Balance on pay-as-you-go account

Last Saturday I received a text message from Vodafone Malta telling me that my pay-as-you-go account will expire on December 9 and asking me to "recharge before this date". As I had a credit balance of €64 I rang Vodafone Customer Service only to be told that in order to keep the account going I would have to recharge with a further €5.

On enquiring why Vodafone could not take this charge out of my €64 balance I was informed that this was their "normal business practice" and that the €64 I had paid in good faith was "not their money".

If this is the case then who holds this money and what happens to it if a customer does not recharge by the expiry date? Perhaps someone can enlighten me as I have not come across this practice before in other European countries and perhaps also someone could advise me if there is a telephone regulatory body in Malta that I can complain to.

Maybe it's time that Vodafone Malta took a good hard look at their "normal business practice" and meanwhile I've made sure to spend my €64 before December 9 and am opening an account with another provider!