Rambling Rose

Some while ago I posted that my husband's spanish Orange mobile had been disconnected because he had not topped it up within the required period.

There is no point buying him another spanish sim card because he only uses the phone to receive calls from me and so never needs to put credit on. The card is deactivated if you don't top it up regularly (at least every 10 months last time I asked).

We tried putting our UK Orange Sim card in the phone and using that because Orange in the UK didn't cut you off for not topping up regularly. BUT that didn't work because the handset was locked to Orange in Spain.

I have finally managed to get the phone unlocked so it can be used on any network. I bought a code on the internet which worked just fine. However now it seems Orange UK may also have cut us off as we have not used the UK mobile in some time.

SO my questions are: Does anyone know if it is now practice in the UK to cut off Pay as you Go customers after a period of non-use/nontop-up?

Can anyone recommend one of those roaming SIM cards I keep seeing advertised that doesn't lose credit after a given period?

lic

I do not know the answer to your question, but find all spanish payg sims cost a fortune to run.
why notjust phone him on his english number? roamimg fees have come down now.
We only use our english mobs now

licinius

http://www.truphone.com/

Rambling Rose

The only english mobile we have appears to have been cut off. We have been living in Spain 3 years and it must be over a year since we used it. The phone is a really old model which is why I got his spanish mobile unlocked hoping to use the english sim card in it. I would buy another UK sim card if I could be sure that credit doesn't 'time out' on it the way it does in Spain.

One of the advantages of the europe wide cards seems to be that they promise credit does not expire. Trouble is I've never heard of any of the companies and don't know what their coverage might be like.

snikpoh

... but that's only available in UK and USA - Spain is not covered yet (according to web site)

Rambling Rose

I looked at the truphone site - thanks. It looks good for people who use the phone a lot but I notice that if you don't use your number for 90 days you have to pay 2 euros to reactivate it. They also seem to want 10 euros a month after the 1st month before you get charged local rates.

As hubby only uses his phone in emergencies or to receive 'where are you' calls from me, its likely to work out too expensive.

missile

My O2 UK sim works great anywhere I have been in spain.

You might want to sign up to Tellitec? They offer free tellitec to tellitec mobile connection and very competitive rates to a.n.other networks and to UK. AFIK their SIM crads do not time expire.

jdr

Maybe you need to spend 50 cents or so every 3 months and talk to each other more, then the problem is solved.

Rambling Rose

Well as we are retired and home together all day we get to talk quite enough (he might even think too much)

Its only on the rare occasions we split up when we are out that we need the phone. The trouble with a spanish phone is that you must top it up regularly with a minimum 5 euro top up. This sounds like nothing but it means my husband ends up with 10's of euros credit on his phone because he never makes any calls. We did try swopping phone occasionally so that I used some of his credit but that doesn't work out too well as he then gets my calls.

To be honest I can see why no phone company would find him an attractive customer. Its only really for my convenience and for the last year we've managed without him having a phone. I just have to go and sit in the car and wait for him to turn up if he gets delayed beyond the time we have agreed to meet

I just thought if we could get a sim card that worked well in spain, put a small amount of credit on it and know it would not get cut off if we forgot to put more on regularly, it would be useful.

I've found a company called GOSIM which looks promising. Anyone heard of or had any experience of them?