£5 top-up (from Xoom) doesn't work

quartzz

Can anyone advise;

TL;DR - if I buy a £5 from Xoom (they call it a reload, introducing a new word for some reason), what else do I need to do to actually get the credit showing on the phone?

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Vodafone offer minimum top up of £10. there are some other services that say they offer £5, but they charge £1.50 admin. google found Xoom. I spent the £5, but the credit isn't showing.

(why £5 - it's my old phone that I don't use except for two-factor login, I need to use the account every so often to keep the number active)

Xoom sent me some email about "the transaction was successful, but contact Vodafone on how to apply"

So, I could go down the route of "the duty of care is on Xoom to provide the product and not myself to chase it up/a Vodafone top-up shows, no issues". anyway.

Does anyone know how to actually get this Xoom £5 to appear on my mobile number credit?

Xoom were super quick to take the £5, and non existent on how to actually apply the credit (other than "contact vodafone"). yes, next time I'll use the "£5 with a £1.50 admin charge service" (and hope that works) or I might just not trust any of the third parties, and take the Vodafone £10

in advance, ty

PHK

In most of the world topping up is called reloading or recharging. 

Xoom just provides you with what we call a voucher number (but they call a pin). You apply it to your account just as if you'd bought a voucher in a shop here. 

flaneurs_lobster

It's a bit light on detail but Xoom say they send a text to the number you're trying to top up. Presumably this will contain the voucher number.

Give that number to Vodafone online https://www.vodafone.co.uk/webcenter/portal/myvodafone/activatevoucher

or call 2345 from the phone you want to top up.

quartzz

Thank you for the answers. PHK - I did as you suggested, just went through the procedure to apply voucher as bought from the shop. I've barely used that method before, I usually do it from vodafones website. (vodafones website have the complex system of "buy it, specify the number, and it "just works")

Xoom could have just said this - all they needed to do was respond with "use the process you'd do if buying a voucher" (the closest they got was an email saying "we highly recommend you contact your mobile operator" [I mean, doubleyoo t eff does that mean? -- apart from a 20 minute phone queue, to a number you don't know]).  But....some online-only semi-imaginary company, everything done through the web, and zero response. Really not a good look. That's exactly what people expect from the paypal's of the world - will take your money in 2 minutes and you'll never hear from them again

flaneurs_lobster

TBH, easier to just pop into your local corner shop.

An aside on this - isn't the minimum daily charge on Vodafone PAYG now £2? In other words ANY usage is a minimum of £2 (including any data usage),

Presumably that doesn't apply if you are only using the phone for incoming SMS? 

Lots of cheaper PAYG options, just in case you need to use that phone outgoing.

quartzz

oh.....crap knows. tbh this other phone (Galaxy S3 Mini - yes it's from 2010 or something) is purely for two factor A, for online banking, paypal and stuff like that. I mean I could change all my numbers to my active phone.....for some reason it just seems "prudent" to "diversify my portfolio" (as in, not use one phone for absolutely everything)

I get a text from vodafone every couple of months saying "this number will be cancelled if you don't use it" -- apparently receiving texts doesn't count as usage

flaneurs_lobster

OK, just thought that since you were using a complicated online discounter to buy £5 credit rather than the £10 from Vodafone you were looking to save cash.

Having a separate, at home phone for the financials is good practice (it's what I do). You could run that phone with another SIM (same number) from (say) Asda or GiffGaff for less money.

quartzz

As you say, for some reason the Xoom online system is more complicated than the usual vodafone web page topup. Now I know how it works.....less issues next time. I'll have to monitor that minimum usage. My balance was £0.05 before, I topped up £5 and it's now £4.79. so that's....about 25p to send one text. Bargain at 1/5 of the price.


"Use our system, you can do more with it than buying direct from the manufacturer"
"But...it doesn't work when I do this"
"Please hold" (actually it wouldn't get this far, you'd need to know which number to call, in order to be placed on hold)

flaneurs_lobster

Looks like you're on a legacy NLA tariff - Vodafone Simplicity PAYG. Giveaway is the 26p per text charge. 

Keep that mobile data turned off - that's still a £2/day min.