2007: News on German prepaid cards, VAT increase

[Gryphone]

Aldi Talk, Penny Mobil, Smobil, Tchibo: no news

Simyo and Blau: Christmas offer is still in place
And a new function: to check whether a number belongs to the same provider, you can dial 2145 from Simyo cards and 2159 from Blau cards. (free of charge of course)

Rewecom is no longer being offered. Instead it will be replaced by a new tariff called "Ja!Mobil" being sold at Rewe etc. stores, the charges and functions of this new tariff are excactly the same as Penny Mobil's, therefore one doesn't even need a new page for it. Current Rewecom customers are not effected by this and may continue to use their current card and plan.

There is also another internet-based prepaid card on the T-Mobile network called Simply. It costs 15,50€ including 10€ of credit, calls from Simply to Simply cost 0,04€/min, standard calls are at 0,14€/min debited by the minute though. National/international SMS are at 0,11€ and 0,30€. Calls to Europe and North America cost 1,54€, to the rest of the world it's 2,04€/min. Other conditions are listed here.

Apart from the current five offers for international calls there are three more offers: Ortel has a plan on the E-Plus network very similar Blauworld's, while The Phone House is offering Just Talk International on both the E-Plus and D2 network (with conditions similar to Blauworld's and Mobi's respectively). I'll be gathering some more information in the near future, hopefully.

[Gryphone]

Court order on credit validity

Until recently you had regularly recharge your prepaid cards, otherwise you'd not only lose your SIM card and number, but also all of your credit.
Last year court decided that some clauses leading to this loss of credit are null and void, so far this directly affects D2 and O2, though to a different extent.

The two operators have reacted as following (this is summary, the details are even more complicated that this):
- D2 has decided to cancel expiration dates on it's Callya cards. However so far Callya cards from providers (recognizable by a second logo on the SIM card like Debitel, Mobilcom, Talkline etc.) are not effected by this yet and still may expire.
- O2 has instead decided to continue letting the cards expire, however when they do you may send in your SIM card and O2 will transfer the remaining credit to your bank account.

Apart from that some providers have reacted even without a similar court order:
- Simyo cards don't expire anymore. No expiration date will be shown either.
- Blau is using a trick by recharging SIMs close to expiration with 0,01€, thereby enlengthening the validity by six month or so

[GSM-Fan]

Originally Posted by Gryphone

- D2 has decided to cancel expiration dates on it's Callya cards. However so far Callya cards from providers (recognizable by a second logo on the SIM card like Debitel, Mobilcom, Talkline etc.) are not effected by this yet and still may expire.

But don't forget reading the fine print. They reserve to deactivate Callyas that are not used. So it's more like one of these British "do something at least every six months" offers.

[Gryphone]

Originally Posted by GSM-Fan

But don't forget reading the fine print. They reserve to deactivate Callyas that are not used. So it's more like one of these British "do something at least every six months" offers.

Well... theoreticly yes. But we'll have to wait and see how D2 is going to handle this in practice.

Just today I received news that starting next tuesday the old Loop tariffs (Classic and Alltime) will no longer be offered to new customers, leaving only Loop S/M/L.
(Existing customer using Classic, Alltime or Mobile may keep their tariff, however on Classic and Mobile they are faced with a slight increase of charges due to new VAT, as mentioned above.)