$15 plan 1GB add-on, not being used

[smsvisitor]

I'm on the $15 plan for a year now, I saw I have a 1GB promo, instead of the 250MB I see on my other account. But the data seems to be coming out of my holiday bonus and not the 1gb add-on. Is that expected?

[darlicious]

@AE_Collector 

Hey its a good selling point for referrals....look at all my freebies!

[AE_Collector]

Yes exact same situation here with receiving add-ons, my first use of any add on data was on the holiday 2019 1Gb add-on though the summer 2019 add-on was there as well and is older. Then the 5 GB summer 2020 add on arrived, the 2 GB holiday 2020 add-on plus a contest 1 GB add on as well. Finally that first data add-on hit zero and the 5 GB is now being used. So there were two newer data add-ons that could have been used next and there was one older add-on as well. But the 5 GB add-on was the next one to be tapped into. My limited activity does show that once a data add-on is started it will be killed off before the system throws a dart at the board to decide which one is next.

Not so on the International calling plans though. Both are the PM freebies and both have a few minutes of use on them, the newer one was tapped into at the first opportunity even though the old one had already been started. All were used by actual International calls from Canada to the US, not by overflow past 100 minutes on my $15 plan. I guess it is a failing of mine but I hate messes like this! 

AE_Collector 

[darlicious]

@AE_Collector 

Ithink its YMMV how the add ons are used. When I only had two unused the August 2019 and the Holiday 2019 add on the August 2019 one was used first. Then no data was used until August 2020 before the 5gb bonus was added and the data started to be used from the Holiday 2019 add on. After the bonus 5gb and the Holiday 2020 add ons were added the data continued to be consumed from the Holiday 2019 add on. Maybe pm has fixed them to fully consume the currently used one? Anyone want to wager which one gets used next? May take awhile to find out though.....

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

 @smsvisitor : Yes. All countable items drop off when consumed. Plan items will come back at renewal. Consumed add-ons will not.

[smsvisitor]

So when the allotted data is used up it disappears from the add-on section?

[AE_Collector]

The thing that seems odd about using the most recently added “anything” is that quite often the older has already been tapped into but not used up. Then some partial amount of  it sits there while a newer one begins to be accessed. That is how my two holiday bonus international plans are working. 3 minutes used from one while it was the only one on my account. Then Christmas 2020 bonus arrived and 5 minutes of it have now been used. So far data add-ons appear to be used until they are gone but even with a couple of older 1GB add-ones available my 5GB add-on is now starting to be used. 

Everything seems backwards with Public Mobile. I would set it to always continue using an add-on that has been partially used, then start the oldest one next or maybe the smallest one next working towards using it up and removing it. I appreciate the freebies but my list of add-ones is literally a mess. If i were the programmer I may have automatically had “like” add-ons added together to be one larger add-on but I can see where that could be problematic with trouble shooting problems.

AE_Collector

[Dunkman]

@smsvisitor 

Yes, it is normal.  As stated above, your monthly allotment will be used first.  If you have multiple data add ons, PM will usually use the most recent add on first.

This is from a different thread:

The order of consumption is the following:

- the units included in the rate plan

- any one-time add-on activated on the account from the most recent to the oldest one (for example if you have one added in September and one added in October, it will be consumed the one from October first, because it's the most recent)

- any add-on that is renewing from month to month from the most recent activated to the oldest one

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/What-order-are-add-ons-used/m-p/613506#...

[Quigley]

Yes, that's normal. After using up your regular monthly data allotment you'll start using the holiday promo data then any other data add ons you have listed in your account.

@smsvisitor 

[Helpershelper]

@smsvisitor 

As soon as you use up your plan’s data, then the data add-on from your account will be used.