Good News/\Bad News about ekit service life and recharging
 

I was checking on Service Life information on ekit and they have changed some things.
You no longer have to 'recharge every 15 months' to keep the SIM alive. I called to confirm if this is true and the CS person said yes.

However [and this is the 'bad news'], the minimum recharge is now $20 and no longer $10.

If you have older ekit SIM cards, you will want to check if the Service Life info on your 'My service' tab says this. At least one of my SIMs did not have the new policy. I do not know whether it has changed for that SIM or not. I did not want to bring this up now, so I will wait until the 15 months on that SIM approaches.

some more info
 

Great post Robert! <g>

It turns out two of my SIMs that I could check [of 13!] do not have the wording in the previous post. Both still say there is a need to refill every 15 months. Both were acquired from the UK ebay seller a few years back and shipped to the USA. The UK ebay seller does not ship to the US any more.
All currently available ekit SIMs available on their website seem to have the use it every 6 month minimum now.

Good news. Good news. Good news.
 

Ekit's policy for ALL SIMs is 6 month expiration now. They will be updating any pages with old policy as they discover them.

Changes again ...
 

Link: http://www.ekit.com/ekit/MobileInfo/TermsUse

Seems they want to get rid of all the "travel-once-per-year" customers.

Thanks for the heads up. I checked my seven exit cards. Two Explorer Service [ekexp_green],
two US SIMple Calling Plus Service [ekusplus_yellow], and three Passport Service [ekpass_yellow].
All have the same below expiration statement in their information page.


It will be interesting to see what is actually done.
I had not noticed before that all funds would be restored even if you buy a new SIM.

I have an old US simplecalling sim. I received the following email on Monday. Seriously, my use for international sim cards has diminished somewhat. As I am usually in one place for a long period and I just buy a local sim. Plus, I have Piranha as well, and that has worked well for me. I'll be in Nigeria for 2 weeks starting this Friday. I already have 2 local sims that I use there. However, I'll burn up whatever is left on my Ekit while I am there.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Dear mobile customer

Thank you for using our service. We are continually making improvements,
so please let us know how we can make the service better.

As you have not made any calls with your SIM card recently, the balance of your account will expire in one month.
Please see our terms and conditions http://www.ekit.com/terms for details.

To extend the life of your account balance, simply make a call or send a paid text message or recharge your account within the next month.
To recharge your account, just go to www.rechargeminutes.com

Should your account balance expire and you wish to reinstate your balance,
please contact Customer Service to recharge your account and we will
reinstate the expired balance.

thanks for sharing the email
 

For the last year or so I have been quite diligently using the SIMs I have every five months. I will be doing that every 10 weeks or so now. I have already whittled down the number of ekit SIMs I have by closing them down and asking the balance to be transferred to one I would more likely use.
Since they stopped requiring annual refills and with the balance transfers the balances have been pretty static.
I probably should do a little more whittling down to one kind of each card type [SIMple, Explorer, Passport Plus].

Further reflections
 

Ekit seems to have renewed their product line so that what now exists
SIM-wise are new and different from what they offered before.
I assume that a year or so from now they might replace our current SIMs with newer current ones.
This has happened at least twice in my memory.
So look at what is being offered and what you already have and use it to your advantage.
Ebay seems to be the place with the best prices for their SIMs.

Amazon too? Can find some decent 2nd hand sims there...

I am talking about new SIMs.
I would think 2nd hand SIM would be to 'iffy' for most users.

Agreed. Got an email that my ekit sim card will expire in one month unless I either make a call or text message or add to my balance. Only have about US$3 balance left on the card, but thinking of just letting it expire.

While I could easily extend the lifetime of the sim card by making a quick USA to USA call, this sim card does not appeal to me as much as it used to. Rates are higher for the international destinations I normally visit than they were with prior incarnations of this sim card, and I prefer to use other options such as Telna Mobile postpaid or InMarSat prepaid.

Ken -
How often do you travel out of the country?

Update after talking to CSR in Boston.
 

Well, I had a nice long talk this morning to a CSR in Boston.
He seemed quite knowledgeable and said they had had a meeting to explain things to them. When the weather was bad they could work from home.

The TOSes will all be changing to three months.
This will be your warning [some of you have already gotten one] that things change:
The CSR mildly encouraged me to pay the fifty cent a month fee to hold on to the USA phone number which would also serve the purpose of keeping the account alive for balance purposes.

rfranzq -
It appears you are based in U.S. Question, why not switch to T-Mobile as your carrier which includes unlimited intl. roaming data and text and 20¢/min. voice calling.? (Free when on wifi). Good in 120+ countries.
If I asked you this before - grant me a pardon for being redundant.

such a poseur
 

Well, I am somewhat a poseur with international SIMs at this point.
More of a tester than a user. Although I started out in 2007 with the need for such SIMs, it has been a while since I have been able to get out of the country.
Now, mostly playing around with the SIMs for their ability to use both AT&T and T-Mobile networks in the USA. I don't even use data.

Usually only once or twice a year for a one to three week period. Typical out of country visit would be to non-US Caribbean or Bermuda (although also occasionally visit Canada or Europe).

A direct T-Mo postpaid plan would not be cost effective for me and T-Mo coverage near home is not good and only 2G. Also some island wi-fi is unfortunately not suited for quality VOIP or SIP phone calls...would rather pay more for a good quality cellular or satellite connection. Might revisit T-Mo in the future if they improved home coverage...would probably sign up through a business reseller like Harbor Mobile rather than directly with T-Mo. Currently use T-Mo only indirectly through Telna or Lyca.

For foreign trips typically now use Telna postpaid for reasonable rates for light voice usage. Most non-US Caribbean island coverage for Telna is using Digicel. Backup if can't reach a roaming carrier or for maritime usage is InMarSat prepaid. Can roll over InMarSat airtime until I have a need for it. Used to use Iridium postpaid but monthly rates crept upwards over the years.

Ken -
TM is making a big push to expand coverage in many areas in U.S. in 2015. Note that with Harbor Mobile you get the intl text and data - but do NOT get the 20¢/min calling. I don't know if you get the wifi (free calling to U.S.) calling.
TM really pays if you have multiple lines on an account. First line is $50, 2nd is $30, 3rd-5th $10. (I think lines 6-10 might be $20)

Harbor Mobile does claim to provide the $.20 per minute calling... It just requires a $25 deposit. They suggest that you use WiFi calling but it is not clear if this is the T-Mobile voice over WiFi product...

Snipet from their site FAQ:

However calls made over CELLULAR while roaming outside the USA, although it will work, IS NOT covered under our plan. If cellular voice is used, you will be charged .20/min as well as a one time access fee of $25 for each month that there is voice roaming usage. In short, DON'T use voice roaming. We will take a $25 deposit in advance (upon your confirmation to activate intl usage) and return the deposit upon 0 usage during your trip. We will charge this to the card you have on file.

If you don't travel much the $25 is not bad. As already stated, being an actual T-Mobile customer gets you around this complication...