topic Re: New SIM expiry in Get Support

New SIM expiry

rusibla — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 10:25:57 GMT

Hi,

does anyone know how long I can keep a new sim without activating it before it will be unusable / expired?

Re: New SIM expiry

RossN — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 20:03:21 GMT

there is no actual expiry for a new sim

Re: New SIM expiry

geopublic — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 20:06:12 GMT

@rusibla wrote:
Hi,
does anyone know how long I can keep a new sim without activating it before it will be unusable / expired?

@rusibla New PM sim cards do not expire. No best before date either.

Re: New SIM expiry

SD08 — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 20:06:53 GMT

@rusibla wrote:
Hi,
does anyone know how long I can keep a new sim without activating it before it will be unusable / expired?

Unactivated SIMs do not expire. You can keep them for later activation as long as you want.

Only after a SIM is activated can they become unusable if your account expires and stays in suspended status for 90 days.

Re: New SIM expiry

Psygineer — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 21:23:52 GMT

@SD08 wrote:
@rusibla wrote:
Hi,
does anyone know how long I can keep a new sim without activating it before it will be unusable / expired?

Unactivated SIMs do not expire. You can keep them for later activation as long as you want.
Only after a SIM is activated can they become unusable if your account expires and stays in suspended status for 90 days.

About that! While it is true they do not expire, the following hypothetical situation may occur. You buy a SIM, misplace the SIM without ever taking it out of the paper or activating it and buy a new SIM. Fast forward three months and the next day after buying and activating a SIM for your parents you go to change the cabin air filter in your Civic and find the original SIM you bought down behind your glovebox because it some how managed to go over the top of the glovebox and down the crack behind it. and store the new found SIM (and its slip cover) safely until it may be needed. Slightly over a year later a friend is looking at joining PM and you give them the SIM. The SIM refuses to activate on their account and they end up buying a new one which worked fine but cost you a referral because the guy at Walmart didn't enter your info correctly on your friend's referral. Was the SIM damaged because of the heat inside the car during the summer, was it defective from the getgo or did it expire after X amount of time (perhaps a year) after Walmart processed it. (For some reason they scanned it into their register and also typed its info into their inventory control system used when selling cellphones, they didn't do that when I bought either of the other ones).

Re: New SIM expiry

Roger3 — Mon, 17 Jun 2019 23:09:13 GMT

There is no expiration on a unused SIM card but make sure you keep it in a safe place so that it doesn’t get damaged.

Re: New SIM expiry

SD08 — Tue, 18 Jun 2019 02:21:42 GMT

@Psygineer wrote:
@SD08 wrote:
@rusibla wrote:
Hi,
does anyone know how long I can keep a new sim without activating it before it will be unusable / expired?

Unactivated SIMs do not expire. You can keep them for later activation as long as you want.
Only after a SIM is activated can they become unusable if your account expires and stays in suspended status for 90 days.
About that! While it is true they do not expire, the following hypothetical situation may occur. You buy a SIM, misplace the SIM without ever taking it out of the paper or activating it and buy a new SIM. Fast forward three months and the next day after buying and activating a SIM for your parents you go to change the cabin air filter in your Civic and find the original SIM you bought down behind your glovebox because it some how managed to go over the top of the glovebox and down the crack behind it. and store the new found SIM (and its slip cover) safely until it may be needed. Slightly over a year later a friend is looking at joining PM and you give them the SIM. The SIM refuses to activate on their account and they end up buying a new one which worked fine but cost you a referral because the guy at Walmart didn't enter your info correctly on your friend's referral. Was the SIM damaged because of the heat inside the car during the summer, was it defective from the getgo or did it expire after X amount of time (perhaps a year) after Walmart processed it. (For some reason they scanned it into their register and also typed its info into their inventory control system used when selling cellphones, they didn't do that when I bought either of the other ones).

To be clear, I am only speaking to the OP's context of a SIM becoming unusable due to a time constraint. Of course, if the SIM is damaged or the SIM is ever replaced in the account, those would not be time factors. As for Walmart "processing" the SIM by typing it into their system, I doubt it would introduce a time factor there. Either the SIM went through an activation there, in which case it becomes unusable immediately for further activations, or it didn't go through an activation and can still be used. I don't see why an unsuccessful activation would suddenly start a clock ticking. If the point of that would be to guard against the SIM being reused, to me, that's like a half-measure which doesn't make sense.