Cellphone firms pocket unused prepaid credits

Check out this column by Federico D. Pascual Jr. about how local cellphone firms have been pocketing huge sums by imposing unreasonably short expiration periods for credits loaded into prepaid accounts.

As a postpaid subscriber, I never really paid much attention to this issue before. However, it was only recently that I noticed a pattern in my son's prepaid consumption, that is, most of the load I send him just expires without being used. And it has happened on a number of occassions. If you multiply that by the number of prepaid subscribers on all the different networks, I get the feeling that we're being taken for a ride, and that some people are getting more and more wealthy at the expense of prepaid users.

Ka Uro, one of the contributing writers of pinoyatbp, wrote a comparison about the prepaid charging system of the most popular local cellphone service provider Smart versus New Zealand's largest provider, Vodafone NZ. He also wrote a post on it in his blog here.

Among other things, the prepaid credits offered by Vodafone NZ last up to a year even if unused. Contrast that with the life of prepaid credits offered here in the Philippines by Smart, Globe, and even the new player Sun, which lasts only for a few days to a maximum of two months. See the validity periods imposed by Smart here, by Globe here, and by Sun here.

With the economy as it is, nowadays every peso counts. Taking advantage of the public in this manner just to generate additional income is unethical, socially irresponsible, and totally uncalled for.

Clearly, the government has to do something to control this farce.