Prepaid credit gone without calling: That can be the reason

Do you have a prepaid mobile phone contract and wonder why your credit is empty even though you haven't made a call? Booking a flat rate or third party costs may be responsible for such additional costs.

Prepaid credit gone? The itemized bill

With prepaid tariffs, you can use a single connection statement to check why there is no credit left on your SIM card.

• All invoice items (connections) including telephone calls, SMS and the Internet data connections are listed individually in detail.
• With most providers, however, the individual connection verification must be activated manually for the first time. In most cases, you can ask customer service for help.
• The prepaid individual connection proof usually shows all connections within the last 4 weeks.

Flat rates or additional options

With flat rates and other chargeable additional options, there are various options and reasons for unwanted costs.

• If the flat rate has already been booked, the mobile operator tries to debit the flat rate several times. So it can happen that after you have loaded the credit balance, it will decrease again due to the debit.
• If you have not booked a data flat rate, it may happen that your provider, provided that you have not deactivated the mobile data on your mobile phone, will invoice you individually as data packets. This can often be very expensive, especially with large amounts of data.
• Check the current status of your tariff in the customer center of your provider.

The third-party lock

With the so-called third-party lock, you prevent providers other than your mobile operator from being able to charge your prepaid credit. You can initiate the third-party lock either yourself using a speed dial key or via the customer center.

• At Deutsche Telekom, dial speed dial 2202 on your mobile device or contact the customer hotline by phone.
• Vodafone enables you to set up the third-party lock in the "MyVodafone" area under the "Mobile payment" option. You can also contact the provider's hotline.
• With the provider o2, the third-party lock can only be processed by telephone via the customer hotline.
• With all providers it is also possible to send the third-party lock by post or fax.

In our next article, we will compare different prepaid providers for you.