The Portuguese mobile phone seemed to be working well, I had used it a couple of times whilst in Portugal and also a couple of times back in the UK just to make sure I keep the line in tack. On returning to Portugal this time I checked how much was left on the phone by using *#123#, I’ll note that here so I don’t forget it again. Also you can only use this service when in the home country of the network provider, so in Portugal for this phone.
It turned out that I have just over 10 Euros left so whilst enough I thought I know I will just top it up while I am here, so popped into Worten and got them to do it over the counter, seemed easier than trying to work it out using a cash dispenser or on the phone its self. That was easy enough and as I walked out the store the phone bleeped away telling me that it had added the money. By the time I got back to the car and did the *#123# again it was down to just a few cents, what happened?
I walked back into the store to have it out with the guy. He explained that the tariff I was on as soon as they saw 20 Euro they would take the 20 Euros and give me free calls to other tmn numbers and free texts for the month. Now I understood the tariff, I really hadn’t got it before to make this work for us I need to keep the balance on the phone between 1 Euro and under 20 Euro. That way it operates as a Pay and Go, you pay for all calls. If you want free calls and texts for the month then put on 20 Euros.
You still have to pay for incoming texts from an international number so with just a few cents there wasn’t enough to pay even for an inbound text from my UK O2 phone. So I ended up putting another 5 Euro’s on the account, at least then it would then work. I could receive and make international calls and texts which I would pay for from the money on the phone and for this month I could make free calls and texts to tmn numbers, great that cost me 20 Euros and I don’t need it. Oops!
So the moral here I think is pay more attention to the tariff, make sure you understand it. I was lucky, it didn’t cost me too much, I did waste 20 Euros, that’s all. From this point forward I must not put more than 20 Euros on the account!
Well I hope thats right; I will let you know as time passes.