The account and any credit can disappear in as few as 70 days
I am a pensioner who has had a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) mobile with Vodafone for 20 years. Last week, when I used the phone, I received the message “unregistered sim”. Vodafone said my number did not exist. I eventually discovered the number had been allocated to another customer because I had not used my phone for some time. Because of that, it was unable to access my account to refund my balance. I had about £30 unspent. This feels like theft.
MF, Croydon
Many people, like you, keep a PAYG phone for emergency use. And many, like you, fall foul of a little-known rule that a sim card is deactivated, and the credit expires, if it’s not used often enough. Some smaller telecoms providers do this after as few as 70 days of inactivity. There is logic behind it – the fear that the UK will one day run out of phone numbers.