I have had virgin SIM for 3 years in USA. It still works. I never make call or send SMS. I do use the sim built-in feature to call the top up line free from USA. This tells me my balance. I have never topped up; still using the original balance when I was in UK 3 years ago. I have not found a way to request text delivery of balance.
I got Orange SIM last year in UK and did top up. I could then use the "free minutes" calls to many overseas locations as described in
www.yourcallworld.com as "included minutes". Also got internet data access for #1/day.
My experience:
for local calls/texts and long SIM life use virgin.
for data and overseas calls use orange