INACTIVE SIM

[Sanaseen]

Hi everyone. I live abroad and have not been to the UK in two and a half year. I have a PAYG SIM which i have been topping up every 5-6 months. The SIM is in another phone which i hardly use. I forgot to top up in April. An SMS was sent by EE reminding me but unfortunately i was too busy to check my other phone. The deadline was 29 April. I did top up on 15 May  without noticing the SMS. Now i have an inactive SIM. How can i re-activate the SIM with the same number?  Thanks.

[XRaySpeX · Accepted solution]

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.

[Sanaseen]

Last top up was on 15th May, 2026. Deadline was 29th April

[XRaySpeX]

T'was too late!

[Sanaseen]

Solved. I called EE and the problem was resolved even without talking to anyone. AI !

[ee_user14]

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@Sanaseen wrote:

Solved. I called EE and the problem was resolved even without talking to anyone. AI !

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Unlikely to be AI. Probably just an automated computer reactivating your sim.

More interesting is how you were still within the 9month deadline.

[XRaySpeX]

@ee_user14 : I read it as OP had an warning email from EE to use it by 29 Apr. or else it would go into hibernation, but OP didn't top-up until 15 May. So today is almost exactly 8 months of the cycle.