Poland: Heyah now has 1-year account validity after every billable action

[Motel75]

Heyah now has the one thing that Play Fresh had that it didn't, namely 1-year account validity. But instead of being after every topup, this is British-style, i.e. after every call, MMS, SMS (presumably including free ones within Heyah), or use of data. This also means that Heyah is now a pretty obvious choice for infrequent visitors to Poland who wish to keep their accounts valid without having to top up all the time.

Heyah - Absurdalnie proste zasady, darmowe rozmowy i SMSy ze wszystkimi w Heyah - Na Kart? - Heyah Mix

[kuba.g]

Orange was the first to "break the ice" as they introduced one year validity as the first in Poland. Obviously making their offer (especially the one for mobile internet) so good, that the other operators had to follow. Now also I think T-Mobile and it's MVNO Heyah also have 1 year validity. I'm wondering how long it'll take for Plus (and perhaps it's MVNOs) to follow as well.

[Motel75]

Yes, but Orange's one-year validity was for incoming calls only, and they were not very generous with credit for outgoing calls (no cumulative validity, all credit lost forever on expiration, and validity extension increasing with amount of top-up). Play Fresh was the first with real one-year validity for outgoing, no matter what top-up (even 5 zloty). But yes, I would like to see the end of those credit-vs-validity tables that Polish prepaid has had since the beginning. I think Plus's new owner is likely to avoid any price wars and concentrate on getting his money back, though.

[Motel75]

Don't quote me on this, but it looks like checking your balance with *108# also extends your validity by a year. Nice one, Heyah.

[ms93]

I don't think *108# extends validity, but I didn't check it, so I'm not sure.

For sure I can say, that now Orange has 2 year validity - you just need to send START to 8002 for free. The good think is, that it also extends validity of data bonus on Orange Free na karte, so you can have 5GB + 100zł balance valid for 2 years after topping up 100zł. You can extend validity by SMS even every day, so account is valid infinite.

[Motel75]

Wow, that's pretty great. I notice that it is indeed for połączenia wychodzące - outgoing calls. Glad to see Orange have discovered that stealing their customers' credit wasn't great for business.

As for Heyah, *108# obviously shouldn't extend validity, but every time I check using it, it displays a later date than the last time, even if I haven't otherwise used the phone. This might be something they'll fix sooner or later, though.

[Motel75]

Unfortunately, Heyah is no longer great for account validity. (The 365-day expiration is gone, only retained for existing customers, who have to pay 3 zloty per month for it.) In fact, they have now resorted to dirty tricks.

They have a new Daily tariff (dniówka), and whatever its merits, Heyah is sending users plenty of SMS suggesting they try out "free internet" and the like. But if you agree, you are automatically switched to the new tariff - and your account validity drops to 7 DAYS.

And you can't switch back. (This is hidden in the FAQ section on the Heyah website.)

I lost just under a year of validity doing this - which costs 200 zloty on Heyah. And as I already have plenty of credit, I will now have to spend even more money just to be able to access it after the 7 days are up.

I'd suggest users in Poland look at Virgin Mobile instead - which gives you 365 days after any top-up. (www.virginmobile.pl)

[Motel75]

In fact, Heyah is even worse. The account validity is now from the day of the topup - and is non-cumulative. What's more, after that you have only one month to receive calls before service is cut off, not three as before. It's like the way things were over ten years ago.

I'll probably be taking my number to Virgin Mobile, which has 365-day validity, but unfortunately, VM's international rates (and Play's) are not very good.

[Motel75]

Another reason to avoid Heyah, and presumably other T-Mobile brands, is they used to give you your credit back if you let the outgoing-calls period expire but then topped up during the incoming-only period. Now, evidently, they don't.

I had a Heyah SIM with 75 zloty on it that I accidentally left in a drawer, and when I retrieved it, it was two weeks into the three-month incoming-only period. When I topped up, all the previous credit was gone. Note that this was still the old standard tariff, not the new dniówka/daily tariff.

[lover08]

Heyah is not that bad as you desribe

It has 12 month incoming calls free after each top-up
The credit that you put is valid for short time but you can activate
unlimited year validity and it will charge each month 3 PLN rental fee (which is less than 1€)

Internet is cheap with heyah: old tariffs charge 15 PLN for 1GB bundle and better than German prepaids that charge 15€ for 1GB bundles which is 4 prices more than Heyah Poland so it is not so expensive to pay 3 PLN monthly fee for your credit life.

also t-mobile has good internet in many places in Poland