How to Cancel Lyca Mobile (and Stop Auto-Renew)

By the Lyca Referral (UK) team · Updated 12 Jul 2026 · Independent guide — not affiliated with Lyca Mobile.

Cancelling Lyca Mobile works differently depending on which plan you have. Pay As You Go has no contract — you simply stop the bundle renewing and it lapses at the end of the current 30 days. Pay Monthly is a proper contract, so you cancel by giving Lyca notice through its cancellation form or by email, with a notice period and possibly an early termination charge.

Quick answer: On Pay As You Go, dial *190# and enter 1 to confirm, or log in to My Lyca and choose Cancel Renewal under your bundle details — at least 24 hours before the renewal date. On Pay Monthly, submit a cancellation request via Lyca’s Pay Monthly contact form or email [email protected]; if you don’t give an end date, a notice period of at least 30 days applies. Either way: if you want to keep your number, get your PAC first.

This guide walks through both routes step by step, explains what the 14-day cooling-off period does and doesn’t cover, sets out the escalation path if Lyca drags its feet, and covers the mistake that catches people out constantly: cancelling the payment card and assuming the contract dies with it. It doesn’t.

Before you do anything: save your number

⚠️ Warning: If you want to keep your mobile number, get your PAC before you cancel anything. Text PAC to 65075 (free, from your Lyca SIM) and Lyca must reply within a minute. Cancel first and the number is destroyed — once the account closes, no provider can bring it back for you.

Porting actually does the cancelling for you. Give the PAC to your new provider and, under Ofcom’s text-to-switch rules, they must complete the move within one working day (Lyca says transfers typically take 1–2 working days). When the number moves across, your Lyca service on that SIM ends automatically — there’s nothing further to cancel, although on Pay Monthly any remaining minimum-term charges can still be billed. The PAC stays valid for 30 days; if it expires unused, your Lyca account simply carries on as before.

Don’t want the number? Text STAC to 75075 instead and give that code to your new network, or follow the cancellation steps below. There’s a full walkthrough in our guide to keeping your number when you leave Lyca.

Cancel Pay As You Go: stop the auto-renew

Lyca PAYG bundles renew automatically every 30 days, paid from your balance or a saved card. There’s no contract to escape — “cancelling” just means switching off the renewal so the plan ends when the current 30 days are up. Lyca’s official help pages give two ways to do it (checked 12 July 2026):

Method 1: dial *190#

From your Lyca SIM, dial *190# as if making a call. A menu appears on screen; enter 1 to confirm cancelling auto-renewal. It’s free and takes about ten seconds — this is the quickest route and it works on any handset.

Method 2: My Lyca account

Log in to your My Lyca Mobile account on lycamobile.co.uk or in the app.
From Overview, select Click Here to View Plan Details.
Choose View Details on your active plan, then Cancel Renewal.

Timing matters: Lyca advises cancelling at least 24 hours before the renewal date, or you may still be charged for the next cycle. Your renewal date is shown against the bundle in My Lyca.

💡 Tip: If you have auto top-up switched on or a card saved to the account, review those settings in My Lyca at the same time, so no further payments are taken after the bundle lapses.

Once the bundle expires, the SIM stays live on standard pay-per-use rates while you have credit. Like most PAYG networks, Lyca will eventually deactivate a SIM that goes unused for an extended period — it doesn’t publish a precise window prominently, so never rely on a lapsed SIM to keep a number alive. If the number matters to you, port it out while the SIM still works.

Cancel Pay Monthly: cooling-off, notice and fees

Pay Monthly is a contract, so cancellation goes through Lyca rather than a settings toggle. The route depends on how long you’ve had the plan.

Within 14 days of ordering: the cooling-off period

Like any online purchase under UK consumer law, Lyca’s Pay Monthly terms give you a cooling-off period: you can withdraw within 14 days of the order acknowledgement email (Lyca’s Pay Monthly contact page describes the same window as 14 days from the day your SIM arrives — either way, don’t leave it until the last day). Select “Withdrawal (within 14 days cooling off period)” on Lyca’s Pay Monthly contact form, or email [email protected]. One catch people miss: 14 days doesn’t mean 14 days free. Lyca’s T&Cs say you still pay for calls, texts, data and a proportional share of the monthly plan used before you cancelled. The exact wording is in the Pay Monthly terms linked from Lyca’s plan pages.

After 14 days

Use the “Cancel subscription (after 14 days termination)” option on the same form, or email [email protected] — Lyca says it aims to respond within 48 working hours. Include enough detail to identify the account first time; missing information is the most common reason requests stall:

Your Lyca mobile number and account number
Order number and SIM number (printed on the SIM card)
Name and the delivery address the order was sent to
Contract length when purchased, your email address and an alternative contact number
Reason for cancellation

Two cost points from Lyca’s Pay Monthly T&Cs (checked 12 July 2026): if you don’t specify an end date, Lyca applies a notice period of not less than 30 days and bills normal charges during it; and if you’re still inside your minimum term (the 12 or 24 months you signed up for), an early termination charge applies — the terms cap it at no more than your monthly plan charge multiplied by the months left in your minimum term, including VAT, though the precise figure depends on how Lyca nets off discounts, so ask customer services for it in writing before you confirm. Once the request is processed, Lyca sends a confirmation email — keep it — and there’s no need to return the SIM.

Prefer to speak to a person? For Pay Monthly, call 322 free from your Lyca number, or 0203 617 4331 from any other phone — the Pay Monthly contact page lists hours of 7:00–23:00 Monday to Saturday and 9:00–18:00 on Sunday (checked 12 July 2026). Avoid relying on the general [email protected] inbox for a dated cancellation notice: Lyca itself warns that email replies can take 5–7 working days.

Why cancelling your card doesn't cancel the contract

A tempting shortcut: block the card, cancel the Direct Debit, let Lyca work it out. Don’t. Stopping payment doesn’t end a Pay Monthly agreement — the contract keeps running and the bills keep accruing. Lyca’s terms let it terminate the agreement for non-payment and still charge you, including the early termination charge, and unpaid balances on any contract product can be passed to debt collection and may affect your credit record.

On Pay As You Go the stakes are lower — a failed payment usually just means the bundle doesn’t renew — but it leaves things half-lapsed rather than cleanly cancelled. The tidy order on any plan: PAC first if you want the number, cancel properly, keep the confirmation (screenshot the *190# response or the email), and only then remove your payment details.

If Lyca won't cancel: the escalation path

Lyca’s customer service reputation is genuinely mixed — 2.8 “Average” on Trustpilot (checked 12 July 2026), with unresponsive support and unexpected charges among the recurring complaints; our full Lyca review goes into the detail. Most cancellations go through without drama, but if yours stalls, escalate in this order — it’s the standard process every Ofcom-regulated provider must follow:

Chase with a paper trail. Re-send the request through the Pay Monthly form and note the date. If you call 322, ask for a reference number. Keep screenshots of any *190# or My Lyca confirmation.
Raise a formal complaint. Tell Lyca explicitly that you are making a complaint, not just a request — that starts the clock. Lyca’s complaints code of practice sets out the procedure: front-line support first, then a formal complaint to its Complaints Department at [email protected].
Go to ADR after six weeks. Lyca’s code of practice (checked 12 July 2026) says that if no resolution is agreed within six weeks of your complaint — or you’re unhappy with the outcome offered — you can refer the dispute to CISAS, the Communications & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme run by CEDR, free of charge. The adjudicator’s decision is binding on Lyca if you accept it.

If money is taken by Direct Debit after your confirmed end date, the Direct Debit Guarantee entitles you to an immediate refund of the incorrect payment from your bank. That fixes wrongly taken payments — it isn’t a substitute for actually cancelling the contract.

Leaving for a better deal? Compare before you cancel

If price or patchy service pushed you here, ten minutes of comparison before the PAC text is worth it. We’ve compared Lyca against its closest rival in Lyca vs Lebara — Lebara wins clearly on service reputation (4.8 vs 2.8 on Trustpilot, checked 12 July 2026), while Lyca usually wins on data per pound — and weighed up the whole package in our honest review.

And if you’re only cancelling because an intro price expired, check whether starting fresh beats leaving: new SIMs bought through Lyca’s referral offer get 50% off a SIM-only plan for the first 3 months (checked 12 July 2026), and the published terms simply require a new SIM and plan bought through the link. Two honest caveats: moving your existing number onto a brand-new Lyca SIM is a question for Lyca support rather than a guaranteed path, and on some 24-month plans Lyca’s own public intro deal (up to 6 months half price) is actually better — compare both at checkout. Same price either way through the link; this site may earn a referral reward.

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Frequently asked questions

Does dialling *190# cancel my Lyca number completely?

No — *190# only stops your current bundle from auto-renewing. The SIM and number stay active, you can keep using any remaining credit at standard rates, and you can buy another bundle later if you change your mind. The number is only at risk if you formally close the account or leave the SIM unused long enough for Lyca to deactivate it. If you’re moving to another network, text PAC to 65075 and let the port close the account — that’s the only way the number survives the move.

Is there a fee to cancel Lyca Mobile?

On Pay As You Go, no — you stop the renewal and lose nothing beyond any unused allowance. On Pay Monthly it depends on timing: inside the 14-day cooling-off you pay only for what you used; after that but still inside your 12- or 24-month minimum term, Lyca’s T&Cs apply an early termination charge, capped at no more than your monthly charge multiplied by the months left in the term (ask for the exact figure in writing); once the minimum term has ended, you pay nothing beyond the notice period — at least 30 days of normal charges if you don’t give an end date.

How much notice does Lyca need for a Pay Monthly cancellation?

Lyca’s Pay Monthly terms (checked 12 July 2026) say that if you don’t give a specific end date, service is terminated on a notice period of not less than 30 days, and you pay normal charges during that window. So in practice: submit the cancellation form or email [email protected], state the exact date you want service to end, and keep a copy. A dated request is your evidence if billing carries on longer than it should.

Will I get a refund for unused credit or data when I cancel?

Don’t count on it. Bundle allowances that expire at the end of a cycle aren’t refunded — that’s normal across PAYG networks. Remaining top-up credit is murkier: Lyca doesn’t publish a clear refund promise for closed accounts, so the safest play is to run the balance down before cancelling, or call customer services on 322 and ask for a written answer on whether they’ll refund it. Within the 14-day Pay Monthly cooling-off, you get the plan cost back minus a proportional charge for what you actually used.

Can I cancel Lyca Mobile online?

Partly. PAYG auto-renewal can be switched off entirely online: log in to My Lyca, open your bundle details and choose Cancel Renewal — or skip the website and dial *190#. Pay Monthly can’t be cancelled in one click: you submit a request through Lyca’s Pay Monthly contact form (choosing the withdrawal or termination option) or email [email protected], and Lyca aims to respond within 48 working hours. There’s no in-app cancel button for contracts, so build in the response time plus any notice period.

What happens if I just stop paying instead of cancelling?

On PAYG, the bundle simply fails to renew — untidy, but low-stakes. On Pay Monthly it backfires: the contract keeps running, charges keep accruing, and Lyca’s terms allow it to terminate for non-payment and still bill you, including any early termination charge. Unpaid balances can be passed to debt collection and may affect your credit record. Always cancel formally, get written or on-screen confirmation, and only then remove your payment details from the account.