Watch out: ekit changed Passport Service rates in the middle of the night
 

I've had an ekit Passport Service SIM for about 4 years. I don't use it much, but have kept it active according to the terms.

Yesterday I received a couple of SMS messages for the usual $0.10 per message. Today I received two more and was charged $0.19 per message!

There was no notification or anything.

I called ekit customer service and was told that they can change the rates at any time.

It is crazy since they are still advertising the $0.10 per message on their website for the Passport Service. When I brought this up with customer service, she said that it was because my card was old that the rates were changed.

Any other options for a global SIM with a US number that can receive SMS?

Here is your answer!
 

I received email for four out of five affected accounts.
Check to see that your email address is correct. Perhaps it was spam filtered?

See this thread for more information.
http://www.prepaidgsm.net/forum/amer...html#post42103

At the bottom of the 'Account Details' page is there a button to 'Upgrade Service'? I have done so for 3 accounts and they sent the new SIMs very quickly. I would suggest you do so if at all possible. Might take a few days to get to Bangladesh, though. Do read the thread above. Especially, the first message which contains the email that ekit sent to people.

Nope! Not there any more! I need to call customer service back. I probably never read the email message or deleted it.

More Info
 

Perhaps your kind of service is so obscure they did not get that button on your type of account. The upgrade button still shows on 2 of my accounts so it probably was never there.

Could you provide the url of the 'your service' page?

These are what I have/had:
ekusplus_dual ekusplus_grey ekus_dual ekus ekusplus

These are what they just sent me: /ekusplus_yellow /ekpass_yellow
This is the one that shoes on the website: /ekpass_blue

I have never had a 'Passport' SIM before:: now I have two.
[Glad I was able to provide info so quickly.]

Piranha Mobile use US/UK numbers and they do not charge for receiving SMS.

you better use Piranha's-mobile simcards

That is right but I do not get SMS from German, UK, or Russian provider on my Piranha SIM. Sending is no problem.

Best regards,

Detlef

Thats strange i have no problem with SMS from the Main UK operators back to my Piranha Sim.:o

Just a brief follow up if anyone else runs into this problem.

While a phone call to ekit customer service proved unhelpful, I emailed them with my existing number and address and they said they will send a replacement SIM free of charge.

Thanks for the tips about Piranha. If I were starting from scratch I might go that route.

Great! They have had to do this kind of thing before. A number of years back their provider got flaky and they had to replace everyones SIM cards.

phone numbers from Isle of Man to Jersey.
 

In case anyone might care ekit seems to be/have been changing their 'UK' phone numbers from Isle of Man to Jersey.
This is not really all that surprising be cause Jersey Telecom
bought ekit a year or so ago.

Yeah. I noticed thet my new sim has a 07937 number. Makes no difference to me, as I will just be using the US number.

Yes, and jeresey telecom also owns GO SIM and Telestial.

Another update: ekit sent the new SIM out quickly via UPS. The new number has a 7937 prefix.

One problem I didn't realize: they blocked my old SIM as soon as they sent the new one, so I was stuck without a working SIM for a couple of days as the new one was in transit.

Luckily there was only one day left in my trip so I wasn't too inconvenienced.

However, ekit customer service didn't make any mention that the old SIM would be closed immediately. I had assumed it would have been working until the new one was activated.

So if you go this route, expect to not have service for a couple of days.

They transfer the balance as soon as you request the new SIM which causes the old SIM not to work. However if you put at least $10 on the old SIM it will continue working.

Ok, none of that was mentioned by Customer Service. I had about $9 on the card when it went dead.

Upgraded my old ekit Simple Calling sim card to the new Telestial (ekit yellow) sim card after they sent me an email offering to upgrade the sim and give me a $5 credit (had spent it down to under US$1 after they tripled their non-US Caribbean rates on their old card). Arrived in the mail today but I'm currently in the USVI, so it will sit until I get home this weekend. Intriguing thing on the new card is that it is US/Can/Mex for direct dial on the US number, but I wish they would kill off the US$.49 connect charge.

Think Telna and country dedicated prepaid sims will be primary. The ekit sim will be secondary. If all else fails VOIP or Iridium.