The value of unused call money on mobile phones forfeited each month amounts to €68m, according to the consumers’ association Consumentenbond.

The money is lost because most subscriptions run for a month and any left-over phone minutes are then cancelled. The Consumentenbond wants service providers to extend this to one year.

‘After all, you don’t have to hand in a jar of peanut butter at the end of the month if it’s not completely empty,’ the association’s Bart Combée told RTL News.

Combée says monthly subscriptions at the end of which any money left is forfeited is ‘absurd’. He now wants parliament to become involved because the providers are refusing to do anything about the situation.

Figures from the Consumentenbond show 209 million call minutes are lost each month and 259 million text message minutes.