Keeping Orange PAYG active

plasticflower

Kind a bit of a long story but basically I'd like to know what do you have to do to keep an Orange pay as you go account active!

Long story! - I had a pay monthly account which was due to come to an end in August this year but I am travelling around South America. After several unhelpful discussions with various departments before I left the UK, one suggestion was that I switched to a PAYG account to keep my number instead of lose it when the contract ended. I told them the countries I would be visiting but now discover that roaming is not available on PAYG although it was had I stayed on the monthly contract!

I won't be visiting the next Orange roaming country for another 6 or 7 months so I want to know if or how I keep my number?! Orange seem unable/unwilling to help me so I wonder if any forum members may know?!

To add to the frustration I asked for my father to be added to my account to sort any potention problems whilst I am travelling and they now deny any other name is on the account. :mad:

Any advice appreciated. Thanks

Cisco001

to my understanding, it would stay active if you use it.

May be asking your father to turn on the phone once a month and make a 2 sec phone call to another phone?

grumbler

At Orange it has to be 1 chargeable call/text every 180 days.

You can port it to giffgaff where an incoming call or text can keep it alive.

tyllwyd

Is the phone with you or in the UK? If it is with you, do you want the keep your current number on the phone you have with you, or would porting the number to a phone in the UK that your dad could look after be an option?

Is the phone set up with an online account? I often buy extras for my orange payg which expire after a certain amount of time. Perhaps if your dad can log in online and buy an extra for, say, £1 (something like a data bundle which lasts for a day) then that will be a chargeable event and keep the account active.

NFH

The next time I live abroad, I'll port my existing Orange UK number to Giffgaff. It's also very cost-effective for brief trips to the UK, as they charge 20p/day for 20MB/day.

plasticflower

Thanks for your replies. - Cisco001 the point is I am roaming with the phone but unable to use it. If it was in the uk I wouldn't have a problem.

tyllwyd, the phone is with me but since I cannot access a roaming partner for about 2/3 of my trip I have resorted to being without my phone number until I return early next year. An option I did discuss with my Dad was that I try and ask for another sim and he would keep it active in the uk. Or ask for puk and port the number. I've had the phone number for many years so trying to keep it is my priority.

I'll also check online and see what options that gives me!

Thanks all! :-)