EKIT and their U.S. number Service Life
 

Maybe others with a dual number EKIT SIM know this, but there was a minor change in their "Service Life" agreement since the time I bought my SIM. I have not used my SIM for about 4 months and they automatically deleted my U.S. number. You can keep your U.S. number by paying a 50 cent per month fee. Or, you get assigned a new U.S. number for free.

If your number is deleted, you just log on to EKIT with your UK number. Then you hit a button and reactivate the U.S. portion of the account and immediately are assigned a new U.S. number. The new number shows up right on your account page.

I still maintain that EKIT has one of the best expiration Service Life agreements around. You must use the SIM with a charged service every 9 months. You must recharge at least once every 15 months. And you can restore any expired credit by recharging your account with a minimum of $30.

Good to know how it works now.
 

Thanks for updating us on this issue. Was the phone number the same area code? Did you have any choice in the new number?

I check monthly or so and click the 'activate' button in order to keep the same number. The fifty cents route is not for cheap me. Of course we could use it more often to keep it alive, but.............

Anything else about the process we should be aware of?

I live in California. My original U.S. number was an area code in New York City. While cell phone users with their free calling plans could call my New York number for free, I preferred a California phone number. It would have made it easier for a few people to just dial a California number.

Before I re-activated my service on EKIT's web site, I asked their customer service if I could choose a new area code and number. I was told no, it was assigned automatically.

But when I activated on line, I was assigned an (805) area code IE: California number. Not sure why, but I am happy.

What's the cut-off for when you lose the US number?

From ekit's web site
 

4 months seems to be answer.
ekit says:

But every 4 months you have to activate it online in your account or need to have a service charged to keep it alive?

Not to rain on your parade, congratulations are in order I suppose, but does it really matter unless the area code is in your local calling area? I mean here in New York (I wanted a NY number too but they said no way Jose) it costs just as much to call a NJ number as it does to call California i.e. free on cell phones and whatever my ld carrier charges on my land line. The only downer, so to speak, will be if I have to forward to the USA number when I'm out of the country...what I have to do is forward from the landline to mobile (both NYC so I pay for that one call a flat fee not timed, that's the way local NYC verizon rates work) and then forward from the mobile to the ekit number and it comes out of my minutes but I have so many and free weekends it is not a problem)....I wonder if call quality suffers with a double hand off (it doesn't seem to) and the calls all go through relatively quickly....

But every 4 months you have to push the activate button online in your account or need to have a service charged to keep it alive?

My understanding is you need a chargeable service.

I forward the US number to another number when I'm not in the US. The forwarding destination can be can be set and changed online (this is one of the best features of the sim).

The forwarding works for me even if the US number is "inactive" I believe it's just the availability of sim registration that is activated/deactivated with the button on the site, the number remains working longer (up to 4 months).

My US number gets a few real calls, or wrong numbers, or marketing calls each month, which then creates chargeable events (the forwarding cost). If it didn't I'd just call it once every month or two to keep it active.

I have the original US/Canada eKit sim that only has a US number, no UK number, but I assume the same would apply to the US portion of the current combined sim.

Rob

Using 870 to activate US Service
 

Wasn't there a message in this thread saying you could use short code 870 to activate the card's US number from the 'global' side. Where did it go?