O2 Classic 123 (activated in Nov 22) deactivated after no regular top up

k_man

Posting as an FYI, as O2 Classic 123 SIM cards are (or possibly now were) often recommended as an option for very low usage mobiles.

Although they haven't been available from O2 for quite a while, a number of third party market place resellers sell these.

Previously the credit didn't expire, so one £10 top could last years, as long as the SIM was used every few months.
 In 2022 O2 added a requirement for 6 monthly topups on PAYG.

While this doesn't appear to impact SIMs already in use (an older SIM is still active), my second SIM, activated and topped up in Nov 22, has been deactivated (and balance lost) even though it has been used.

CS confirmed (for what it is worth) that this was due to no top up for 6 months (their system showed the SIM as expired).

So SIMs activated pre 6-month-top-up change seem to still work, more recent ones may not.

flaneurs_lobster

I thought this was the case but it's good to have it confirmed (sorry that it meant the loss to you of a working SIM). 

£20/year makes it cheap still, but not as good as zero. Low use users are probably better off with RWG now.

virgo17

k_man said:

So SIMs activated pre 6-month-top-up change seem to still work, more recent ones may not.

Can anyone remember the approximate month/year when this wording changed on their web page?

Got a couple in use in our family and don't want to get caught out. Also one is quite a memorable number.

savergrant

I would guess that the sim would be restricted to incoming only First, so you would have the chance to call and lift the restriction (it's likely this would involve a new topup) which would allow you to stretch the six months between topups to eight. I haven't found any mention of any customers being on different t&c's. so would imagine any user could fall foul of this, if o2 want to offload some barely active accounts.

k_man

savergrant said:

I would guess that the sim would be restricted to incoming only First, so you would have the chance to call and lift the restriction (it's likely this would involve a new topup) which would allow you to stretch the six months between topups to eight. I haven't found any mention of any customers being on different t&c's. so would imagine any user could fall foul of this, if o2 want to offload some barely active accounts.

My SIM was activated 19th Nov and not working (no service) today, so less than 7 months.

It is in a backup/secondary mobile, so may have been before today, meaning not much leeway/period of incoming only.

 Also, as for many users of low usage, incoming only (even if it did switch to that for a while) may not be apparent quickly.
 Even if O2 have tried to send a notification via SMS, that is little use if the mobile is off for much of the time, as many secondary/backup mobiles are.

savergrant

I am sure the wording in the t&c's has been changed recently. There is now no mention of restriction, simply if you don't topup you will be disconnected;

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/pay-as-you-go/classic-pay-as-you-go

I think this is the end of the road for this tariff.

Qew

This is worrying for my wife. She got the O2 Classic 123 sim card back in January 2021. I believe that the requirement for a six month top-up existed even back then, but it was sort of ambiguous. Seems that they've tightened it up. In any case, many said that they'd not topped up for a lot longer than the six months. This is the case for my wife, who isn't a big phone user, and hasn't topped up for nearly a year.

GenieBoy

Are there any old school PAYG sims still available where you can just top up £10 with an e-topup card at a PayPoint shop and use that for calls and texts until it runs out like the good old days?

flaneurs_lobster

GenieBoy said:

Are there any old school PAYG sims still available where you can just top up £10 with an e-topup card at a PayPoint shop and use that for calls and texts until it runs out like the good old days?

RWG will allow you to run a PAYG account like this (as long as you make a call/SMS at least every 90 days).

Can't think of another. 

savergrant

flaneurs_lobster said:

GenieBoy said:

Are there any old school PAYG sims still available where you can just top up £10 with an e-topup card at a PayPoint shop and use that for calls and texts until it runs out like the good old days?

RWG will allow you to run a PAYG account like this (as long as you make a call/SMS at least every 90 days).

Can't think of another. 

Last time i looked 3 was the only other option to not mention a regular topup.
The good news for the previous poster is you can run an rwg sim indefinitely on a £5 nowmobile voucher, so long as you make one call or text every 90 days (or contact them between a restriction being applied and disconnection.)

datz

k_man said:

While this doesn't appear to impact SIMs already in use (an older SIM is still active), my second SIM, activated and topped up in Nov 22, has been deactivated (and balance lost) even though it has been used.

Interesting post, since it could (potentially) impact me on one of my SIMs.

As far as I am aware, it has always been a chargeable activity every 6 months - but this was changed such that 'chargeable activity' needed to be a phone call (not SMS). This wasn't documented officially anywhere, but seems to be the general concensus on other forums. This is/was regardless of what the latest T&Cs state.

Customer service should be able to reactivate it for you, such that you can keep your number, but they may be difficult about it because they want customers off those older tariffs.

What chargeable activity did you opt for?