I had a quick look at the Idea website http://www.ideacellular.com and it looks like they use top up cards which have to be bought in India, I couldn't see anything about topping up via the website and a credit card.

with ideal or any indian sim i used to buy a new one every trip but now i see bruno, and he gets you a sim for life and he tops it up for you when your back in uk to keep it alive. bruno is in candolim even the elephant shop will do it too

Anywhere in Goa can sort out the lifetime / year validity for your mobile. When you take it to the UK Goans can text for 1Rs/- per message, although you used to be able to do it the other way as well, but last time I was back in the UK they had stopped this and added agressive charging in the UK - unfortunaately... You won't be able to charge in the UK, although you could always try and call a place up and charge by phone, but then you have to get the cash to them... I guess that would work.

Hope that helps

Thanks Rob
I emailed Idea and your advice is spot on. It does cost Goans 1rupee to text to the UK from Goa. It costs 10 rupees to text back apparantely but you also have to pay for international roaming(the procedure for doing that aslo made me scratch my head a little.....not straightforward). The SIM can only be topped up in India so I'd better do that next time I'm there or as you say get someone to do it for me.

Glad I could of of assistance! - Yu can use it as a one way device to receive messages and then call back to India on a cheap call service.. I think thee's one that does it for around 2.5p per minute at the moment from UK to Goa mobile...

Hi, i have an indian/goan sim with idea, its a lifetime one just before we return home i put 2000rps on
to last while we at home, i dont use it in the uk, they take out so much each month for services?,
then when we arrive i get a message saying i have so many days to top up,

My Idea mobile had plenty of credit on it however it has barred calls or texts from it so I can only assuem they all come with some sort of time limit on them.

I never successfully texted from the UK although the license said valid until Oct 2010