I had a mobile on Orange and everything was fine...use the credit on my PAYG as needed and as long as I called every so often the credit didn't expire. Just before Christmas I bought a new phone and again its a PAYG and when I bought it I got a £10 pack with it.
I now find that it's just expired and it appears that you have to buy a new pack each month. Erm that hardly PAYG it's more in line with a monthly contract as I will have to pay £10 a month.
Do all PAYG providers now work like this ?...any recommendations of providers that do not expire your credit after a month ?
Secondly the phone is a Nexus 6p...as it's a Google phone will it be unlocked or will it be locked in to EE ?

If you use your old SIM in your new phone then everything will be fine.

The £10 top-up that came with the new phone will be of the expire type. Topping up with cash as before will not expire.

I cant use the old sim now as the new phone is a nano sim so I got Orange to swap it over to EE....the credit has been transferred ok too which was around 14 quid and that's ok and is still there So if I top up then new credit won't expire?....is it only if you buy one of their packs that it expires?

I don't know for sure, but if it's the same PAYG tariff as before (Orange animal-based?) but on a new SIM, then I think that only the £10 "free" top-up has a 30day expiration.

Any new top-up should last as before.

it wasn't free...I paid £10 for it

It sounds like you've been put on the £10 pack which gives you a certain amount of minutes/textx/data for 30 days. Then you have to top up another £10.

Try texting STOP PACK to 150 before you top up again and this will cancel the pack and revert to normal Pay as You Go credit which doesn't expire.

You might want to consider Three which is far cheaper than EE for Pay as You Go (3p per minute, 2p per text, 1p per MB); the credit will last for much longer!

The phone should be unlocked unless it was bought from EE.

Yeah..I've already stopped it so it didn't charge me another £10 for this month
The phone was bought from EE ... as it was around £30 cheaper than elsewhere
I will have a look at Three...cheers
Is there a limit on how many times you can swap the number over to a new provider ?

No limit. You just need a PAC code each time. If you bought the phone from EE it will probably be locked to EE which could prevent a move to a different network

ok thanks everyone

EE will unlock its PAYG phones from new for £8-99p and they take it out of your PAYG balance if using their online unlock form, even out of the compulsory £10 top up that comes with the phone.

In most cases though it’s cheaper to get the phone unlocked online at EBay.

I'm on contract and knew they make contract users wait 6 months before unlocking. Didn't realise they would unlock PAYG ones straight away so thanks for pointing that out

thanks skiptracer

How long does a top-up last before expiring on EE PAYG without making a call?

If you don't have a pack, then the money lasts forever. Your phone number will get reclaimed after 6 months - unless you make a call / text. The terms say to use the phone once every 6 months for this reason.

That's useful to know... and if you're making the purchase just for the handset itself, then using the compulsory £10 top-up credit to get it unlocked is better than letting it go to waste.