Telcel Minutes

[peddler665]

I purchased a Telcel basic phone last season in Ixtapa. Before traveling up to Guanajuato/Guadalajara last March I had additional minutes added to it with service in your area. I believe I added 500 pesos.
I used less then a 100 pesos. Does anyone know if these minutes/pesos expire or will I be able to use them when I arrive in January? Or did I just contribute to Carlo's retirement fund? LOL
Thank You

[laconstance]

I believe you are talking about Telcel's Amigo Plan phones and minutes. When I had an Amigo Plan, I was never clear whether the minutes were lost or not, but I think for a short time past expiration they are not lost, if you recharge the phone within a reasonable amount of time. If you recharge for 100 pesos and up, the time is good for 2 months, so your time period probably expired sometime in May, but your minutes didn't necessarily expire. More problematic is the fact that your phone number may no longer be valid; 5 months have passed since May.

If you want to squander $11US to find out, you can go to the website
prepaidwireless.com and click on Telcel. Amigo will come up, and your options for recharge are there. After you register to use the website, you can recharge the phone for as little as $11 ($10 for the minutes and $1 service charge). If your phone number is no longer valid, you'll be told. If the number is still valid, the new minutes will be added to your phone immediately (be sure to have the phone on and charged). You will get a one-time message about the number of pesos credit you have, and then you will know if those earlier pesos were lost or are still in your account.

If your phone number is no longer valid, then I suppose you will have lost everything. But, you could always get a new number and charge up the phone at the Telcel store when you get to Guanajuato in January.

[Red Queen]

Unfortunately the Telcel credit is a tricky one, the money you paid in could have been reactivated if you had put let's say 30 pesos within a month or so, just to get the credit badk (I learned the hard way) but once you stop using your phone your number becomes invalid and yes, you have lost the credit completely. Sorry to confirm bad news but this will avoid you trouble. You can double check but this info I discovered only about a year ago. xx

[peddler665]

Thanks for the replies. I'll check out the suggestions.