For unimportant reasons, I needed to get a text message on my UK mobile number. I’ve not used that number in a Very Long Time. Apparently, the VLT was offensive to EE because they went ahead and cancelled it.
After talking with a very nice but essentially useless lady from EE customer service, apparently this is a thing that everybody does. A bit of internet digging led me to this table:
PAYG Credit Expiry: When your Pay As You Go credit expires, you’ll no longer be able to use it or recover it. On most mainstream mobile networks, your credit will never expire providing your SIM card remains active. However, on some smaller mobile networks, your credit can expire just 90 days after top-up.
SIM Card Cancellation: When your SIM card is cancelled by the network, you’ll lose coverage on your phone with an error message like “Inactive SIM” or “SIM card registration failed”. Your SIM card will be cancelled automatically if you haven’t used it for a certain amount of time.
Phone Number Deleted: In some cases, your phone number will remain even if your SIM card has already been cancelled. This means you’ll be able to restore service on the phone number and you’ll be able to use a PAC Code to transfer the number to phone another network. If a phone number has been deleted by your mobile network, it’ll no longer be possible to recover it or transfer it to another network.
Source: http://kenstechtips.com/index.php/payg-inactivity-account-termination-and-credit-expiry
So, in the end, I ordered an O2 sim card that is as plain as plain can be – which is just what I want. I just need to remember to use it at least twice a year.