PREPAID phone subscribers will no longer have to worry about their unused loads expiring once a bill filed at the House of Representatives prohibiting such prepaid phone card expiry becomes law.
The proposed law pointed out while the use of prepaid call and text card is convenient because it allows subscribers to spend according to their needs, it is subject to an expiry date, wherein unused credits are forfeited upon such time regardless of the amount,” said Rep. Winston Castelo, who filed the bill.
The Quezon City congressman called his proposed measure “Prepaid Load Protection Act,” which also “disallows the unjust forfeiture of load credits not used by subscribers” on their prepaid call and text cards.
"This creates an unfair situation, where customers who have paid for the telecommunication networks’ services do not get the full value of the money they spent,” the law maker stressed.
Meanwhile, Telecom giant Smart, TNT and Sun have given notice to the public of its compliance with the Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 05-12-2017 issued jointly by the NTC, DICT, and DTI, extending the validity of prepaid load to one year.
In particular, Smart, TNT and Sun prepaid loads worth P300 and above will now have a one-year validity, regardless of the validity period printed on the physical cards already out in the market.
The NTC, DICT and DTI have expressed its gratefulness to the three agencies for the grant of a six-month extension period before the full implementation of the MC.
Smart communications Head for External Affairs Jose Rosete said this will provides them more time to implement the extensive reconfiguration of our IT and other support systems, and to conduct the needed tests, in order to ensure trouble-free implementation of the new expiry period.
