My experience with Onesimcard.

[OneSimCard]

Originally Posted by Grampa

I ordered one of these under the United Mobile replacement program. No risk there. My only hesitation about adding funds is that the funds apparently expire after 10 months and the minimum recharge amount is $25. After two years, the number itself is lost. If you don't travel that much, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table just to keep the card active.

Grampa, congrats on taking advantage of the United Mobile replacement program. Your balance will expire 10 months from the last recharge, but it will keep rolling over as long as you add the minimum amount at least once every 10 months. There's no need to add a lot of airtime in advance, you can just set up auto-recharge.

If your balance does expire, you can always add funds later when you are ready to travel. The phone number and SIM itself will never expire as long as you make or receive at least one call every two years. If you don't plan on traveling for the next 2 years, just call yourself once before it expires to get a new 2 year window.

[Grampa]

Originally Posted by OneSimCard

If you don't plan on traveling for the next 2 years, just call yourself once before it expires to get a new 2 year window.

Thanks for the clarification. However, you can't make that call to yourself if the balance has expired, so in practice, the card will cost $25 every two years whether you use it or not. That's not a huge amount, but it does need to be taken into account when comparing offers or computing cost per minute.

[OneSimCard]

Originally Posted by Grampa

Thanks for the clarification. However, you can't make that call to yourself if the balance has expired, so in practice, the card will cost $25 every two years whether you use it or not. That's not a huge amount, but it does need to be taken into account when comparing offers or computing cost per minute.

Actually, you can purchase a $0 balance SIM card and then 23.9 months from now add $25 of airtime and make 1 call. So in this case, $25 would keep the SIM card active for 4 years/48 months if you do not make or receive any more calls or recharge your airtime. You would have until month 34 to recharge again and roll over the $25 balance, so technically it would not "cost" anything as long as you plan on using your airtime at some point.

[Grampa]

Originally Posted by OneSimCard

Actually, you can purchase a $0 balance SIM card and then 23.9 months from now add $25 of airtime and make 1 call. So in this case, $25 would keep the SIM card active for 4 years/48 months if you do not make or receive any more calls or recharge your airtime. You would have until month 34 to recharge again and roll over the $25 balance, so technically it would not "cost" anything as long as you plan on using your airtime at some point.

I don't know whether you are being facetious, but I'm having a hard time getting my head around what you said. Who would buy a card with the express purpose of seeing how long he can make it last without using it?

My only point is that the combination of a 10 month expiration period and a $25 minimum recharge amount means that, as a practical matter, someone who is not traveling all the time will leave money on the table. It's hard to finish a trip without leaving a substantial balance in the account, and if you don't need to replenish that amount for a while, you will lose it.

[OneSimCard]

Originally Posted by Grampa

I don't know whether you are being facetious, but I'm having a hard time getting my head around what you said. Who would buy a card with the express purpose of seeing how long he can make it last without using it?

My only point is that the combination of a 10 month expiration period and a $25 minimum recharge amount means that, as a practical matter, someone who is not traveling all the time will leave money on the table. It's hard to finish a trip without leaving a substantial balance in the account, and if you don't need to replenish that amount for a while, you will lose it.

Sorry- was not intending to sound facetious, just attempting to clarify your point. Yes, if like you, someone rarely travels overseas and, when they do they only use their cell phone for emergencies, then they are probably better off just using their domestic carrier and paying their rates. There's no need to go through the process of buying a global SIM (or even a local SIM) and worrying about balance expiration just to save a dollar or two on a few phone calls. Most customers though easily spend $25 on calls during a single trip (that's about 60 minutes of outgoing calls from Greece or South Korea, for example).

You would want to compare our rates to your other available options, estimate how many calls you would make and receive on your trip, and calculate your projected savings to determine whether it's worth it for you.