Expert: DebiN - 4/7/2010

Question
I/ my kids have a AT&T go phone that we dont always keep on...it now has been off for about 2 months...before we never had problems with re-activating it over the phone or online...now its reading "ERROR: sim card invalid...how could it be invalid I just took it out of the back of the phone...that is an older phone...reading I noticed you could use any AT&T sim card and put it in a go phone...we have a newer phone that was my daughters and she lost it because of trouble...so we turned it off and now when we go to use the sim card in the go phone it says the same thing ERROR: sim card is invalid...with that phone we entered the phone number it once had which was also awhile ago...but it must be recorded with somebody else now...so now that I need the phone for 6AM this morning for my son's trip to DC I cannot get either phone to work or the go phone with either SIM card cause the site claims they are invalid. The cards are alike and not that old--they are blue & white with the little orange fire ball type thing in the corner...I wonder if you could answer this soon...I am batting a thousand. All support systems are closed now and not going to be open til after I actually need them

Answer
With a GO Phone, the minutes expire after a period of time based upon when you purchased them and how many you purchased. For example, if you purchased $100.00 worth of minutes, the time period until expiration is usually a year, but if you purchased $25.00, the time period is 90 days. If you are seeing the invalid SIM card, that means that the minutes have expired and there are no more minutes on the card. If you contact AT&T or go to the web site, you can refill the card by charging it to your credit card. I'm sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner since I know you needed this right away, but I hope you were able to find out this information another way also. For the future, you can always refill via the phone or internet and don't need to contact support. Thanks. DebiN