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I have a pre-paid Telstra device here in Australia. I hardly use my phone so it makes sense, right? I cannot buy credit less than $20, which I'm OK with however

by pan69 14y ago

I have a pre-paid Telstra device here in Australia. I hardly use my phone so it makes sense, right? I cannot buy credit less than $20, which I'm OK with however, this credit "expires" if I don't use it within a certain time frame. As if pre-paid credit goes stale... If I've run out of credit and I haven't topped up my account within a certain amount time, I will receive and SMS that they're going to cancel my account.

vasco 14y ago
In Portugal most people have prepaid cellphones, you can get the same kinds (all the recent high end smartphones etc) as with a contract and most prepaid credit plans don't expire.
Wilya 14y ago
Prepaid services vary widely depending on the country you're in. In some places, the credit is valid for a quite short amount of time. In France, the validity of my credit depends on the amount I charge. So I had to make some crazy calculations to choose between putting around $10 that will be valid 15 days, or $25 valid one month, etc. On the other hand, I'm in Sweden now. My phone bill for the whole year has been below $100 (I don't phone much, but I use internet a lot). So, "pre-paid" can mean a lot of different things.
- Nicole060 14y ago
  Free in France is now selling a monthly subscription you can quit anytime (no contract, no subvention for the phone, just like the typical prepaid stuff) that gives you both unlimited voice calls and unlimited data and sms for only 20 euros. 16 euros instead of 20 if you're also subscribed to their ISP. And for those who don't really have a need for cell phones beyond the basics, they have an offer at 2 euros a month for 1 hour of voice time and 60 SMS. Even better, it's free as in beer (0 euros) if you have chosen Free as your ISP. http://www.free.fr/adsl/index.html http://www.free.fr/adsl/index.html You'd really have to be bad at math to chose an expensive contract nowadays over paying in full for your own phone and getting that kind of plan.
Wingman4l7 14y ago
This makes me practically foam at the mouth. "Pre-paid" that expires a month or two after you purchase it, isn't. It is merely paying month-to-month. Pre-paid should not expire for a reasonable time-frame (at least a year, if ever), regardless of how much you've purchased -- just like international calling cards.
- Dylan16807 14y ago
  It depends on how the expiration works. I think tracfone's policy is fair. As long as you don't run out of service days your minutes will never expire, and you can get three months of them for $20.
  - Wingman4l7 14y ago
    I was going to mention TracFone as a good example, actually -- but I looked at their website and saw that they had the "service days" limitation that you mention. IIRC they used to have an even better policy than that, more in line with what I described.
    - Dylan16807 14y ago
      Really? All I know about TracFone policy changes is that service days used to expire so you were forced to buy a card every 3 months instead of stocking up. But they changed that. Either way it doesn't make sense to charge $0 for a phone to consume resources by having a constant connection to cell phone towers and reserving a number. $7 is pretty cheap so I hope it's a fair price compared to actual costs.
- icebraining 14y ago
  Here in Portugal they're like that nowadays; I think you still have to make a phone call every month or so, but I imagine that's to cut down on abandoned phones. That said, I can't imagine the carriers being too happy about having clients like me, who only charge the phone with $10 every three months ;)
- mfringel 14y ago

by pan69 14y ago

vasco 14y ago

In Portugal most people have prepaid cellphones, you can get the same kinds (all the recent high end smartphones etc) as with a contract and most prepaid credit plans don't expire.

Wilya 14y ago

Prepaid services vary widely depending on the country you're in. In some places, the credit is valid for a quite short amount of time. In France, the validity of my credit depends on the amount I charge. So I had to make some crazy calculations to choose between putting around $10 that will be valid 15 days, or $25 valid one month, etc. On the other hand, I'm in Sweden now. My phone bill for the whole year has been below $100 (I don't phone much, but I use internet a lot). So, "pre-paid" can mean a lot of different things.

Nicole060 14y ago
Free in France is now selling a monthly subscription you can quit anytime (no contract, no subvention for the phone, just like the typical prepaid stuff) that gives you both unlimited voice calls and unlimited data and sms for only 20 euros. 16 euros instead of 20 if you're also subscribed to their ISP. And for those who don't really have a need for cell phones beyond the basics, they have an offer at 2 euros a month for 1 hour of voice time and 60 SMS. Even better, it's free as in beer (0 euros) if you have chosen Free as your ISP. http://www.free.fr/adsl/index.html http://www.free.fr/adsl/index.html You'd really have to be bad at math to chose an expensive contract nowadays over paying in full for your own phone and getting that kind of plan.

Wingman4l7 14y ago

This makes me practically foam at the mouth. "Pre-paid" that expires a month or two after you purchase it, isn't. It is merely paying month-to-month. Pre-paid should not expire for a reasonable time-frame (at least a year, if ever), regardless of how much you've purchased -- just like international calling cards.

Dylan16807 14y ago
It depends on how the expiration works. I think tracfone's policy is fair. As long as you don't run out of service days your minutes will never expire, and you can get three months of them for $20.
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  I was going to mention TracFone as a good example, actually -- but I looked at their website and saw that they had the "service days" limitation that you mention. IIRC they used to have an even better policy than that, more in line with what I described.
  - Dylan16807 14y ago
    Really? All I know about TracFone policy changes is that service days used to expire so you were forced to buy a card every 3 months instead of stocking up. But they changed that. Either way it doesn't make sense to charge $0 for a phone to consume resources by having a constant connection to cell phone towers and reserving a number. $7 is pretty cheap so I hope it's a fair price compared to actual costs.
icebraining 14y ago
Here in Portugal they're like that nowadays; I think you still have to make a phone call every month or so, but I imagine that's to cut down on abandoned phones. That said, I can't imagine the carriers being too happy about having clients like me, who only charge the phone with $10 every three months ;)
mfringel 14y ago