No signal on SIM card recently changed to PAYG

[Robski93]

Hi all,

I recently went travelling and thus converted my monthly sim to a payg. I was told to keep this active I had to make a call from it every few months. So I gave the physical sim to my family in the uk and asked them to do this for me, while converting it to an eSIM on my primary phone. However I’ve just asked them to try and they are telling me there’s no signal in multiple locations. We’ve tried the sim in another phone too and same issue. I topped it up with £5 from the EE website.

Anyone got any ideas? It’s only been about 1 month since it was deactivated as a monthly contract.

could I maybe turn on the eSIM on my main phone and send a text from it? I just don’t want to lose the entire £5 in one go by accident as calls from this country are expensive.

thanks! 

[Rach_H]

It is odd that you've been able to complete the change to eSIM on Pay As You Go, but if this has gone through then you would need to make a call or send a text for this to be counted as an activity @Robski93.

Rach

[Robski93]

I think maybe because it was on a monthly contract when I changed it?

thank you though. I will send a text. 

[Robski93]

Ok, I thought I’d just send a text but now it’s saying it can’t send. Even though I’ve turned that eSIM on and I’ve been sent a text saying that I’ve got £5 credit and texts are 60p. I have 3 bars of signal although I haven’t turned mobile data on. Anyone got any ideas so I can close this out? Thanks a lot for the help 

[Linzi_H]

Hi @Robski93 

I think it's best to follow @Chris_B's advice here. 

I understand you've been able to set up an eSIM on a PAYG account, however, this isn't supported.

The best next step now is to order a physical replacement SIM card to be sent out to your registered UK address. If you want to still keep the number active, then please follow @XRaySpeX's advice and make sure your family uses this as explained above to prevent the SIM from going into hibernation. 

Linzi