Where has my balance gone (PAYG)

[Pewe]

I have a PAYG account wiich was started in early 2025 with a top up of £20.

I am told that today that after180 days of no use the account would be deleted and the balance witheld

BUT:

None of the credit added in Feb was used and when I checked the account today I see that the balance is now ££0, BUT the account is still active.

I am obviously missing/misunderstanding something - but what?

[Geluk]

Unless you make chargeable call/SMS at least every 180 days, number will be lost soon after and any associated balance. Same on all networks.

[Pewe]

But it has been over 240 days since I paid the £20 to my account. The balance has gone, but the number is still live. I understood that the number would be deleted at the same time as they cleared the balance but that's not the case.

It was the same with GiffGaff, but they sent texts warnings if you were getting close to the time limit - but 3 don't appear to.

[Pewe]

UPDATE: I just managed to top up the account with some credit - and the new top up shows in the account 'balance and top-up' section but the original £20 does not. Their system is not showing an accurate reflection of my transaction history.