Hello bowermaster,

We hate to bring bad news but there’s no nice way to say it – your Skype Credit has expired. This means that all your credit you had at your account is now gone.

== What is Skype Credit expiration policy? ==

We’ve tried to make our expiration policy as user friendly as possible. You just have to place one call every 6 months to keep your credit. Skype Credit expires 180 days after your last purchase or SkypeOut call. Extending the period is as simple as doing short call. This automatically extends the period for another 180 days.

== Why does Skype Credit expire? ==

There are several reasons why Skype expires Skype Credit that hasn’t been used for 180 days – we have to comply with normal accounting rules and cannot keep “dead” accounts in our databases forever.

You can view your account history – including your Skype Credit expiry date – on http://www.skype.com/go/myaccount and get more information about our expiration policy here: http://www.skype.com/go/help.faq.expirationpolicy

Please note that after each purchase, it can take up to 10 days for the expiry date in Your Account to refresh.

== Getting help for Skype ==

While you cannot reply to this email directly, you can contact us through our Help section at www.skype.com/help for assistance or to correct any errors. You can also visit our forums at www.skype.com/go/forum.

Thank you very for much for using Skype and best regards,
The people at Skype

I wasn’t aware that normal accounting procedures required taking someone’s money away and giving nothing in return. That’s very interesting…and less than thoroughly convincing. I’ve been on Sklype several times over the past six months, but I guess I never initiated the call. And now I’m happy to report that I don’t intend ever to initiate another Skype call.

Are there any alternatives?

UPDATE: In the comments, a Skype fan explains that — although the e-mail clearly states that I lost my credits because I didn’t make any calls — apparently I could have been initiating calls in North America and still have lost my credits, because those calls are now free. It seems that my options were as follows:

1. Make international Skypeout calls or send SMS’s
2. Purchase ringtones (Dang, sorry I blew my chance on that one. Talk about value for money!)
3. Let Skype have my money

I chose option three by default. You live, you learn.