SIM expiry and loss of credit - £1/month 'stay alive' Direct Debit

[#1]

I appreciate that Giffgaff rules make it very clear what will happen if you don't make or receive a call or text for 6 months - your SIM dies and you lose any remaining credit.

11.1 

If you do not make or receive a call or SMS at least once in any 6 month period your SIM Card will be disconnected and you will lose any remaining credits balance on your Account. If you wish to be re-connected after this time you will be given a new mobile phone number.

With that in mind, Giffgaff is unsuitable for the emergency 'put it in the glovebox and forget it until/unless it's needed' phone* (because a Giffgaff phone would not work - in fact it'd be dead and its number gone - if 6 months had passed since it was last used)

* I have an old basic Nokia with a PAYG SIM in my car and so does the GL.

I think it's time to re-think that draconian procedure - not least because CW appear to be making a clever attempt to grab that sort of 'occasional user' market with their new £1/month contract (25 any UK network minutes and 50 texts included).  Hence, for £12 per annum, a user can have an operational emergency phone and associated peace of mind.

I do not know why it is necessary to kill an in-credit Giffgaff SIM and grab back the number just because no calls/texts have been made/received but, assuming that some reason exists, my suggestion is for Giffgaff to match CW's clever new contract by allowing £1/month account top-ups by Direct Debit to keep a SIM alive.

Yes, an unused phone would gain £12 credit in the course of a year but it can be assumed that would be of no concern to the owner and of enough benefit to Giffgaff to allow the SIM an extended life-span.

[#2]

Apologies for the spelling errors above but I can't see how to edit the post.

Strange, doing an edit to a comment is easy but there's no facility that I can see to edit a post.

Spelling errors corrected.  Ignore this post now please.

[#3]

I'm sure my husbands aunt was cut off fro Tesco for that exact reason so not just a giffgaff issue, and I do think six months is reasonable

[#4]

If your on the mobile site or the iPhone app you won't be able to easily get to the edit, needs to be done from full site. It's quite funny some of the typos my iPad is always changing words lol

[#5]

Sims get cut off after 6 months largely so mobile phone companies can recycle the phone numbers. If you've not used your sim in 6 months there is a good chance that you've lost it or don't use it any more. There are not enough phone numbers to go around unless the ununsed ones are recycled.

If you wanted to keep your sim alive, texting once every 6 months doesn't seem unreasonable.

[#6]

All pay and go network sims do this. The sim your talking about is a contract sim

[#7]

interesting point - does anyone know how the rest of uk payg market compares in this to giffgaff?

(let's put aside the CW deal for a moment - after all it's a contract deal, albeit very clever one, since it is roughly a £10 goodybag divided by 10, minus the perks) 

i ask: where does the 6 month limit logic comes from? is it money - how much does it cost gg, to keep a 'dormant'  SIM live?

EDIT: thanks for clarification above: [by mary_r_t on 11-08-2011 13:15] 

possible solution: if the phone is not used in X months, take for example £1 from the account credit and start counting a new period?

[#8]

Thanks for that radable, yes a possibility - but I think the £1 DD idea might be better received by Giffgaff because they gain something (albeit not a lot) as an incentive not to kill a SIM (although doing so and grabbing all unused credit might make better business sense).

[#9]

it is reasonable for the sim to be cut off after six months however it is good for people to be able to top up £1 a month for the credit not to be killed and so that they can have the sim ?

[#10]

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heinz wrote:

I do not know why it is necessary to kill an in-credit Giffgaff SIM and grab back the number just because no calls/texts have been made/received but, assuming that some reason exists, my suggestion is for Giffgaff to match CW's clever new contract by allowing £1/month account top-ups by Direct Debit to keep a SIM alive.

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I've got one in my car!  It's an old Nokia but the battery holds its charge (I leave a yellow post-it stuck to the car's MoT so I should remember to charge it once a year).

It's got a Virgin PAYG SIM (hope they don't kill SIMs after a while without a call - I've not checked).

£1/month to guarantee the phone's live?  Yes, I'd pay that.  But I'd still have to remember to charge the battery - or maybe I can get one of those cigarette lighter connectrors?

[#11]

i can see a market niche for emergency phones...