Vodafone data card

[3gphone]

Apologies in advance if i am asking a ridiculously silly question here but i'm quite new to 3g. I bought an Acer laptop which came with the offer of a free Vodafone 3g gprs data card. When i called vodafone to get the data card delivered to me i was told that i would have to give my bank details so that they could set up direct debit on my account. I went along and received my data card and sim. I have never used the card since i got it and i am now considering selling it. Would it be safe to sell it as long as i kept the sim card? just worried about my account being charged when the person i sell it to uses it.

[pav]

For billing purposes your account is linked to the sim card and not the data card, many people get upgrade phones then sell them on ebay.

It up to you if you want to sell the data card, but you must keep the sim card as any calls / data charges will be billed to you.

How long have you had the data card because you should be tied to a 12 or 18 month contract, (I am assuming that you are paying a monthly charge (contract tariff and not payg)). If this is the case as you are not using the phone / data card you will need to remember to give your disconnection notice (in month 11 or 17) or you will contiue to be billed each month, or are you using the sim in another phone.

[3gphone]

Thanks a lot for such a quick reply. It's actually on a pay as you use basis, so i don't get any bills cos i'm not using it. It's a 12 month contract but i'm not sure about the disconnection notice, will have to look into that. Thanks once again for your help.

[jemmans]

Very sellable on ebay, they get top money at the moment.

[GC27vf]

Hi 3gphone,

If you got the data card as part of Vodafone's laptop / retail offer then it'll be 'pay as you use'. In some cases you also get £20 free credit as part of the deal when you start out.

As pav says, your account is linked to your sim card to cover your data usage. There isn't a monthly line rental charge involved and the direct debit is just there to cover any usage charges, so if you don't use the sim you won't get charged. You'll still get a blank statement every month.

If you request to cancel the 'contract' Vodafone ask for the data card to be sent back, or a £106 fee to cover the cost of the data card.

[3gphone]

Thanks for all your replies. I am in the process of sticking onto Ebay just now. Spot on GC27vf, i called Vodafone and they told me exactly what you said. Once again thanks to everyone for their help.

[Technophobe]

Be careful selling on EBay. Vodafone are fully aware of the practice and are make "efforts" to block any such sales by blocking cards that do not have the SIM with them. Vodafone do not apporve of selling them on (infact the T&Cs forbid it as they are effectively loaning you the card) You can however "give" it to friends and family and provided that the "account" is transfered to the new used Vodafone are happy. (One comment by a chappie at Vf was that there were more cards on Ebay than they had in stock !!!)