topic Re: Losing my number due to inactivity. in Pay as you go

Losing my number due to inactivity.

JamzUK11 — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 17:29:01 GMT

Hi,

im looking for some advice, as I am a PAYG customer who lives aboard and isn’t actively using my UK number but still want to keep this in place for future purposes.

what is the best way to keep this number? Top up the minimum amount and make a chargeable action to keep my number active?

is this the standard Pratice across all UK mobile service providers? Or is this an “EE thing”?

also, it’s not clear what stage my phone number / account is at? Whether already in hibernation or is close to being un-retrievable?

Obviously it’s tough to make contact with customer support as I’m based internationally, so what is the best way to contact EE to confirm the status of my account? Considering there is no live chat anymore?

Thanks for the help!

Re: Losing my number due to inactivity.

XRaySpeX — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 17:57:50 GMT

Sounds like your PAYG SIM may have gone into hibernation due to non-use. If it has, topping-up now would be too late.

When did you previously make a chargeable action? EE PAYG SIMs are deactivated after 6 months of non-chargeable use. You then have a further 3 months period of grace to call EE to reactivate it before it is lost completely.

You needed to make a chargeable action like making a chargeable call or text, topping up or buying a Pack or Add-on, not just using your mins, texts or data from your pack.

Most networks take similar measures to claim back unwanted nos. of which there is a shortage..

Re: Losing my number due to inactivity.

Chris_B — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 19:06:45 GMT

@JamzUK11 Live chat is only available to contract customers. And yes it’s standard practice for numbers to go in to hibernation if not used for long periods ( 3 months) and then fully disconnected as the networks don’t know that you want to retain it if it’s not used as there isn’t an infinite pool of phone numbers so these numbers that do get disconnected do eventually get recycled to be reused.