Best Contract for low use?

quantium

We have a second Vodafone PAYG mobile that is seldom used, but useful in emergencies. However Vodafone regularly steal the credit. It has been suggested that this is legitimate in law because it is in their agreement that you must make a call every 90 days or lose your credit. But someone else suggested that if the agreement said that "If you don't use your telephone every 90 days an employee of Vodafone will rape your children" that doesn't make such action legitimate. Therefore neither should it make theft legitimate.

Does anyone know of a tarrif with another company that would allow for such occasional use? On the basis that a wasted call every 90 days at say £1 would be about 4 calls a year costing £4, a banker's standing order for £4 with calls at cost should keep a line open until the standing order is ceased by the subscriber.

We know of several elderly people who keep mobiles for emergencies, and suspect that many will find that they don't work when they need them. Someone could even die as a result. I wonder whether Vodafone's conditions of use make the employee who cuts off the subscriber immune from prosecution for murder or manslaughter? (Or the employee who wrote the software that does it.)