Lost $40

[Morgan20]

Yesterday I paid for $40 for a payment voucher and then changed my plan right away after applying my voucher, and it went back to my original $2 balance. So I lost $40...

[Joshee22]

@stonechucker believe me I filly understand hownprepaid service works lol

[Joshee22]

I’m just saying that I’ve changed my plan before, did an immediate change but didn’t review my plan so when I turned my phone on and off all I had was data and nothing else. Perhaps it’s the same situation, if the OP only selected data and text but forgot to add calling. Perhaps that is why features aren’t working now. And so what I did was contacted the moderators, they credited my account back, and made sure I had the plan I originally wanted 

[stonechucker]

@Joshee22, I don't think you fully understand what's been discussed here in this thread.

Whenever you want to change a plan, you will always pay 'full price' for the new plan, whether you change it immediately, or 'schedule for on renewal date'.  When set to change on 'renewal date', the money is paid at renewal time, instead of right away, and therefore doesn't immediately replace the current plan.

It is rare that there is a need to immediately replace the current plan, but there are folks who really want that option.  Postpaid carriers can do immediate plan changes which will correct 'balances' based on the proration, but never in pre-paid service.

[Joshee22]

Change it whenever you want but if you for example just changed to a 10.00 and decided well I want a 40.00 instead you’d have to pay the full price of the new plan. 

[Joshee22]

It happened to me before in the sense that I only selected data by mistake and not calling or texting. 

it took a couple days but a message to the moderators fixed everything, they did an account credit when needed and got my plan modified to what it should have been

[Anonymous]

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@RossN wrote:

so let me get this straight in my pointy little head,if I was on  a 10 dollar 50/50 plan  and wanted to upgrade to a 40 dollar plan and was on auto pay,at what point in the month should I change my plan thanks 

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 @RossN

wetcoaster and dumbdobie1 have you covered. It sounds like you read this thread which is good. What the OP did was what we call an immediate plan change. That causes an immediate stop to whatever plan you had and an immediate start to the plan you just bought. No refunds, no credits, nothing prorated for the plan you stopped. Full payment for the new plan required.

Some people get confused between prepaid and postpaid cell service providers.

This service has another way to change plans. What we call future-date. You select the plan you want and tell it to start at your renewal time. As mentioned this includes promo plans that pop up on occassion for existing customers. Tell it to change in the future and it holds your selection even if it has expired as a promo.

[wetcoaster]

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@RossN wrote:

so let me get this straight in my pointy little head,if I was on  a 10 dollar 50/50 plan  and wanted to upgrade to a 40 dollar plan and was on auto pay,at what point in the month should I change my plan thanks 

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@RossN

If you see a special offer that you like to switch to at the end of your current cycle, you should do a future dated plan change as soon as possible.

Special offers / promos without expiry date could be pulled essentially at any time, future dating to it as soon as you can ensures that it remains available for you to switch to at your next renewal, even if it's not available for new sign-ups or immediate plan changes anymore.

I personally would future date a plan change a couple of days before renewal the latest, just so that everything is in place on renewal date and that I'm not even remotely tempted to mess around in my self serve account.

You can always cancel or update your future dated plan change. (When I changed from my 90day talk & text plan to my data plan, I first futuredated to $40/2GB about 30days before renewal, I think. Shortly after, a $40/4GB promo came up, I changed my future dated plan to that. Still before renewal they upped it to 4.5GB, I changed my future dated plan again. A couple of days before renewal I wasn't sure if it was a smart move, while I ended up going through with it, I could have easily just canceled the future dated plan change and have my 90day talk and text plan renew.)

[wetcoaster]

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@slash407 wrote:

they charge u ahead 30 days for both plans, did they give u any warning about this before u clicked on proceed? I would hope they do, people get fooled by this, thinking it works like post-paid systems

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@slash407

No offence, but I think you should start reading through more than just the initial (or the last) post before you hit reply. This is one of several instances where it's clear that you didn't take the time to do so.

As for your question - further up in this thread I have posted a screenshot of the pop-up that asks you if you really want to change your plan right now and lists consequences of doing so. As mentioned in that post, while the wording could be refined a little, as customers it's up to us to do our due diligence to understand what we agree to, for which that pop-up could at least be a prompt.

[dumbdobie1]

You can always set the changes to be effective on your next auto pay billing date.

This will allow you to lock in any good deals while using up the existing plan that you paid for.

Look for the "change on next renewal date" in the menu option when choosing the new plan.

[RossN]

so let me get this straight in my pointy little head,if I was on  a 10 dollar 50/50 plan  and wanted to upgrade to a 40 dollar plan and was on auto pay,at what point in the month should I change my plan thanks 

[Morgan20]

It works! Thanks so much 

[Alex888]

Even if your plan renewal was just a few days ago and you paid it, if you changed your plan yesterday and requested to change it immediatly (rather than wait until your next renewal date) you have to pay the full cost of the new plan, it doesn't carry over from your old plan.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

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@Morgan20 wrote:

I just restarted and it still doesn't work 

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Try the lost/stolen feature.
Log in to self-serve. Plan & Add-Ons from top menu. Lost/Stolen Phone from next menu. Suspend Service button. Log out. Wait a few minutes. Log back in and back to Lost/Stolen Phone and Resume Service this time. Log out. Restart phone.
See what happens.

[Morgan20]

I just restarted and it still doesn't work 

[Anonymous]

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@Morgan20 wrote:

Yes, I see my new plan, but my calling and data doesn't work. Only texting. 

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Well you didn't say you were having a problem.

The first easy thing to do is to restart the phone.

Then there're a couple tricks up our collective sleeves.

Try a restart first.

[Morgan20]

Yes, I see my new plan, but my calling and data doesn't work. Only texting. 

[wetcoaster]

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@Morgan20 wrote:

Yesterday I paid for $40 for a payment voucher and then changed my plan right away after applying my voucher, and it went back to my original $2 balance. So I lost $40...

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Bluntly put, unfortunately that is how the system works (and it does so with other prepaid providers I know of as well...).

As a prepaid provider Public Mobile doesn't offer refunds on unused portions of your existing plan if you do an immediate plan change. There is a warning text coming up that asks you if you are sure that you want to continue.

(It has been pointed out that the wording could be slightly clearer re: that the full amount for the new plan is due immediately, and we hope that it will be updated soon, but, personally, this would have given me enough of a "hey, what exactly does this mean?" and I'd have searched for the answer before hitting "yes".)

Changing your plan at your next renewal would have allowed you to use your existing plan until renewal and then the system would have switched to the new plan.

[Anonymous]

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@Morgan20 wrote:

Yesterday I paid for $40 for a payment voucher and then changed my plan right away after applying my voucher, and it went back to my original $2 balance. So I lost $40...

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No. It went to your requested immediate plan change. Do you not see the new plan you asked for?