Mobile Companies cancelling pay as you go phones

NE5

Hello, does anybody know if mobile companies are allowed to take money from a pay as you go phone if they change their terms ?

I had an old pay as you go mobile, which was used rarely. About a year ago, I went to use it to keep it active and found they had taken my balance away (prob about 8-10 quid) and invalidated the SIM.

I went down, complained, but they said I had to put a new SIM in and top it up, and if I didn't use it for 12 weeks or so, it would be cancelled as per their terms. So long as I kept it validated and sent a text etc every couple of months, it would be fine.

After 8 weeks I went to validate the mobile, and found the new 10 quid credit was gone, although I can send a text to it, I can't reply.

So this is the 2nd time.

 They say on their website, they now do 10 pound a month pay as you go "bundles", which to me means you can put 10 pound on but have to do it every month. This is the same as a contract, surely, and for the 2nd time cancelled a credit and changed their terms after I paid them money.

 What do people suggest I do ? 

emmajones1976

Find a company where you are allowed to use a phone even less than once every 2 months 

NE5

who does that ? What about them taking money and changing the terms after I had paid for a PAYG SIM ?

elsien

Have you gone back to them and asked why your credit vanished when you had met their terms and conditions the second time round?
Your post reads as if you are making a presumption you are now on the £10 bundle without checking with the company if that is the case. Some companies offer both - the traditional PAYG and the bundles. 

If the t&c have changed and you weren’t informed I’d be making a complaint. 

Which mobile company are you talking about? 

Asda mobile you only have to make a call or text every 180 days. 

https://mobile.asda.com/help/topping-up/top-up-expire

There are probably others as well. 

NE5

it won't let me reply to the test text from my main phone. Whereas it did when I put the 10 pounds on in December before Xmas. 

https://www.vodafone.co.uk/mobile/pay-as-you-go-sim?cid=ppc-UK_19_AO_P_X_J_I_D_PAYG_BAU_Promo_Text-Brand_Google_Free-SIM_NA_NA_Core_Mix_Mix_NA_Exact__2076373404&kpid=go_cmp-2076373404_adg-78217943164_ad-388970929668_kwd-6009454306_dev-c_ext-_prd-&vfadid=2076373404&gclid=Cj0KCQiAr5iQBhCsARIsAPcwROP4gKhTbWk4dI1MDZDjeTEqk-U3fDe48Vh_eWrtc7RAegi82l8qrGsaAhi1EALw_wcB

elsien

So have you gone back to customer services and asked them a) if and when it changed and b) why you weren't informed? Do you have the terms and conditions of the deal you signed up to?

ETA - if you read their FAQ it says you need to make a chargeable call/number every 180 days to keep the sim active. That is to keep the number, there is no reference to credit so there is nothing to say that the credit would be lost. You really need to ask the question directly. 

flaneurs_lobster

Vodafone are probably the least value for money PAYG operators in the UK. Their rates are orders of magnitude greater than some other providers. If you need their coverage then use Asda.

Neil_Jones

NE5 said:

Hello, does anybody know if mobile companies are allowed to take money from a pay as you go phone if they change their terms ?

I had an old pay as you go mobile, which was used rarely. About a year ago, I went to use it to keep it active and found they had taken my balance away (prob about 8-10 quid) and invalidated the SIM.

I went down, complained, but they said I had to put a new SIM in and top it up, and if I didn't use it for 12 weeks or so, it would be cancelled as per their terms. So long as I kept it validated and sent a text etc every couple of months, it would be fine.

After 8 weeks I went to validate the mobile, and found the new 10 quid credit was gone, although I can send a text to it, I can't reply.

So this is the 2nd time.

 They say on their website, they now do 10 pound a month pay as you go "bundles", which to me means you can put 10 pound on but have to do it every month. This is the same as a contract, surely, and for the 2nd time cancelled a credit and changed their terms after I paid them money.

 What do people suggest I do ? 

PAYG has always been if you don't use it, you lose it.  If you don't do a chargeable action every x days/months/whatever your number will be disconnected and you will lose the credit.

The bundles are just that  - pay £10 and get whatever's on offer, usually a few hundred minutes, text and a few gigabytes of data.  But if you're not going to use the data (for example) or make enough calls/texts/data its pointless paying £10 just to keep it active.  Just make a phone call home every week or so and do some baby talk to the answer machine.

NE5

I'm communicating with their customer services now, but I'm not sure how often I need to put credit on. They say they have restored my 10 pounds, having said that I haven't looked at how to check it yet, I'll have to look into doing that.

A 10 pound PAYG bundle is what it says....at the end of the month, do you have to put another 10 pounds on, or top it back up to 10 pounds ? I am quite happy to use 50p a month and replace 50p a month to keep it at 10 pounds ? Which seems a bit daft, but it is definitely not worth 10 pounds a month for a phone that is hardly used. 

If I change company to someone who does a real PAYG, I would need to get the phone unlocked etc, would I ? 

NE5

elsien said:

Have you gone back to them and asked why your credit vanished when you had met their terms and conditions the second time round?
Your post reads as if you are making a presumption you are now on the £10 bundle without checking with the company if that is the case. Some companies offer both - the traditional PAYG and the bundles. 

If the t&c have changed and you weren’t informed I’d be making a complaint. 

Which mobile company are you talking about? 

Asda mobile you only have to make a call or text every 180 days. 

https://mobile.asda.com/help/topping-up/top-up-expire

There are probably others as well. 

elsien said:

Have you gone back to them and asked why your credit vanished when you had met their terms and conditions the second time round?
Your post reads as if you are making a presumption you are now on the £10 bundle without checking with the company if that is the case. Some companies offer both - the traditional PAYG and the bundles. 

If the t&c have changed and you weren’t informed I’d be making a complaint. 

Which mobile company are you talking about? 

Asda mobile you only have to make a call or text every 180 days. 

https://mobile.asda.com/help/topping-up/top-up-expire

There are probably others as well. 

elsien said:

Have you gone back to them and asked why your credit vanished when you had met their terms and conditions the second time round?
Your post reads as if you are making a presumption you are now on the £10 bundle without checking with the company if that is the case. Some companies offer both - the traditional PAYG and the bundles. 

If the t&c have changed and you weren’t informed I’d be making a complaint. 

Which mobile company are you talking about? 

Asda mobile you only have to make a call or text every 180 days. 

https://mobile.asda.com/help/topping-up/top-up-expire

There are probably others as well. 

Sorry about the duplication, and thanks for that info Elsien. That looks good, but would I need to get the phone unlocked, sending a text every 6 months or so to stay active is how it used to be and spot on

elsien

Asda used to piggyback off Vodafone so you wouldn’t need to unlock, unless that’s changed since I last used them.