Aldi Talk Expiry?
 

Sorry for the dumb question, but I'm trying to determine when my Aldi Talk credit will expire. I purchased the starter card and a 30 Euro top up card back in April 2007. It seems that it will expire after 12 months from activation. However, it would seem to make more sense to expire 12 months after the last usage (which was June 2007.)

I won't be back in Germany until May 2008, so I'm trying to figure out if it will still work (12 months after usage) or if it will not (12 months after activation.)

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

It will. There's no specific expiration date. A court ruling more or less put an end to the practice.

Great, thanks very much for your help!

Credits often expire in 30-60 days here in Canada, so I'm glad to hear that these won't expire.

Kelly.

Unfortunatly, Alditalk does deactivate cards nevertheless, one year (plus 2 months while outgoing calls are no longer possible) after the last rechange has taken place.

You will find out your expiry date by dialing 1155, then chose option 1. Most E-Plus cards still expire.

Does that work while roaming?
 

OP in Canada for some time. Does 1155 work while roaming? Is it FREE while roaming? Will customer care (presumably reachable by 0180 or other service # or via email) know?

Stan

E-Plus claims the number works from any country for free, where their prepaid cards roam, BUT unfortunatly only the recharge option works in those countries.

German info here: http://www.eplus.de/dienste/8/8_2_1/8_2_1.asp

Alditalk itself only states that the number can be reached in Germany for free.
It also informs about deactivation after one year plus 2 months.
They will send an SMS once the 12 months without recharge have passed. Then you have two more months to recharge. If you don't, you can reach the service hotline under 01149-177-1157 to claim a refund for you credit.

http://www.medionmobile.de/guthabenkarte.php

Anyway, I would call 01149-177-1157 right now from any phone and ask how long the card is active. It may be that you need to provide some identification to get that info.

Hope that helps

If I were in Canada, I would:

- Wait for the SMS to arrive, and then wait another 4 to 6 weeks.
- Buy an E-Plus recharge voucher on the Internet (credit card).
I've had good experiences with https://secure.verivox.de/cards/index.asp)
- Use the *104*put NUMBER from Verivox HERE# and press send to recharge.
- Write down the date and check if the recharge has worked by dialing *100#

To take some to the confusion away concerning deactivation a short explanation.
The court didn't rule it to be illegal to deactivate cards (of course), but said it was unlawful not to give a refund in case the card was deactivated. As a result the big companies stopped deactivating prepaid cards, one reason being the logistics involved another reason was the free credit that had shown up on so many older cards. People used different payback schemes to get free money on the cards.
Only E-Plus and it's reselles still deactivate the cards usually after 6, 9 or 12 months without recharge or without use, depending on the reseller.

That info should be helpful to the OP.

Seems to me E+ makes it quite clear (see *) that OUTBOUND CALLS from USA and Canada (among others) will not work.

I take it the automated (E+ German) SERVICE NUMBER (1155 as opposed to HOTLINE with an actual agent on the other end) is NOT reachable from another phone?

Stan

I can confirm that 1155 doesn't work here in Canada.

I tried using the *104*put NUMBER from Verivox HERE# method, using 111 111 111 111 as the PIN number (not a valid number, but I didn't want to buy one and not be able to use it!) The response was "dieser service ist nicht vorhanden" which I assume means "This service is not available." Not sure if it is not available because I didn't use a valid PIN, or because it just doesn't work here in Canada. I was able to retrieve my balance, however.

Fortunately, if they give you another 2 months after the 12 to recharge, I should be fine, since I hope to arrive in Germany before the end of April (unless I run out of my supply of Milka chocolate that I brought back last year). Although I've always found Aldi stores in the past, I may still buy the PIN code on-line before I leave and bring it with me.

Thanks to everyone for all of their help! Now I'm going to try searching for good data rates for a few days in Poland and Romania.