Disappearing PAYG credit
2 July 2016 11:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
igenlodeI have a mobile phone. I use it for emergencies, and when I use it, it is an emergency (like the time my bicycle handlebars came loose while turning right on a busy crossroads -- could have been very nasty indeed, and I was lucky I only needed the phone to ring up and explain that I was going to be late). So I rather rely on having a bit of credit available for use if and when I need it in a hurry; I put money on once in a blue moon, and replace it when and if I actually make calls.
At Christmas, I happened to switch the phone on in order to check the time (I was sitting in a delayed bus, and for once had forgotten to put on my wristwatch). I was rather dismayed to discover that I'd been sent a text telling me that there was only 50p of credit remaining, but assumed that I'd made a call that was longer than I'd allowed for and hadn't realised that I needed to top it up afterwards. So I hastily put ten pounds' credit on the phone, decided it was lucky I'd switched it on when it wasn't actually an emergency, and forgot about it again.
Six months later almost to the day, I happened to switch the phone on again because I needed to check that someone hadn't tried to get in touch with me. Lo and behold, I had another text waiting telling me that I only had 25p credit on my phone... and the call register showed that I had made no calls whatsoever and sent no texts since the balance check which verified that I had £10·50 back in December.
This time I was worried that I'd been the victim of some kind of scam, so I took the trouble to go in to the mobile phone shop — not the one that had sold it to me, but the one owned by the company that had taken over the original network. They kindly explained to me that PAYG top-up credit is cancelled after six months if you don't use it. So if I want to keep a phone for use in emergencies only and ensure that it still has credit on it, I end up locked into an effective 'contract' of twenty pounds a year even when I don't make calls amounting to anything like that much. (Although at 40p a minute if you don't take out one of the new company's SIM deals, it doesn't take long to spend five pounds or so...)
I was not impressed. It reminds me of the new-style electronic 'book tokens' which silently delete their value after a fixed period of months and are then worthless to the recipient while having cost the purchaser a good deal of money.
I'm still curious as to what happened to the other 25p!
At Christmas, I happened to switch the phone on in order to check the time (I was sitting in a delayed bus, and for once had forgotten to put on my wristwatch). I was rather dismayed to discover that I'd been sent a text telling me that there was only 50p of credit remaining, but assumed that I'd made a call that was longer than I'd allowed for and hadn't realised that I needed to top it up afterwards. So I hastily put ten pounds' credit on the phone, decided it was lucky I'd switched it on when it wasn't actually an emergency, and forgot about it again.
Six months later almost to the day, I happened to switch the phone on again because I needed to check that someone hadn't tried to get in touch with me. Lo and behold, I had another text waiting telling me that I only had 25p credit on my phone... and the call register showed that I had made no calls whatsoever and sent no texts since the balance check which verified that I had £10·50 back in December.
This time I was worried that I'd been the victim of some kind of scam, so I took the trouble to go in to the mobile phone shop — not the one that had sold it to me, but the one owned by the company that had taken over the original network. They kindly explained to me that PAYG top-up credit is cancelled after six months if you don't use it. So if I want to keep a phone for use in emergencies only and ensure that it still has credit on it, I end up locked into an effective 'contract' of twenty pounds a year even when I don't make calls amounting to anything like that much. (Although at 40p a minute if you don't take out one of the new company's SIM deals, it doesn't take long to spend five pounds or so...)
I was not impressed. It reminds me of the new-style electronic 'book tokens' which silently delete their value after a fixed period of months and are then worthless to the recipient while having cost the purchaser a good deal of money.
I'm still curious as to what happened to the other 25p!
