Skype has stopped their Skype Credits service which is bad news for Microsoft 365 consumers who took advantage of their monthly 60 minutes of free calls to worldwide phones.
Without notice, Microsoft stopped both Skype Credits and Skype Numbers (incoming phone numbers to your Skype account). What’s now appearing at https://secure.skype.com/en/credit/ is bad news.
Savvy Skype/Microsoft 365 customers kept some Skype Credit (maybe $5-10) to cover calls that didn’t qualify for the free minutes or when the one hour call allowance was used up (like when on hold with a bank or airline).
Removing Skype Credits means this backup is gone. Damn.
Ending Skype Credits is a real PITA for Microsoft 365 users who have 60 minutes of free Skype calls to regular phones each month. On the Skype account page you can see if Microsoft 365 Family/Personal is linked to the Skype account.
Microsoft wants to push monthly Skype subscriptions instead but that’s hardly a reasonable replacement.
Existing Skype Credits
Any existing Skype Credits will be honored.
Why?
The company hasn’t given any reason for the change. Removing Skype Numbers is possibly a cost cutting exercise. Stopping Skype Credits is more mysterious but might be a sign that Skype is being gradually closed or severely scaled back.
