Goldhead said:

If they want to change the expiry date, change it to NO EXPIRY please. That's what some operators in Europe are now forced to do by law. It should be the same as with gift cards, which now have no expiry date. I wrote more about this in a separate thread...

A no-expiry policy would be ideal for my usage, but it would certainly change the Speakoout business model. What would be really interesting to see is how Speakout's income splits between various users:
a) users who top-up at "day 364", before they use up all their time,
b) users who routinely use up purchased airtime, and top-up to replenish their accounts before 365 days elapse.

Any guesses on what the ratio of a-to-b income is? 50%? 25%? 75%?

Peter said:

My guess is that they would honour any existing expiry dates but not vouchers that had not yet been activated. Also, they would take the later of a) the existing expiry date and b) the date you add more airtime + the new validity period.

The vouchers clearly state that they're good for 365 days, so they can't arbitrarily change the expiry after you've purchased one.

emms said:

If they did change the expiry date on minutes, would they still have to honor the 365 days for those who have already purchased and activated cards before the change?

My guess is that they would honour any existing expiry dates but not vouchers that had not yet been activated. Also, they would take the later of a) the existing expiry date and b) the date you add more airtime + the new validity period.

Of course, let's hope it doesn't come to that. We would probably flood their inboxes and call centres at that point.

there are references to the expiry date on SO minutes changing from 365 days to something shorter.

Lots of speculation but no hard facts. If, emphasis on IF, it happens there likely won't be any notice, just as there wasn't when SO increased per minute costs a year ago.