AIS Activation Topup Confusion

[Bmouthboyo]

Hi guys,

So the my wife buys an AIS sim for her phone the other day and we were a little confused how to activate it as the texts they sent were in Thai. We decided to head to the AIS store in Megabangna and a lady who worked there took us to the ATM style booth.

I thought that we could slap 300 baht on there and this would be credit to use and give us say 100 days service, then when we topup again in say a few weeks more balance is added and another 30 to 100 days is added depending on amount topped up.

Now what i dont understand is we said we want 300 baht credit and she then did literally topups, some were 20 baht, some 10, 30, 50 etc. I tried asking why she didnt just slap the 300 baht on and didnt really understand her response. Can anyone enlighten?

Cheers

[bangkokstick]

In English replies are clearer: http://www.ais.co.th/12call/en

[Bmouthboyo]

Sorry its more we are confused why she did like 12 seperate small topups or varyingly little amounts insted of the straight 300 baht

[lomatopo]

With AIS now, top-ups of 10 - 150 baht yield 30 days validity while top-ups of 200 - 1500 baht yield validities of 60 days. Not sure if these are cumulative; they used to be but things are changing.

What is the reply to *121#? If it is ~ 12 August 2014 then clearly this lady was doing you a solid; twelve (12) smallish top-ups yielding 30 days per for ~360 days vs. a single 300 baht top-up for a validity of 60 days. If your validity is ~ 12 October 2013, then I'm not sure why she made so many smallish top-ups?

Edited August 13, 2013 by lomatopo

[Suradit69]

With AIS now, top-ups of 10 - 150 baht yield 30 days validity while top-ups of 200 - 1500 baht yield validities of 60 days. Not sure if these are cumulative; they used to be but things are changing.

What is the reply to *121#? If it is ~ 12 August 2014 then clearly this lady was doing you a solid; twelve (12) smallish top-ups yielding 30 days per for ~360 days vs. a single 300 baht top-up for a validity of 60 days. If your validity is ~ 12 October 2013, then I'm not sure why she made so many smallish top-ups?

"With AIS now, top-ups of 10 - 150 baht yield 30 days validity while top-ups of 200 - 1500 baht yield validities of 60 days. Not sure if these are cumulative; they used to be but things are changing."

It depends on which service you have with AIS. I add Baht 300 as needed, but my validity is always one year out from the most recent top up. When I first took up full-time residence I didn't make that many calls and had to keep adding money to stretch out the validity even when I still had an unused balance. Went to AIS in Bangkok and explained to the agent (who spoke fluent English) and she switched me to a service that gave me a year beyond each top-up regardless of the amount, but still required some minimal use. The per call rate is probably a bit higher, but I don't have to worry about how often I add money.

But, as you say, things are changing, so that service may no longer be an option for new users.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Suradit69

[lomatopo]

But, as you say, things are changing, so that service may no longer be an option for new users.

AIS/One-2-Call did have some accelerated/graduated top-up/validity tie-ins whereby each subsequent top-up's required value would decrease and the associated validity would increase, so that after ~ 15 or so top-ups, even a top-up of as little as 10 pushed your max. date to ~ 365 days. Also, people were topping up before their validity expired and thereby extending their validity date. Again, I think those days are gone. Most service providers here are migrating to 60 day max./rolling (based in usage) validity, or a usage requirement within each/any 45/60 day period to maintain what might be a 365 day expiration. As with all things, best to review the terms and conditions of your specific SIM/plan/promotion. Service providers here are pretty good re: honoring existing terms/plans etc.

I think DTAC still offers their validity buy-up program? http://www.dtac.co.th/en/prepaid/services/freeday.html