Lycamobile US has recently become useless, particularly for those who need data. Following is a summary of recent changes, which they've kept very quiet:
- According to http://www.lycamobile.us/en/termsandconditions "From 5 August 2014 any new top up credit shall expire ninety [90] days from the date of top-up or recharge. For the avoidance of doubt, this does not apply to the existing credit balance in your Account before 5 August 2014."
- Data is no longer available on pay-as-you-go since 16th September 2014; to get data, you now have to pay for an expensive monthly plan including minutes and texts that you probably don't need or want.
- Charges for calls (outgoing and incoming) on pay-as-you-go have risen from $0.02 to $0.05 per minute.
Lycamobile is now a worse deal than
T-Mobile US, which offers plenty of data bundles, e.g. $10 for 1GB for 30 days.
Lycamobile is a British company and had exported the British fair play approach on SIM expiry policy to all the countries in which it operates. It is a shame that Lycamobile has made an exception to this fair play approach and is now depriving its US customers of their credit after 90 days. Coupled with no data on pay-as-you-go, this is now a SIM card to avoid. What a shame that they have destroyed a potentially useful product.