Data Limit and Payment Period

[asnow]

I have a grandfathered plan that has a 3GB limit and I have a billing (payment) period of three months.

Is the 3GB limit for the full period of 3 months (so this is kind of like 1GB per month) or is this 3GB per month..

The reason I ask is I ended up using 2.8 out of my 3GB with the Rogers outage. So am I screwed until the end of the month or the end of the billing period (i.e. 3 months)

[bluejaywpg]

@darlicious it's very obvious that what you & another commenter said is what asnow should do (switch to the 1 GB per 30 day plan). But the other question, which you did touch on, was - does he want to give up unthrottled 4G service that he supposedly has with that grandfathered 90 day plan? For the extra $12 per 30 days / $36 per 90 days, it doesn't sound like it's worth it to even have unthrottled 4G in the 1st place for a mere 3 GB of data. Cut to 1 GB per 30 days & bank the $12 per 30 day savings or buy the odd data pack as needed, in exchange for throttling.

But, if by chance 4G service is a must-have, as it just so happens, there are now 4G plans just mere days after this was posted. The problem is that they start at $41.25, which equates to $126.75 per 90 days. asnow says data usage is very small, & only became temporarily big because of a "one time" event (the Rogers outage). Obviously, there is no reason for asnow to switch to any of the new plans & pay $5.25 more per 30 days. But if their needs suddenly changed & lots more data is needed, then for a mere $5.25 more per 30 days, data jumps from 1 GB to 4 GB per month.

I guess the question is - what are the chances that PM will introduce a lower 4G plan? Perhaps $35 for say 1.5 GB? Throttled data is in some ways so much like a customer-oriented feature that helps customers avoid accidentally draining their data fast - shouldn't 4G or even 5G be the de facto standard for all plans? Make the customers happy with super fast data, meanwhile the telcos are happy that customers are using more data & being faced with buying data packs or upgrading to more expensive service. I'm guessing that that idea is too innovative & forward-thinking for a cell service oligopoly that is content with high profits & low customer satisfaction (like the big 5 banks). And too many customers just go with the big 3 top tier without looking into other options. Why do so many just pay the $75+ per month for overpriced service that they may not even come close to using to its fullest? Why do so many not ask the question about what other more suitable & cheaper options might be out there?

[darlicious · Accepted solution]

@asnow 

Wow it seems as though you have had exemplary service with public mobile. But you are overpaying for it. In the short term if needed purchase the $15/1gb add on. It will stay on your account rolling over every renewal until completely consumed. But with the 1gb free gift add on from pm in August 2019 you may not need to purchase extra data along with you having a look see thru your text messages for a text from 4911 sometime between December 1st and 15th 2021.

If you cannot find one (see below) then I would think it is worthwhile to contact customer support and ask for the 2021 "more is merrier" holiday gifts of a 2gb bonus data add on and 500 international long distance minutes add on to be added to your account. While the caveat with the promotion was a customer needed to request this by December 31st 2021 if it wasn't done automatically after replying YES to the text from 4911.

If you never recieved the text you couldn't possibly have asked for them to be added unless you regularly visit the community. It doesnt seem as though you recieved an email either....or for any of these promotions since 2019. Have the CSA check your account to see if recieving these kind of messages has been turned off for some reason. Have them flip that switch back on.

Now that the data issue has been addressed lets talk about your plan. Many people really value full speed 4G LTE. Heck aside from being stubborn and just a little ticked off at pm for the 30% rate hike to my $10 plan increasing it to $13 the reason I am keeping it is it gives me the option of having full speed 4G LTE data. But to tell you the truth there is pretty much no difference between it and the throttled 4G LTE data speed (to 3mbps) that I have on my $15 plan ( at least for my regular mobile data usage needs).

Given that you rarely use all of your data ( 3gb/90 days or 1gb/30 days) then I don't think you would notice much difference in the data speed either....this of course is up to you to decide and have until September to consider it and possibly schedule a change plan on next renewal. Sure you would also be giving up your 90 day plan that some say is better because it allows you to use your data spread over 90 days until you end up in your current situation and then that flxibility is very limiting.

Look at the financial side of it....currently your plan is $111/3gb minus rewards $21($2 autopay+$5 loyalty=$7×3/30 days=$21)=$90/3gb/90 days or $30/1gb/30 days. It doesn't seem like you would need more data so choosing the $25/1gb plan(w/autopay data bonus) - $7(rewards)=$18/1gb/30 days. That's a savings of $12/30 days or $36/90 days.

The "monthly" savings alone almost buys a $15/1gb data add on if you ever need to supplement your data. Or you have the flexibility of a 30 day plan to change to a higher data plan if you anticipate greater data usage in the month ahead. Or you can renew early rather than waiting out  60+ days that a 90 day plan may require because of its length of service.

Alternatively that long awaited European vacation means you can easily suspend your plan while away for a month or two or three and reactivate for 30 days before 90 days is up and suspend again for another 90 days because you are taking a trip around the world! Its much easier to plan around 30 days of service than 90 days. Food for thought thru the dog days of summer....

[JL9]

You would keep your rewards even if you made a change as long as you don't opt into the new program. You could get the 35 for 3GB of 3G for somewhere around 30 maybe just below a month, may be more cost effective plus triple your data although it would be 3G instead of 4G

[dabr]

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@asnow wrote:

Interesting. I only got a 1GB data pack given to me. With how little I use that should be good enough to tie me over until the end of my current period (September)

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@asnow    That's probably because PM gave their first free gift (summer 2019) without the need for customers to do anything other than have an active plan, so you probably have the 1GB data from that period.  Since then Dec/2019, 2020 and 2021, PM has given additional gifts of 2GB plus 400 international LD minutes to each customer, however, the customer also needed to either log into the account and add the free gifts themselves or respond to the text with a YES for the gift to be added to their account. 

For the future, you may want to check the community announcements during Dec as PM will post an announcement of the free holiday gifts available assuming, of course, that they carry on with this tradition.

If your data speed is not listed in your account, then you have 4G data.

[asnow]

Also the $111 is the base amount. After rewards it is less than $100

[asnow]

I've had the plan since 2016.

It doesn't say 3G or 4G.

It simply says

1GB promo and its usage

3GB and its usage

[dust2dust]

Does your plan details page say anything about 3G data.? If not then yes you would have 4G data. Some find it makes little difference when just doodling about on mobile. Is that $111 your base plan amount? Or after rewards?

That's $37 average per 30 days for an average of 1gb per 30 days. There's the $35 plan for 3gb per 30 days. There's the $25 plan for 1gb for 30 days.

But yes all at "3G" speed. The other benefit of possibly being on the 4G data is that add-ons would also be 4G.

The prior 3 more is merrier freebies you had to do an action to get the freebies. You probably have the one that just showed up on the account from 2019.

[Meow]

3GB gets spread over 90 days. You can use it ALL in on day or little by little. Since this is your Plan's allowance, you should use it or lose it. Save you some electricity for WiFi router/modem 🙂

[asnow]

Interesting. I only got a 1GB data pack given to me. With how little I use that should be good enough to tie me over until the end of my current period (September)

[Dunkman]

@asnow 

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@asnow wrote:

My 3 month, 3GB plan is $111.

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When is your next renewal date?

Do you have any of the past free Christmas data add bonuses left?  Check your account.  Once you run out of your plan's data, the bonus add on would kick in.  Or you could buy a data add on  $15 for 1GB. Unused data will roll over to next payment cycle.  Other option is to renew your plan earlier, but you would need to contact CSA and PM does not pro-rate plans. 

By the way, your old grandfathered plan is not really competitive these days.  You likely have LTE data which is better compared to the present 3G plans. 

You can get the following 3G plans:

$25   1GB/month

$35  3GB/month

$40  5 GB/month

If you really want LTE data, you can get better deals with the competition. 

[bluejaywpg]

Buy 1 GB data addons. But before you buy, check if you have any 2 GB data packs that were given away in past Decembers to all PM customers. Maybe you don't need to buy any data packs.

[softech]

@asnow   it will be till end of your current period.  Check on My Account  and check when is the Payment Due date, that is your next cycle start date

You should have some data bonus from before, at least one from Dec 2021.  Check My Data & Add-ons and see if you find any there.  If so, you re in luck, those bonus data will kick in when your regular data are all used 

[asnow]

My 3 month, 3GB plan is $111.

[asnow]

99% of my data is through WiFi (until yesterday with the Rogers outage and no WiFi). Normally I am nowhere close to the 3GB so have not needed to know how it works.

[RossN]

@asnow hello look to see what you are paying for three months,you may be better of changing to a new plan,that can also be done in your account 😀

[MrSpock]

@asnow hi how much is your 3 month plan? you need to look in your self serve account to get that info , look in your data and add on section 

[dust2dust]

Wow. You've had a 90 day plan all this time and you weren't aware of how it works. It's 3gb to use across the entire 90 days. You can buy data add-ons to carry you over until your next renewal.