topic Re: Need to confirm SIM will work when arriving in UK in Pay as you go

Need to confirm SIM will work when arriving in UK

sammacklin — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 02:08:00 GMT

My wife and I live in Canada, but we use EE SIMs whenever we are in the UK. The last time we were in the country was in June and July. I knew that she would be back in the UK in September, so I topped her SIM up enough that it would still be working then. She will be arriving there on September 4, so I just logged into the app to make sure her SIM was still active. I was presented with a message saying: "Your account is now closed. Remember to pay your final bill". When I clicked the button saying "View final bill", I got an error message. Obviously, something is very wrong here, and I need to get it sorted immediately, so that her phone works when she arrives in the UK. Can anyone tell me how I can confirm that her SIM will be working when she gets into the country? Keep in mind that I am in a different country in a very different time zone, so I cannot call or text 150.

Re: Need to confirm SIM will work when arriving in UK

XRaySpeX — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 06:07:00 GMT

Peculiar msg from EE. PAYG doesn't have bills & the only reason for closing a PAYG a/c would be having been deactivated after going into hibernation due to non-use.

If she last used it in July, that's not long enough to go into hibernation.

If you send her a text from your Canadian no. does she receive it (they are free to receive)? If so, it should be good in UK.

Re: Need to confirm SIM will work when arriving in UK

sammacklin — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 06:25:11 GMT

Sadly, I cannot text her because my Canadian phone will not text oversees numbers and she's not even over there yet.

I think the weird message from EE refers to an old SIM card. This current one is not linked to my account in the app. I cannot link it without getting a confirmation text, so it's a catch 22.

It should work and I'm pretty sure it will. It's just that, in all the years I've been using EE, it never just works when I arrive in the country. I always have to spend an hour on the phone getting something sorted out. But I stick with EE because, once it's working, it's a great service and ridiculously affordable.

Re: Need to confirm SIM will work when arriving in UK

XRaySpeX — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 06:31:13 GMT

Sorry, I forgot that sending an International text will cost you. However I did mean for her to still be in Canada when she received the test text.

Re: Need to confirm SIM will work when arriving in UK

Peter_W — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 10:43:18 GMT

Hey there @sammacklin

Welcome to the EE Community 😊

Based on what you've mentioned, it definitely sounds like the message on the account is for a different old number, as like @XRaySpeX mentioned it wouldn't discuss bills if this was a pay as you go number.

When you were here back in June / July, did she manage to get the SIM working correctly?

Hibernation only takes effect if there's no activity after six months, so provided this was working recently I'm confident things will work right away once she arrives.
Peter