Sad News Airtel, Idea and Vodafone now requires you to recharge with a minimum pack to keep your sim alive

Akash Solanki · 16 May 2019

I porting my Airtel number to vodafone

Sarkar · 16 May 2019

BiswajitKonch said:
It's not available .. i tried to recharge through nearest shop also. They also said that airtel 35 pack is not working from morning..yes, they should inform this by press release..

I got a refund aso from amazom after 35 recharge declined by airtel. So i recharged 65 instead

I remember Mr Mittal once said in an interview that min recharge should be 65

rajib022 · 17 May 2019

now voda & idea will follow this by removing rs 35 very soon

igloo · 17 May 2019

Just now did Rs. 35 recharge on my airtel prepaid sim. Successfully done.

TJ_DJ · 19 May 2019

Zmint said:
Today I got the following message :
"Airtel Pack expired on 07-May-19. You have been given 1 day grace on validity. If not recharged, Rs23 will be deducted tonight from balance for 28 days validity. To stop the auto-debit, dial*121*777# or recharge"

Considering that I use this number only for incoming, anybody have some idea, what will happen if I stop auto-debit .... and do not recharge ?
Outgoing will stop for sure, but what about incoming .... will it stop immediately ? What will be my incoming switch-off date ?

If found the following info in google. Can someone confirm ?
What happen if your Balance Is Zero ?
If in your Sim Card having 0 Balance then your Incoming and Outgoing will Stopped But Sms will be Continue Delivered Until you Recharged your Sim at least Rs 35 Plan. You have to do Recharge Before 90 Days from grace Period otherwise your Number Will be Sale to Other Users.

Zmint said:
I just called Airtel CC and this is the info I got.
"If I deactivate auto-debit, then my Outgoing will stop immediately after current plan expiry and Incoming will stop after 14 days."
As I need only incoming on this number, I will let my outgoing stop and recharge again after 13 days to extend SIM active.
In nutshell, at present I am getting 28 days incoming validity for 23 Rs/-. Later I will get 42 days validity for the same amount.
Lets hope it works as planed

Bro, do you know if the stopping of auto-debit using *121*777# can be done only in the 1 day grace period? What if I want to stop auto-debit when my pack is still valid? It is not letting me to do so. Any insight on this, probably by other members too, who have stopped auto-debit on airtel prepaid?

rajib022 · 19 May 2019

Airtel, Vodafone Idea’s user base plunges after minimum recharge plan rollout :...

Two leading telecom operators, Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) and Airtel have faced a significant reduction in user base after the rollout of minimum recharge plans....

Airtel, Vodafone Idea’s user base plunges after minimum recharge plan rollout

Zmint · 20 May 2019

TJ_DJ said:
Bro, do you know if the stopping of auto-debit using *121*777# can be done only in the 1 day grace period? What if I want to stop auto-debit when my pack is still valid? It is not letting me to do so. Any insight on this, probably by other members too, who have stopped auto-debit on airtel prepaid?

Deactivate Auto-debit can be done any time but I noticed it is of no use.
I deactivated auto-debit successfully and received a message that you auto-debit has been deactivated but after few days Airtel again deducted from my balance automatically to restore my outgoing. It seems, as long as you have sufficient balance in your account they wont let you deactivate auto-debit

Zmint · 20 May 2019

TJ_DJ said:
Does anyone know how may we use Main Account Balance to do Rs 35 recharge for Airtel Prepaid?

Try *121*51#

TJ_DJ · 20 May 2019

Zmint said:
Deactivate Auto-debit can be done any time but I noticed it is of no use.
I deactivated auto-debit successfully and received a message that you auto-debit has been deactivated but after few days Airtel again deducted from my balance automatically to restore my outgoing. It seems, as long as you have sufficient balance in your account they wont let you deactivate auto-debit

My outgoing validity expiry is 22-May-2019. Today if I do *121*777# I get a response saying "You are not eligible for auto-debit". What does this mean? Will it not be auto-debited anyway? So confusing.

Zmint · 20 May 2019

TJ_DJ said:
My outgoing validity expiry is 22-May-2019. Today if I do *121*777# I get a response saying "You are not eligible for auto-debit". What does this mean? Will it not be auto-debited anyway? So confusing.

After reading you message I dialed *121*777# and got a message box in replay. "Press 1 to deactivate auto-debit"
On pressing 1, the replay came "You are not eligible for this pack"