Questions, questions...

[weekilter]

Originally Posted by claude

In spite of the efforts of many to help understand the world of "prepaidgsm" and other providers, there are many of us who are still faced with a lot of questions.
After several days surfing the net, I discovered how insufficient the information are.
1- SIM cards: there are different types but nobody tells you which one goes into your phone and, if you are like me, you don't know what you device can take.
2- I have still not understood the time management of those cards, buying more time has several options and if I grasp the literature, if you call to buy there is a charge but if you go to a retailer it is free???
3- If all the time is not used while abroad, is the credit still available on a future trip?
There are still other questions that are not very clearly answered or not at all.
Every site is making great efforts to help consumers but the whole thing is getting pretty confusing for non experts like me.
Simplicity would be welcomed and surely as profitable.

As far as I know there are only two usual types of SIMs. A regular and a micro SIM. Micro SIMs are not used very much on many devices. They're used on iPad and the new iPhone 4.

I'm not sure what you mean by "time management." All prepaid accounts have some requirement to keep the account active. You either have to add more minute vouchers by a certain date or you have to place a billable call by a certain date in order to keep the account active.

An account's validity is determined by the carrier's terms. Most have six months or a year's expiry on the accounts by which time you must add more minute vouchers in order to retain any balance in the account. Other carriers don't necessarily require any more vouchers but require that you place a billable call every six months (T-Mobile is one such carrier and is what's required in the UK and in the NL and perhaps other T-Mobile countries as well.

Any credit you have in your account will continue as long as you follow the carrier's procedure i.e. to add vouchers or make billable calls depending on what the carrier requires.