Voxi mobile, pay monthly (non contract), will I get charged if sim not activated?

mda99das

I have a nuance situation here.

I noticed Voxi had the cheapest phone, but you have to pay £10 for a rolling 30 day contract.

I also got £22.50 cashback initiated, but it says 8 weeks from top cashback, so that could track to zero.

I have no intention of using the sim, and have not activated it.

My questions is

1. If the sim is not activated, will I get charged £10 monthly?
2. If I cancel the sim, do I loose my cashback?
3. Can I get £10 refund for not using the sim, and still keep my cashback?
4. Should I cancel the Voxi subscription service via my bank?

Many thanks

flaneurs_lobster

You have committed to 30 days-worth of airtime contract, so £10, have you not already paid this? It won't be refundable.

The contract starts when you activate the SIM so if you give notice now you should not be liable for any more charges.

Don't have VOXI so don't know mechanism for giving notice, hopefully it doesn't need you to activate the SIM.

Have you bought the phone outright or on finance? Just be careful not to cancel any payments for the phone rather than the airtime.

You need to check the detail/terms on TCB for the cashback deal - fully expect that it will need the airtime contract to be running for the full 8 weeks.

Any reason not to take the airtime deal? 60GB for £10/mth is pretty good, especially with their no price rise commitment.

Woodstok2000

According to their terms on TopCashback:

• To qualify for cashback, the SIM plan must remain active for at least two full payment cycles (i.e., two complete monthly billing periods).

So if you do not activate the sim, or you cancel it within the 2 billing cycles, you will not get any cashback.

mda99das

I did a text chat with a Voxi agent, and trying to get a straight answer out of them is impossible. Either they understand English, but give the inference that they don't, or they have been trained to not deviate from the script. It was a simple question, has the sim been activated. From voxi's website activation only happens when it is inserted into a phone and turned on. He was telling me that the sim is active and gave me the mobile number. Then after going round in circles he said I need to put the sim in the phone to activate it.

I then asked if the sim is not placed in the phone do I get charged month on month, and again would not give me a clear answer. I told him to stop the autopay. I will let the group know if I get the cashback or not.

flaneurs_lobster

Do you have/did you create a VOXI online account when you bought the phone?

Maybe that would have the current status of the SIM/number?

Is there a Direct Debit/Continuous Payment Authority created for VOXI rolling contracts? Is this showing on your bank account?

PHK

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82165151#Comment_82165151

I think the point you are missing (and it's the same with nearly all providers) is that the account can be up and running but the actual SIM being activated is a technical thing to 1) attach the SIM to your account 2) Provision the SIM (a technical term which very basically means to give it the settings needed for it to work).

The point being that not activating your SIM doesn't stop the account being active. Indeed, some providers charge you from the point of your order even if the SIM hasn't arrived.

But to answer your specific questions, for things to run as you want you'll need to operate the account for at least two months or you won't get the cashback. You can then stop the account from renewing and it will go into a dormant state for a few months and then be deleted.

flaneurs_lobster

The point being that not activating your SIM doesn't stop the account being active. Indeed, some providers charge you from the point of your order even if the SIM hasn't arrived.

Exactly this, hence my question about the online account.

You (probably) have already paid month 1, month 2 will (probably) be deducted from whatever payment method has been agreed.

All this without the SIM having been pushed out of it's card, let alone put anywhere near a phone.

Maegi

You can suspend the plan and it will effectively turn into standard PAYG (VOXI is really a version of Vodafone PAYG not a full MVNO) but you'll need to login to your dashboard to do this.

Obviously this might affect the validation of the cashback. You usually need a couple of months unless it validates immediately.