# Cytanet-topups extremely short expiration-date?



## Guest (Jan 21, 2011)

I top-up my UK and Swedish SIM once a year to keep it active which is the expiration-date SIM-card topups usually has, 
in Cyprus I have 2 sim-cards (both pay as you go), one for calling and one for internet, recently they both expired cuz I hadn't topped them up recent enough, 
so I went to fill up one of them for €5 and expecting it to last atleast 3 months (tho less than a year is pretty unacceptible IMO) it only extended it for 2 WEEKS!!!

this is outrageous, my work depends on me having internet access to communicate with my colleges and searching through work-related forums (i.e. text-stuff so it doesn't actually cost me much at all in actual bandwidth, and the phone I almost only use for sms), but now to keep both simcards active for a year I need to top-up each card with 5 euros every 2nd week? ie. 240 euro per year!

I'm thinking maybe they've changed something for year 2011, but I can't find any info on internet about it, so wondering if anyone else is noticing this problem?
Alternatively it could be that when you first buy your simcards (which was like 3 months ago for me) they give you a 3 month expiration-date, but then after that they give you this extremely short expiration to force you to topup all the time and to be extremely wastefull with your minutes.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

My wife had a pay-as-you-go MTN sim card for Cyprus which she never topped up. It "expired" and we went to MTN to get it reactivated. We had to get a new number and were told if we top it up at least once the number will be active for a year.

Needless to say that didn't work. We haven't bothered since.

On the flipside I have a post-paid monthly contract Cyta-Vodafone SIM card which costs something like 10 euros a month. This may be a better option for you? Calls and SMS messages will be cheaper as well.


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## Toxan (Dec 29, 2010)

If you are outside Cyprus and are using a Cyprus pay as you go sim card, you can aways ask somebody in Cyprus to top it up for you. All they need is your telephone number.


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## Guest (Jan 23, 2011)

Toxan: I'm inside Cyprus but what I mean is it doesn't matter if I top it up, because 2 weeks later it's expired again!

zin: hmm I'm guessing you are talking about another type of expiration, I think after your credit has expired if you don't top it up for 6 months then the whole number/sim-card will expire so that's probably what happened to your wife, 
but in my case I mean that I can easily reactive it simply by topping up, but it's only giving me a extra 2 weeks expiration date when I do that, which is ofc insanely low it means I have to top up all the time even tho I rarely use my phone, in other words it completely ruins the whole point with having a pay as you go card as I have to top up with 5 euro every other week even if I just use 1 euro per week.

I could in theory get a montly paid like you said, but I don't use my phone much so that's exactly why these "pay as you go" exists so you only pay what you use, but it may very well be that they are scamming the "pay as you go" customers to have to pay more.


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

It seems very strange because my pay as you go has an exipration date of 12 months after each top up.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

may be different with MTN & Cyta-Vodafone.


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## theresoon (Apr 11, 2008)

NiklasB said:


> Toxan: I'm inside Cyprus but what I mean is it doesn't matter if I top it up, because 2 weeks later it's expired again!
> 
> zin: hmm I'm guessing you are talking about another type of expiration, I think after your credit has expired if you don't top it up for 6 months then the whole number/sim-card will expire so that's probably what happened to your wife,
> but in my case I mean that I can easily reactive it simply by topping up, but it's only giving me a extra 2 weeks expiration date when I do that, which is ofc insanely low it means I have to top up all the time even tho I rarely use my phone, in other words it completely ruins the whole point with having a pay as you go card as I have to top up with 5 euro every other week even if I just use 1 euro per week.
> ...


I happened to be in a Cyta store yesterday so I asked because I thought this sounded very weird- my husband has been using Cyta pay as you go since we moved here a couple of years ago with no problem. The guy said this does not sound right and if you can check with a store.

Also from experience the 35e card is the best deal.


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## Guest (Jan 24, 2011)

Ah great, so now I know it's not normal, I'll try to get in contact with them somehow, may go to the store as you suggest.


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## Toxan (Dec 29, 2010)

It may have to do with the amount that you top up. Small amounts may have a short expiry date.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

My understanding from the below is the validity of the top-up is 12 months.

Cytamobile-Vodafone
MTN Cyprus : Pay As You Go


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## Veronica (Apr 5, 2008)

It is definitely 12 months, always has been so there must be something wrong with Niklas' phone.


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## Miss Daisy (Jan 24, 2011)

I have to agree that something is wrong, it should be 12 months. I have been topping off with small amounts - 10 Euro and it always gives me 12 more months. I have been doing this for 3 years. My last top off was in January and it was extended 12 months.

You should visit the Cyta shop as suggested. Good luck.


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## Guest (Jan 25, 2011)

I went to Cyta but unfortunately I found that expiration is indeed only 15 days (2 weeks) for Internet Pay as you go (he told me it was normal and showed me on the contract-paper as well), this I find to be extremely limiting as it defeats the whole purpose of "pay as you go" as it means that my internet usage is nearly irrelevant if I need to top it up every 2 weeks just to keep it validated (i.e. it's pretty much the same as a pay-monthly contract) and I've not noticed this limitation in any other country. 

As someone on previous page pointed out I can get slightly better expiration per euro if I buy the €35 top-up since it has 120 days validation (topping up €5 euro 7 times i.e. €35 would only be 105 so it's slightly more days for the price), but it's still a pretty bad deal, but oh well I think I'm going to do that since I only have a few more months in Cyprus.

---
However as for PHONE pay as you go, it is apparently 12 months (like you guys said) IF I top it up once, in my case I was still using the €5 included when I bought the sim-card (and that apparently only works 2 months) as I only use this for emergencies (good thing I noticed it wasn't working, would suck to be locked out of the apartment and then find out your phone isn't working), 
so when it comes to the phone even tho I still have lots of credit on it I can simply top it up anyway since after topping up it >should< work for the normal 12 months period.

Cheers all.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

NiklasB what's Internet pay as you go vs Phone pay as you go ? As in topping up online vs topping up using a scratch card?


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## Guest (Jan 26, 2011)

I may be using the wrong name here, I mean a sim-card for browsing the internet through 3g with (i.e. most people use them with the USB-dongles but you can also use them in your cellphone).


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## theresoon (Apr 11, 2008)

NiklasB said:


> I went to Cyta but unfortunately I found that expiration is indeed only 15 days (2 weeks) for Internet Pay as you go (he told me it was normal and showed me on the contract-paper as well), this I find to be extremely limiting as it defeats the whole purpose of "pay as you go" as it means that my internet usage is nearly irrelevant if I need to top it up every 2 weeks just to keep it validated (i.e. it's pretty much the same as a pay-monthly contract) and I've not noticed this limitation in any other country.
> 
> As someone on previous page pointed out I can get slightly better expiration per euro if I buy the €35 top-up since it has 120 days validation (topping up €5 euro 7 times i.e. €35 would only be 105 so it's slightly more days for the price), but it's still a pretty bad deal, but oh well I think I'm going to do that since I only have a few more months in Cyprus.
> 
> ...



sorry, I thought you were talking about phone (not realized internet service)


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## Toxan (Dec 29, 2010)

You can also visit wifi places and have free endless internet too


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## Guest (Jan 27, 2011)

theresoon: I WAS talking phone  I have 1 simcard for phonecalling and 1 for internet (both from cytanet), but as it turned out they had both expired for different reasons.

I will topup my phone today and hopefull have atleast that one work for the next 12 months again 

Toxan: Yes I go about once a week to to a wifi-pub for bandwidth-heavy tasks, but my work also requires that whenever I'm stuck on a technical problem that I can instantly get in touch with a college or surf the net for the solution, and that's what I use my 3g-itnernet for.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

Niklas, ah! a SIM with a data package. 

How about using something like CityCell? City Cell WiFi hot spot locations around Cyprus

30 euros per month for long-term: City Cell WiFi hot spot locations around Cyprus


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2011)

Thanks for the advice, but there's no signal strong enough where I live (and my laptops battery is dead so I can't go far outside)


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

They provide booster antennas for 150 euros but at that price you might as well continue as you are!


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