Use up Phone Credit - Rob C
Use Up Your Mobile Phone Credit
Fundraising for Oxfam GB
Story
Background
I was recently switching my mobile phone from one UK network (Talk Mobile) to another provider with a new pay-as-you-go SIM card. I had received my PAC code for porting my number to the new network and had just over £4 in credit left over in my old PAYG account to use up. I was struggling to find out how to transfer the remaining unused balance to charity. After more searching online than you would expect, I eventually found two UK charities with active text donation numbers - one that would accept only a £3 donation and then one that would accept the remaining £1.
This page has been set up for others wondering what to do with their unused mobile phone credit, and to show you how to donate the remaining unused phone credit on your PAYG account to Oxfam, one of the UK's largest and best-loved charities. You'll have seen their shops in the High Street. More information about Oxfam is available at the bottom of this page.
The Justgiving text donation service has recently changed so your donations to Oxfam will no longer appear as a live update on this page. However, your donation will still arrive with Oxfam and you will receive a confirmation text from the charity after your donation has been sent.
Instructions
- Decide the amount of unused credit in whole pounds that you can donate. It can be either £1, £2, £5 or £10. Other amounts can easily be split across multiple texts (e.g. £12 can be sent by making a £10 donation then a £2 donation)
- Create a new text message on your phone and send one of the following word/digit combinations to the short text number 70066:
- CREDIT1 to donate £1
- CREDIT2 to donate £2
- CREDIT5 to donate £5
- CREDIT10 to donate £10
- That's it!
Text messages sent to 70066 will either be free or will be charged at the standard message rate by your mobile phone network.
Do let me know how you get on with using your mobile phone credit to donate through this page, particularly if it worked or not on your network. I've set up a dedicated email address to receive your feedback:
usebalance (at) gmail.com
Mobile Phone Network Donation Results
EE: Donation Success! 10p charge for the text itself if not on a plan or pack
Giffgaff: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
Lebara: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
O2: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
Talk Mobile: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
The Phone Co-op: Use of text short-codes not currently available
Three (3): Donation Success! Potential 10p charge for the text itself
Virgin Mobile: Donation Success! Potential 12p charge for the text itself
Giffgaff: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
Lebara: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
O2: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
Talk Mobile: Donation Success! No charge for the text itself
The Phone Co-op: Use of text short-codes not currently available
Three (3): Donation Success! Potential 10p charge for the text itself
Virgin Mobile: Donation Success! Potential 12p charge for the text itself
Let me know about text charges, if any, made by these networks:
Asda Mobile
BT Mobile
iD Mobile
Lycamobile
Tesco
Vodafone
Worrying about where your donation will go?
Well don't! Oxfam get 100% of your donation. Further details on where the money goes are available on their website here, along with links to terms, conditions and privacy information:
https://www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/how-we-spend-your-money