Where has my credit gone

pothole50

I am on Vodaphone and always carry a spare mobile in my car, just a cheap one off ebay, good battery life and I put £10 credit on the card.
The other day I forgot my mobile so went to make a call on the spare in the car, only to be told my card was not valid any more. OK its been a while since I made a call on it. So my question, is this normal for Vodaphone or any provider if the card is not used and has credit on it, to make it invalid after a certain time. I know Virgin dont do this as I found an old sim I had not used for at least a year that still worked and had 24p on it.

Jon_01

If there's been no traffic through the sim for 6 months they get terminated. The number get recycled after another 6 months and any credit is lost.

Virgin must be unique in not doing this, all the other networks do. . .

eilidh_s

I work at sea and when I was a cadet I had a payg on vodafone. I remember checking how long credit lasted as I would be abroad for up to four months at a time and there was no way I was going to use/waste all my credit on a five second phonecall home but I was worried that not using my phone for a length of time would mean I would lose it anyway. About 8 years ago your credit lasted 180 days and then it dissappeared.

asoesman

Jon_01 wrote: »

If there's been no traffic through the sim for 6 months they get terminated. The number get recycled after another 6 months and any credit is lost.

Virgin must be unique in not doing this, all the other networks do. . .

Are they really allowed to do this, just take your money? Just had the same happen to me on T-Mobile.

Annie._2

asoesman wrote: »

Are they really allowed to do this, just take your money? Just had the same happen to me on T-Mobile.

It would have been in the terms and conditions which you would have agreed to when you activated and registered your PAYG SIM card.

There are only a certain number of mobile numbers in the UK and if a number is not used for a period of months, the number is disconnected and reissued after a period of being in 'quarantine'.

There is no way for the networks to know if the number is going to be used again and they cannot keep a SIM active indefinitely.

Jon_01

There's a finite number of numbers, they have to reused. Also, the networks can't clog up the servers with number where the sims been lost, left in a draw, thrown away etc...

As Ann says, it's clearly stated in the T&C's.

tazdevil01985

They should be able to reactivate the sim, if it is dead and give your money back (even if its as a good will gesture)

asoesman

I do get that they need to recycle the numbers, but there's no need to delete the account.

Surely they should keep you account details and your balance, even if they re-use the number. If you then start to use the account again, it would be a simple matter of re-issuing a SIM card.

Or, if they do want to end your account, they should re-fund the outstanding amount. Maybe less a reasonable admin fee? But at the very least, they should give you some notice.

It only seems fair.