New Billing Date?

[DeltaNumaris]

Hello Public Mobile.

I have recently (a couple of months ago) joined this company. The Phone service is good and affordable. 

I missed my Payment on March 20th, 2021.

My question is, if I make a Payment tomorrow, will my Billing Cycle restart at the 1st of the month instead of the 20th?

It would be easier to pay every month at the beginning of the month. 

Anyways, thanks ahead of time for your help.

[Meow]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @softech : Autopay works for the vast majority of customers. We of course only see the complaints here. Of course it should absolutely be bulletproof from the company's

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This should not be an excuse for failed autopay. It either works for everybody or none. Computers have no grey area; it is 1 or 0. But... somebody has to invest in good QA (quality assurance) and test, test, test every possible case. But... it cost money and CEO's have to have their millions intact 😞

[BearFBI]

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@darlicious wrote:

@BearFBI 

As evidenced earlier in this thread we now know pm, telus and rogers prepaid all have autopay failures.

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 @darlicious Thats interesting. I guess a system like this is hard to manage and iron out the bugs. Im guessing the same autopay system used here is used in Telus and Koodo prepaied as well. 

The only difference about the bigger carriers is that they have a call center to fix that issue. Really if PM embraces the failures and sets up a prioritized moderator channel or some other form of communication for it, I would be more than happy. 

[darlicious]

@Yummy 

While in suspension all rewards are put on hold. You will only get the rewards for the month previous to your suspension. While you do get a 59 day "pass" for counting your yearly loyalty reward you earn no other rewards while suspended. If you are an oracle who suspends their account but continues to participate (or not....but anyone else continues....)and you earn a community reward it won't be added to your account nor any other reward until you pay and renew. If you self suspend via lost/stolen then after reactivating your account you will have to ask for those rewards not applied to your balance to be manually added. 

@softech 

The advantage to using lost/stolen to self suspend is preserving any balance from being used to automatically renew your plan and keeping autopay and your card intact without it being used for renewal but available to make an easy payment to renew.

Then there is the added bonus of retaining voicemail access from any other phone than your own during suspension.....in essence free voicemail.

@Spudster 

Once registered your card can expire, have no balance, be lost, stolen, overlimit, cancelled, revoked, on hold etc....as long as you don't let autopay charge it ( like a stolen one) it can remain there forever in theory.....and collect the autopay reward.

@LurganIeUk 

Similar to you and when I had to worry about actually paying for my service autopay was my back up plan to my back up plan. Which I used once....I completely blanked on manually topping up one of my accounts (my back up plan) so it went to autopay and I wasn't suspended. 

@BearFBI 

As evidenced earlier in this thread we now know pm, telus and rogers prepaid all have autopay failures.

@Anonymous 

And to think you have accused me of post padding in the past!

Edit: BTW....had I made separate posts yours would have been #10,000.

[dabr]

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@Yummy wrote:

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@hTideGnow wrote:

This is the beauty of pre-paid service. 

Some people going on a trip and does not require the service, then you can stop paying on purpose and start again whenever you are ready--just make sure you pay again within 89 days or you will lost the phone number and you need a new SIM card.

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So.. somebody can technically pay every 3rd month (or every 89th day), still keep phone number, still be PM customer and after a year receive $1 off for loyalty???? I understand customer will NOT have service for 2 months between payments but it does not seem fair comparing to the rest who pay every month for the year to be rewarded with $1 off.

Do I miss something?

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@Yummy   Here's PM's official policy (bolded) on the loyalty rewards...

The Loyalty Reward How does it work?

On the first plan renewal date, after 12 months of tenure as a Public Mobile member, you will begin to earn a recurring Loyalty Reward for as long as you remain an active Public Mobile customer on that account. Regardless of what plan you are on, your tenure will continue to accumulate as long as your account remains active. If your account is in a suspended state for more than 60 days in a year, your Loyalty Reward will be delayed by the number of days your account was suspended.

[LurganIeUk]

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@softech wrote:

I just think we should keep pushing PM to fix the Autopay.  

I find it weird.. that we setup Autopay, ended up Manual pay monthly.  Idea of Autopay, other than the $2 saving, is the peace of mind and one less bill to worry.  The manual fix to autopay defected the purpose.

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My wife and I were both on Telus prepaid since 2005 and last year we moved to PM. I still administer my MIL's Telus prepaid and it is very easy to see that the PM system is a modified extract of the Telus prepaid system. We had 2 or 3 auto pay failures on the Telus system and was fixed quickly by Telus and was a known issue to deal with as I was advised by a Telus CSR. Also I had no idea that we did not have service when auto-pay failed. Only by fluke, I found the missing payments.  I then began to prepay my Telus account(s) and carried on same with PM. So what I am saying.....16 years later they still have the same problem, be it Telus or PM. So I don't see an imminent fix....do you??? Perhaps prepaid customers are viewed by Telus as second class service. And I had that feeling when talking to a CSR about my MIL's home account. This attitude can create a few things.....you move on to a first tier service or to another brand of second tier. The question is...if you move on....do you go to Telus or are you that pi$$ed off that you move onto another carrier.

Bottom line I don't see it being fixed and if you like most of what PM does for you, like I do, then figure out a work around. 

[Anonymous]

 @softech : Autopay works for the vast majority of customers. We of course only see the complaints here. Of course it should absolutely be bulletproof from the company's side. The company can't do much about invalid data being used.

 @Spudster : I use one of those prepaid "credit" card gift cards that has been spent out. I otherwise have a balance on my account so yes it doesn't hit the card.

[softech]

I just think we should keep pushing PM to fix the Autopay.  

I find it weird.. that we setup Autopay, ended up Manual pay monthly.  Idea of Autopay, other than the $2 saving, is the peace of mind and one less bill to worry.  The manual fix to autopay defected the purpose.

[Spudster]

Thanks for the support, @LurganIeUk 

I, too, consider it a manual payment.   

What's funny about the need to have auto-pay enabled to get the $2 auto-pay reward, is it doesn't even have to be an active payment card.   At least that what I believe @darlicious has indicated previously.

That is kinda funny.   

[LurganIeUk]

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@Meow wrote:

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@Spudster wrote:

@DeltaNumaris 

Do you MANUALLY pay (versus being on Auto-pay, thus getting an extra $2.00 off per cycle?)

If you prefer to manually pay, you could always manually "prepay" your plan amount on the 1st day of each month, but just make sure you are always 1 cycle ahead of the game and you'll have the Available Balance resting there to cover your next cycle when it's due to be drawn upon from the plan.

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I would not call that 'manual' payment. It is known as 'hybrid' payment. Basically, you add proper amount of money to your account whenever you want (whatever your plan cost you per 30 days). When renewal day arrives based on your billing day, PM will take money from your account first. If there is not enough money there AND you are on auto-pay then PM will charge your card to cover outstanding balance.

This might look as paying 'extra' in advance but it is good protection of temporary account suspension IF auto-pay fails which did occur in the past.

Example:

1. Your billing day is April 15th. On April 10th you 'manually' add $16.95 to your account ($15 plan, 13% tax, no auto-pay, no referrals, etc.). On April 15th PM will take $16.95 from your account. Now you are good for the next 30 days.

2. Your billing day is April 15th. On April 10th you 'manually' add $5 to your account. On April 15th PM will take $5 from your account and since that is not enough it will charge your card $11.95 IF you are on auto-pay. If you are not on auto-pay, your service will be temporary suspended until you pay the balance.

3. If you are on auto-pay, on April 15th PM will try to take money from your account, it will see $0 and will change your card full amount IF you are on auto-pay. If you are not - temp suspension.

Some PM clients prefer to 'manually' pay few days in advance to avoid auto-pay failures...

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The hybrid auto-pay is a manual payment BUT you leave your auto-pay set up to gain the $2 per month off. How you choose to do your manual payment has many options to customize to your personal preferences...just make sure of two things....you leave auto-pay in place and you always have your next 1 or more manual payments done before your next due date. 

[LurganIeUk]

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@Yummy wrote:

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@hTideGnow wrote:

This is the beauty of pre-paid service. 

Some people going on a trip and does not require the service, then you can stop paying on purpose and start again whenever you are ready--just make sure you pay again within 89 days or you will lost the phone number and you need a new SIM card.

---

So.. somebody can technically pay every 3rd month (or every 89th day), still keep phone number, still be PM customer and after a year receive $1 off for loyalty???? I understand customer will NOT have service for 2 months between payments but it does not seem fair comparing to the rest who pay every month for the year to be rewarded with $1 off.

Do I miss something?

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Just to keep it simple for you. If you don't pay on time you may loose your account or put it into suspend. And suspend may impact of a full year of loyalty. But if you pay on time by auto-pay, prepay using the card on your account or pay using vouchers  you will receive a loyalty reward. 

If you want to skip the hassle of being a victim of a failed auto-pay then set up some type of always having your account paid up manually BEFORE  your payment date. 

[computergeek541]

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@Yummy wrote:

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@hTideGnow wrote:

This is the beauty of pre-paid service. 

Some people going on a trip and does not require the service, then you can stop paying on purpose and start again whenever you are ready--just make sure you pay again within 89 days or you will lost the phone number and you need a new SIM card.

---

So.. somebody can technically pay every 3rd month (or every 89th day), still keep phone number, still be PM customer and after a year receive $1 off for loyalty???? I understand customer will NOT have service for 2 months between payments but it does not seem fair comparing to the rest who pay every month for the year to be rewarded with $1 off.

Do I miss something?

---

Account tenure isn't accumulated while the account is suspended.

[Spudster]

@Meow 

You can call it hybrid, I'll call it manual.

potato , potahto

[Yummy]

---

@hTideGnow wrote:

This is the beauty of pre-paid service. 

Some people going on a trip and does not require the service, then you can stop paying on purpose and start again whenever you are ready--just make sure you pay again within 89 days or you will lost the phone number and you need a new SIM card.

---

So.. somebody can technically pay every 3rd month (or every 89th day), still keep phone number, still be PM customer and after a year receive $1 off for loyalty???? I understand customer will NOT have service for 2 months between payments but it does not seem fair comparing to the rest who pay every month for the year to be rewarded with $1 off.

Do I miss something?

[Yummy]

Now I finally get it that famous 'hybrid' payment...

[Meow]

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@Spudster wrote:

@DeltaNumaris 

Do you MANUALLY pay (versus being on Auto-pay, thus getting an extra $2.00 off per cycle?)

If you prefer to manually pay, you could always manually "prepay" your plan amount on the 1st day of each month, but just make sure you are always 1 cycle ahead of the game and you'll have the Available Balance resting there to cover your next cycle when it's due to be drawn upon from the plan.

---

I would not call that 'manual' payment. It is known as 'hybrid' payment. Basically, you add proper amount of money to your account whenever you want (whatever your plan cost you per 30 days). When renewal day arrives based on your billing day, PM will take money from your account first. If there is not enough money there AND you are on auto-pay then PM will charge your card to cover outstanding balance.

This might look as paying 'extra' in advance but it is good protection of temporary account suspension IF auto-pay fails which did occur in the past.

Example:

1. Your billing day is April 15th. On April 10th you 'manually' add $16.95 to your account ($15 plan, 13% tax, no auto-pay, no referrals, etc.). On April 15th PM will take $16.95 from your account. Now you are good for the next 30 days.

2. Your billing day is April 15th. On April 10th you 'manually' add $5 to your account. On April 15th PM will take $5 from your account and since that is not enough it will charge your card $11.95 IF you are on auto-pay. If you are not on auto-pay, your service will be temporary suspended until you pay the balance.

3. If you are on auto-pay, on April 15th PM will try to take money from your account, it will see $0 and will change your card full amount IF you are on auto-pay. If you are not - temp suspension.

Some PM clients prefer to 'manually' pay few days in advance to avoid auto-pay failures...

[Spudster]

@DeltaNumaris 

Do you MANUALLY pay (versus being on Auto-pay, thus getting an extra $2.00 off per cycle?)

If you prefer to manually pay, you could always manually "prepay" your plan amount on the 1st day of each month, but just make sure you are always 1 cycle ahead of the game and you'll have the Available Balance resting there to cover your next cycle when it's due to be drawn upon from the plan.

[DeltaNumaris]

Thank You all for your help.

I feel better now 😌

[hTideGnow]

This is the beauty of pre-paid service. 

Some people going on a trip and does not require the service, then you can stop paying on purpose and start again whenever you are ready--just make sure you pay again within 89 days or you will lost the phone number and you need a new SIM card.

[Spudster]

@DeltaNumaris 

Your 'billing date' is the date of renewal.

Your subsequent 'billing date' rotates on a 30-day rotating cycle from that date, presuming you remain active and don't allow your account to go into suspension.

Public Mobile does not bill monthly, or at fixed or preferred dates of each month.

If you pay tomorrow, April 1, your next cycle date will be from May 1, but then your next will be from May 31, and so on every 30 days thereafter. (June 30, July 30, August 29, etc, etc,)

[NDesai · Accepted solution]

@DeltaNumaris It will start when the plan renews. If you successfully add sufficient balance to renew today, it will start today and end in 30 days.