Back in the USA - one phone has gone from my account in the last few days!

[Mark-USA]

OK, I live in the USA. I keep two UK PAYG O2 phones (mine and wife's) for use when there. I'm aware of the 6 month rule and go to lengths to make sure I send a paid txt from one phone to the other and vice versa within this period to make sure I don't lose the balance and we keep our UK numbers active. I often check MyO2 to ensure all is well, which it was, until I logged on today - and my wife's phone number was gone - presumably taking her balance with it.

So, I was in the UK in October, a few weeks ago, and obviously made sure there was paid activity on my wife's line and mine, and I used my personal one extensively. Mine still shows up - hers does not (she wasn't on this trip). I did add some £'s to my line but not hers as she didn't need it. Both lines showed up a week or so ago with a balance when I checked, now just mine shows on the account. Clearly something has happened that I don't know about.

Both phones were powered down at Heathrow (after setting to Airplane mode) just before my return flights so I can't see how there would be any use to drain either balance to zero. The only difference is I added some time to mine but if there's a new rule about having to do this, I'm unaware and I can see my line going off too as I will not be back in the UK in the next 6 months.

Anyone got any clues? Help!!!

[Mark-USA]

Thanks to all. I tried the 2G idea out and it does work here in the USA on T-Mobile!

However, here's the caveats:

(1) The 2G signal is very spotty and can swing from no signal to 4 bars in a matter of a few hundred yards. It's also a bit 'fragile' from what I found. This is OK for my purposes as I now have a spot I can quickly drive to, but not great if you're a visitor relying on roaming

(2) The price is horrendous. I called from one phone to the other and vice versa. The cost to do this was £4 per phone for a 20 second call. Roaming rates are £2 a min, calling and receiving. I doubt this is something a PAYG customer would find useful though perhaps there's a better bolt-on plan if you were on holiday here. I can mitigate this a little in future by calling a briefly UK based supermarket or something (OK, I know..) and saving myself £2 a call.

So combined with the website that sells coupon codes for O2 I guess I can make this work - it's klutzy but if I can keep my lines alive that's OK though I could end up with largerbalances than I can use if I do this slickly.

For now, I'm going to see how long my lines remain active with just periodic calls - no top-ups, and make a note on my calendar to check MyO2 balances every few weeks. It'll be a bit experimental but let's see how it goes. I'll report back in due course.

Thanks to everyone for all your help,

Cheers

Mark

[jonsie]

Good luck, hope everything works out ok for you @Mark-USA 

[Enlli]

Good Luck, but remember T-Mobile 2G full closure is the at the begining of April next year. 

Hopefully there won't be too big a gap between then an O2 turning on 4G calling

[MI5]

@Mark-USA 

Roaming costs are horrendous on PAYG where there is no available travel options unfortunately.

Please make sure you have data turned off too.

Happy you've found a workaround for now and one call every 6 months should be sufficient to keep your number alive.

Standard rates

Making calls	£2/min
Receiving calls	£2/min
Sending texts	50p/text
Using data	£7.20/MB

[Oxonian]

Well done @Mark-USA and thank you for the posts. I have found it interesting to follow how you have tackled this issue. If there are future developments, please let us know. 

[jonsie]

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@Oxonian wrote:

If there are future developments, please let us know. 

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Sort of think there will be

4G and wifi calling will be a long long way off on O2 PAYG

[Oxonian]

@jonsie 

That was my fear too ! 

[Mark-USA]

I guess we shall see. I'll make calls at the end of March. Watch this space about 6 months later. I'll report back whether I still have US 2G roaming and whether my phones vanished. If the latter, I'll report back on my success with grovelling to customer service to have them restored. We shall see if all this is in vain around then and whether I'll have to consider other options!

By way of comment, surely there are quite a few UK based O2 PAYG customers who would really benefit from a more reasonably priced (and working) roaming plan while on holiday or business over here. Seems strange to ignore a popular spot like the colonies. 

[Oxonian]

@Mark-USA 

O2 are quite good at ignoring suggestions and good ideas at the moment. I hope things improve once the migrations of Virgin customers and folks on the old billing system are concluded. 

[MI5]

PAYG does not make money and in most cases runs at a loss for the MNO's.

It's best left to the MVNO's and likely O2 will dump it in the future and leave it all to giffgaff.