£15 taken from my PAYG sim

[KristoffA]

My daughter gave me her old phone and put a £20 PAYG sim in. About a month later I get a text saying ‘ you now have unlimited minutes texts and 8gb to use in the UK for up to 30days and £15 has come out of your credit. I have not used the phone so why has EE taken my money. I thought this was PAYG and so if I haven’t used anything why am I being charged. I was with Tesco mobile before and only needed to top up the phone when I was running low. Please explain before I go back to Tesco.

[XRaySpeX · Accepted solution]

@KristoffA : All EE PAYG SIMs come primed with a recurring Pack of allowances ready to bought out of your PAYG credit as soon as it is sufficient. Your last top-up went to buy this Pack.

By texting AL to 150 it should show you the Pack you have bought with your credit & how much you have left from your allowances until its expiry date.

Text STOP PACK to 150 before you next top-up & you can use the SIM for calls & texts but not data as normal PAYG at standard per-unit rates paid for out of your standing PAYG credit balance.

To save the SIM going into hibernation due to lack of use, just remember within every 179 days (~ 6 months) 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 any Pack or Add-on you might have.