Surplus Eir credit - what to use it for?

MrCostington

Hi,

My mother's Eir pre-pay phone stopped working, just returned from an Eir shop where they said it was nto topped up for 3 months and barred, she unlocked the SIM. There is E66 credit in it, plus another fiver we now need to put in it.

Ma just sends the odd text so will never use the E71 within 3 months - anything else she can do with it? Bearing in mind she is 80 so data usage or paying for sky diving lessons are out!

jrmb

MrCostington wrote: »

Hi,

My mother's Eir pre-pay phone stopped working, just returned from an Eir shop where they said it was nto topped up for 3 months and barred, she unlocked the SIM. There is E66 credit in it, plus another fiver we now need to put in it.

Ma just sends the odd text so will never use the E71 within 3 months - anything else she can do with it? Bearing in mind she is 80 so data usage or paying for sky diving lessons are out!

Some networks allow you to pay for mobile apps using your call credit. You might be able to get Netflix or your favourite newspaper for a few months.

jrmb

MrCostington wrote: »

Bearing in mind she is 80 so data usage or paying for sky diving lessons are out!

She might like audio books or music streaming.

MrCostington

Thanks for those ideas, but she does not have a smart phone or use the internet

She has an Eir landline, would they transfer the credit onto that? I forgot to ask while in the shop

jrmb

MrCostington wrote: »

Thanks for those ideas, but she does not have a smart phone or use the internet

She has an Eir landline, would they transfer the credit onto that? I forgot to ask while in the shop

I'm not sure but I have a feeling that they wouldn't allow it. You might be able to transfer the credit to someone else in the family who would actually use it.

MrCostington

Hi, thanks again! Unfortunately, she is the only one on Eir, or on pre-pay.

Looks like there are no options. I'll suggest she does not make any landline calls until the credit runs out, at least that will make use of it.

DopeTech

The talk and text add-ons on this page?

https://www.eir.ie/mobile/prepay/add-ons/

Ten Pin

AFAIK eir don't have the option to transfer credit.

Not sure why Eir shop said the number was cut after 3 months of non top up, it's meant to be 5 months (according to their terms).

Anyway Vodafone is better with 6 months interval between top ups and less cumbersome to reactivate after that (2 further months of inbound calls & text). Also by dialling 1741 (with Vodafone), you can find out the exact dates by which top up is required. With eir, it's a bit of guesswork without any warning text in advance, they just cut off the number.

How about lending the SIM to a family member to use up the credit with add ons (over 5 months) and get a new SIM (from Vodafone if that suits) and start from scratch. Is it much hassle to have a new number ie how many people would you need to contact to let them know of a number change.

jrmb

If all else fails, a lot of charities have a system that allows you to donate by text (e.g. if you send CANCER to 50300, the Cancer Society gets €4 from your credit).

There's a full list here: https://api.likecharity.com/charities/