Charged immediately upon activation?

[hawkbad]

Just joined public mobile, and after my activation I was instantly charged the full amount for my first month. Usually phone companies only charge at the end of the billing period. Does Public just charge ahead of the month of use? 

[cavemantoronto]

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@selva1 wrote:

I am a new customer and when they charged me for my first month, by error they charged by credit card twice the same amount and please lookout for these errors.

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That happens a lot when you do the activation and get an error message during payment.  It will say declined by bank, but still charge you but no funds added to Public Mobile account. Then when you try again, it will charge again if it didn't burn your sim first time.  This is a known glitch.

[selva1]

I am a new customer and when they charged me for my first month, by error they charged by credit card twice the same amount and please lookout for these errors.

[computergeek541]

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@hawkbad wrote:

Just joined public mobile, and after my activation I was instantly charged the full amount for my first month. Usually phone companies only charge at the end of the billing period. Does Public just charge ahead of the month of use? 

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I don't know of a single carrier in Canada who doesn't bill in advance for the service price plan.  This also includes postpaid carriers who bill only for usage afterwards.  In any event, Public Mobile is prepaid carrier.  

With postpaid carriers, there is a bit of a payment grace period.

[hairbag1]

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@hawkbad wrote:

Just joined public mobile, and after my activation I was instantly charged the full amount for my first month. Usually phone companies only charge at the end of the billing period. Does Public just charge ahead of the month of use? 

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With Public Mobile pre-paid service...once you pay, there's no worries that you'll have an added big bill at month end. You pay up front for your 30 day subscription to whatever plan you selected...and that's it. Nothing more.

If you find yourself heading to USA, you can buy a 10 day US Roaming add-on...but that's the same...you pay up front. No unexpected surprises later on.

Welcome to Public Mobile.

[Anonymous]

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@steff12321 wrote:

Actually even for postpaid plans, you are technically still paying ahead of time. For example if you sign up in the middle of the month and your billing cycle is on the 1st of every month, the first bill you will pay for 30+15 days, and then for a month on each subsequent cycle. It works the exact same way, but you pay for the first month upfront. 

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Yes that's correct. They call it post-paid though because you would pay for any extras on the next bill as you then pay in advance for the next month.

Here...no extras. No overages. No surprises.

[steff12321]

Actually even for postpaid plans, you are technically still paying ahead of time. For example if you sign up in the middle of the month and your billing cycle is on the 1st of every month, the first bill you will pay for 30+15 days, and then for a month on each subsequent cycle. It works the exact same way, but you pay for the first month upfront. 

[Jadebug]

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@hawkbad wrote:

Just joined public mobile, and after my activation I was instantly charged the full amount for my first month. Usually phone companies only charge at the end of the billing period. Does Public just charge ahead of the month of use? 

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That's normal. Public mobile has pre-paid plans so you pay before using their service. The nice thing about PM is that what you pay for is exactly what you get and you can't accumulate overage fees. 

[NDesai · Accepted solution]

@hawkbad  That is correct because this is a pre-paid service and everyone is charged before you start using the service. 

[Anonymous]

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@hawkbad wrote:

Just joined public mobile, and after my activation I was instantly charged the full amount for my first month. Usually phone companies only charge at the end of the billing period. Does Public just charge ahead of the month of use? 

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Welcome to PRE-paid. 🙂

And to Public Mobile.