exchanges NANPA lists for its rate center are in area code 231. Merritt is in the Eastern time zone.

According to NANPA's dialing-plan data, local calls within 231 are dialed as seven digits and toll calls as 1 plus ten digits.

Who holds Merritt phone exchanges

3 carriers hold the 3 exchanges assigned to Merritt's rate center. Telnet Worldwide, INC. has the most, with 1. 2 of them are pooled codes, which the holder shares with other carriers in blocks of 1,000 numbers. A business number in Merritt can come from any of these blocks; once it is yours, porting lets it move between providers.

Local prefixes for Merritt

A prefix (NXX) is the three digits after the area code. Numbers starting with these prefixes are rated as local to Merritt. The earliest assignment date recorded in the file for these codes is 2004. 1 of the 3 were assigned in 2020 or later.

When Merritt's exchanges were assigned

Assignment dates show when each block of Merritt numbers was added to the local supply.

What makes a number local to Merritt

Phone numbers are tied to a rate center, the local calling area used to decide whether a call is local or toll. Merritt's numbers are rated to the MERRITT rate center in NANPA's records. A business number from one of the prefixes above shows up on customers' phones as a Merritt number.

New local numbers are drawn from carrier inventory, so the exact 231 numbers available change over time; porting an existing number is free.

Businesses around Merritt

Merritt is part of the Bay City, MI metro area, home to 103,000 people in 2024. County Business Patterns counted 2,044 business establishments in the Bay City, MI metro area in 2023, employing 29,377 people. The largest sectors by establishment count are retail trade (356), health care and social assistance (327), and other services (except public administration) (235).

A Merritt number on Callata

For $99 a month, Callata puts a team of up to 5 on one plan ($20 for each person after that): up to 3 local numbers, unlimited inbound calls, a pooled allowance of 1,500 outbound US and Canada minutes per user, browser and cell calling, voicemail transcription with urgency triage, recorded calls with AI summaries and business-hours routing, with E911 on every number.

If you already have a number in Merritt, porting it to Callata is free. Texting from a local number requires a one-time carrier registration (10DLC, $49), and the numbers available in any area code depend on carrier inventory when you choose them.

Optional AI agents (receptionist, sales, support or scheduler) can answer calls after hours or when nobody picks up, take messages, text, email and transfer to your team. They are billed from prepaid AI minutes at $0.25 per minute, identify themselves as AI, and may only place outbound calls to people who consented, between 8am and 9pm.

Per-seat phone plans multiply by headcount. For the rounded average establishment size in the Bay City, MI metro area, 14 users on RingCentral RingEX Core come to $420.00 a month and on Ooma Office Pro $349.30, at month-to-month list prices checked September 28, 2026. On Callata the same 14 people cost $279.00 a month, less than either per-seat plan.