Any harm in leaving T-Mobile UK Sim Cards in phones until I top them up in UK in Aug?
 

I just received the 2 Pay-As-You-Go T-Mobile UK Sim Cards from eBay. Is there any harm in leaving them in my 2 unlocked phones until I can top them both off in August when we travel to London?

no harm
 

Should be no harm. Just make sure they don't expire before you need them.

Have a nice trip.

Stan

Hi Stan,

Thanks for the quick reply. When do the cards expire. Would it be 180 days since the day I put them in the phones?

It seems to be 180 days from the last activity (or activation, I presume). Outbound calls and SMS definitely count. I'm not sure if inbound calls count.

It's a billable activity every 180 days officially (though it might be longer than this in reality -- Virgin states 180 but is really 365). An incoming call won't work, unless you're roaming.

By ACTIVATION do you mean when one TOPS-UP for the 1st time?

Usually, but not always, the EU cards I have purchased, require that you INITIALIZE or ACTIVATE new SIM cards. Sometimes this is as easy as putting the SIM into a phone and allowing the phone to register on the local network. Sometimes the provided asks you to call a customer service number and follow the procedures there. Both the old SIMYO card and the newer SUNSIM required some special action as I described. I cannot remember how the original RIIING or the UM+ activation occurred.

I had some new German T-Mobile cards and I cannot recall they required any special activation at all. I may be wrong.

I cannot speak for your UK cards. Our British friends will have to chime in.

Perhaps there is no user activation required.

Stan

As I remember Vodaphone to activate a SMS from Vodaphone had to be sent to the phone.
You have to be in the UK to have the SMS sent. It will not come to you here in the states.
That card you got for top ups that has to be linked to your credit card another thing that has to be done in the UK. T-Mobile may be the same. Call T-mobile CS in the UK to find out or who you bought the sim card from. I hope this helps.

Thanks for all the replies guys!

I hope I can just top-up with CASH if I want, right?

Cash is good.