Vodafone CallYa in Germany - disappearing credit!

[AmandaB]

Is there a trick to putting credit on a German mobile phone? I've put two top-ups of 25 euros on my phone in the last five weeks - one at the bank and one at the Vodafone shop - and it's gone down super-quickly, even though I've only made about five local calls and sent a few texts.
I used the emergency Call-Ya activation when it ran out last time - could this have affected it? Please help!

[inquisitor]

No, the advance credit (*123#) does only cost € 0,30 + € 2 (the credit granted).

Do you happen to have accessed the internet from your phone? What phone do you use? Some smartphones like the Android-ones silently access the internet or send SMS.

Anyway, Callya is a rip-off - have you ever considered switching to a cheaper provider?

[Motel75]

Aww, CallYa isn't the ripoff it used to be. Granted, compared to the great deals at Vodafone UK, I'm feeling more cheesed off than ever about expensive data and 1.99/min international calling. But 5/15 isn't a bad deal, considering it's an offer that can include a heavily subsidized phone, or can be useful for occasional use or if you call a lot of people on Vodafone. (FWIW, I use Solomo Pro for pretty much everything else.)

Having said that, I watched my credit drop by 15 euros when I tried, unsuccessfully, to send an MMS to a friend of mine in February. I don't know what the problem was, as I was using a Vodafone-branded Moto V3 RAZR, with all the settings evidently correct. But even though the MMS failed to deliver, I was charged 39 cents for each automatic attempt to resend. I wrote to Vodafone and they didn't refund my money, but simply told me to use their phone configuration tool. Gee, thanks.

If there's a problem of accidental data access, make sure the account is set to the 45 cents for 5 minutes data option (advertised as "9 cents per minute"). While not especially cheap, it's a much better deal than the otherwise standard 20 EUR/MB data rate, and they do not charge if you just go to the Vodafone Live homepage. As many Voda phones in the past had buttons that did just that (which you could not reconfigure), hitting the button accidentally could get expensive.

[AmandaB]

My phone is a bog-standard Nokia (certainly not a smart one!) - I don't think it CAN actually access the internet! Thanks for the help though.

[Motel75]

In that case, log onto vodafone.de and send them an e-mail to ask what the problem is. Describe the situation, including details of your phone model. Request a refund of your money. (Write in English if you don't know German.)

Just to make sure - you don't live on the border to another country, do you? (ie, accidentally incurring roaming costs).

[inquisitor]

Go to the next Lidl supermarket, dm or Müller drugstore or Jet gasstation and buy a Fonic SIM, which is surely cheaper for you. Fonic charge € 0,09/min for all domestic calls and for calls to fixed lines in most countries of the western world (and American mobile networks). Calls to non-American international mobile networks are billed with € 0,29/min. National SMS-messages cost € 0,09 and international ones € 0,19.
In order to let callers know your new number, just record an announcement for your Callya malibox telling your new Fonic number.

[Motel75]

Agree with Inquisitor.

I'd still say CallYa isn't bad:
IF someone only wanted to place occasional calls/send texts/MMS
OR mainly called other people on Vodafone
OR needed a phone, not just a SIM
OR wanted to be with a major company, not an MVNO (for whatever reason)
AND didn't care about data or international calling

Otherwise, Solomo Pro is the current best all-round choice (if you have a German address and credit card/bank account).

Fonic is a close second that is much easier to find and to top up, which makes it the best current choice for most visitors. (Unless they plan to call home to somewhere that isn't cheap to call with Fonic, in which case they should probably go with Ortel Mobile or similar.)

If Vodafone is going to drain your credit for nothing, you do have other choices. But do ask them to refund the lost money.

[inquisitor]

solomo doesn't require a German address. They actually ship to Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Spain and even to further countries upon request.

[9eor9]

Actually it is not a secret, but for connections to/from foreign countries there is a cheap possibility when using CallYa open end and for one phone and for the other phone the CallYa Reiseversprechen:

A call of 1h duration from Germany to a country covererd by the Reiseversprechen then is only 29ct + 75 ct = 1,04€€€!

[MATHA531]

Originally Posted by inquisitor

solomo doesn't require a German address. They actually ship to Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Spain and even to further countries upon request.

Unfortunately they don't ship to North America and their web site is only in German so it's hard to fill out the form and have it sent to your hotel if you're linguistically challenged like I am!