I doubt if transfer of credit counts as Activity. Think about this rationally.

UM, like any provider wants you to use the call credit and not use them as a "bank account".

A business is about offering a service for the consumer which the consumer pays for in return, thus earning the business revenue/profit.

One factor in the business model used by a particular provider will be the typical rate at which call credit is used up. Customers that do not use up their call credit within a "reasonable time" are not contributing to the business model by not making calls, hence the clause to loose call credit if not used after a pre determined time. If too many customers do not use their credit, then this can imbalance the model and cause problems.

Additionally, If there is no life span on the call credit, those customers that do not use call credit are a "liability" in accounting terms. Hence the need for UM and others to impose a life span on call credit. If no time limit were set, then how can a provider account for an unknown quantity of funds over an infinite period of time?

From a pragmatic point of view, why would you want a lot of your money sat in someone elses pocket for months/years, when it could be put to the use either as it was intended (making phone calls) or better spent else where?

A service provider/business is providing you with a service. If you have paid for that service but choose not to use it for a long time, then it's not unreasonable that the service provider consider you a "dead" customer an impose the terms to which you have agreed to at the time of purchase and cancel your call credit.

My advise would be to only top up any Prepaid SIM by the amount you expect to use in the short term/immediate future. Think "Use it or loose it" and you wont go far wrong or loose out.

Well the German FAQ is kind of vague:
OK, so what's "letzter Nutzung" (last use)? Last time I turned the phone on? Received a SMS? Received a free incoming call?

The way I understand it is the last <b>chargeable</b> use (ie outbound calls, SMS sent, incoming calls in non-free countries).

Purely and simply, as far as I am concerned, it is highway robbery. The worst, of course, are the French carriers which in some cases steal your credit after as little as 15 days.

I think this is one area where the eu can come to the aide of consumers throughout the eu and outlaw the practice of allowing carriers to steal your credit. (didn't some sort of German court outlaw the practice in Germany?)

FWIW I upgraded from +423 to +44 back in early August. My Balance messages now read: "Account type Personal, Balance $xx.xx - <b>No expiry</b>"

It's possible that was a one-off thing for those who switched over early. I haven't recharged the phone since so I don't know if the expiration date would get set to a specific date if I did.

As for the value of credits to the MNVO, of course they'd like to "encourage" people to use up their airtime so that they can sell them more, however, as long as the cost of providing service keeps dropping then ISTM having use of our money, even if it shows as a liability on their books, is essentially an interest-free loan. That's a lot less than what they'd have to pay to borrow money for on the open market ;)

I'm playing "Devils Advocate" here, but how can it be robbery if the customer has decided to make the purchase and agreed to the terms?

Surely the purpose of call credit is to use it, if not, why add it to an account. Using your call credit means there is "cash flow", which is key to any business and ultimately benefits the customer by funding innovation, products and services.

Don't forget that not all costs go down and that when calls are made, they have to be paid for by the provider, so the cash is not a loan, but allocated funds, or what could be possibly view as short term working capital.

I’m using the Jersey service and am in Ireland at present. Until this morning I roamed on “Meteor” but this morning I got an SMS welcoming me to “Vodafone” and now the display tells me that I’m on “IRL United Mobile”.

Is this new? Is UM now a MMVO (or what ever they are called).

Hong Kong and UM+
 

Doesn't work. Locked on to CSL briefly but not even long enough to make a call. I've switched over to TravelSim, which works everywhere and quite well. I only transfered over a remaining balance and I guess I'll use it up and toss it now. Ah well....

In which country?