Using PAYG credit in the US to call/text home to keep mobile number

[Ready2go]

I moved from the UK to US at the end of July this year, cancelled by monthly EE contract, moved to PAYG, and was informed that as long as use the number every six months then I get to keep my UK mobile number, which I would like to do.

Challenge is that I am unable to call home, I get an automated message stating that 'calls to this number are barred' (just a UK mobile with the 01144 added and first 0 removed). I am also unable to send a green text message, I just receive  'not delivered' and red exclamation mark error next to my text.

Roaming is enabled, have manually chosen my network selection, to match my US carrier, I do receive text messages when I turn on the UK data plan but not from friends, only for companies previously set up to receive text's from when in the UK. 

I have £10 credit against the number and all that I am trying to do is keep the number, does anyone have any ideas on how to problem solve? 

Thank you

[XRaySpeX]

It takes 30 days to cancel a contract & before it is moved to PAYG. Had you used that PAYG SIM for making calls or texts in UK before you left to go abroad? EE PAYG SIMs need 1st activating on EE's home UK network before they can be used abroad. If it wasn't you can't now use it until you return to UK.

[bristolian]

To add - you've mentioned "roaming is enabled" but this would only apply to pay-monthly which needs manually activating. As commented above, PAYG is auto-enabled on first use - but this first use needs to be in the UK.

The "first use in UK" rule applies to migrations from pay-monthly just as much as it does new PAYG connections.