Subscribed = Autopay?

[AK32]

Hello, I am a newer member and am getting confused by the terminology of Public Mobile. Do they refer to Autopay solely as a “subscription”?

i would like to make manual payments so I turned this off. I made a manual payment today and then it was turned on again (automatically), so I turned it off…again. 
1) do I have to do this each month I manually pay?

2) it still says “Your subscription is expiring…” in a few days, but I have the available funds there now, will it take from those funds and keep me on the same plan or will my plan expire and I have to register for a new plan again?

3) under available funds, it shows the total amount I was charged BEFORE taxes. However I was charged a higher amount (Including taxes). Is this just how they display it or is this a system error I need to contact an agent about?

thank you

[wetcoaster]

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@AK32 wrote:

Yup no bonus on autopay for newer members. Really unfortunate for newer members. For your friend, the 75c (in points) would be the 5% cash back on total payment (doesn’t state it has to be autopay, just any payment towards your plan/add ons), the other $1.50 in points must be either from referrals or helping in the community. Here’s a link to breakdown the different points systems: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/reward-rules

Thanks for the clarification on the Available Funds, sounds like it should be all good then. Just odd the way they charge you tax but under available funds they show the pretax amount (example, $25 plan comes to $28.75 after tax charged to my card, but available funds show $25 on PM) I guess it’s just the way they display it. Thanks for your help!

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It's a long long time since I wrote that analogy, and it wouldn't be accurate for the points system, so this is only paraphrasing it... Think of your available funds as the piggy bank where you put (play) chips. There's a system to feed the piggy bank (labelled as "payments" in your account) and a system to draw chips from the piggy bank ("subscription"). They are independent from each other, and the chips in the piggy bank ("available funds") is the only place that both have access to.

The chips have the nominal value, and it's the only "currency" the plan side of the system can access (the plan side is the bottom access of the piggy bank). The plan side can request additional chips from the payment side to make up the difference between plan cost and available funds. If it doesn't find enough chips at the cut-off time it won't renew the plan.

When you buy the chips (before putting them through the slot on top) you add taxes to the face value of the chip at the point of sale (for vouchers to the merchant, for card payments through the "card terminal").

Unfortunately that "predicted payment" page is not necessarily accurate (at least for accounts on the $ rewards, I don't know about the points). But if your available funds are equal or higher than the full plan cost, your plan will renew smoothly (with the highest possible likelihood, 100% guarantees are impossible) .

[ottawa]

If one bought a voucher (I know you didn't) they don't know how much tax was paid.

A voucher is taxed at rate of point of sale, a top-up (including a voucher where you give phone #, I guess) is taxed based on area code (with a few exceptions where they go to the next 3 digits [which seems to have lots of names]). If you have an AB number and buy a voucher in ON, you pay 13%. The other way around, 5%.

[AK32]

Yup no bonus on autopay for newer members. Really unfortunate for newer members. For your friend, the 75c (in points) would be the 5% cash back on total payment (doesn’t state it has to be autopay, just any payment towards your plan/add ons), the other $1.50 in points must be either from referrals or helping in the community. Here’s a link to breakdown the different points systems: https://www.publicmobile.ca/en/on/get-help/articles/reward-rules

Thanks for the clarification on the Available Funds, sounds like it should be all good then. Just odd the way they charge you tax but under available funds they show the pretax amount (example, $25 plan comes to $28.75 after tax charged to my card, but available funds show $25 on PM) I guess it’s just the way they display it. Thanks for your help!

[wetcoaster]

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@ottawa wrote:

I think Subscription is a marketing term for Monthly Plan. If you pay by voucher (understanding there's an autopay bonus in the Points system) I think the money just sits there and they tap it first. That's how it worked for me, I had applied a couple of large vouchers and didn't get charged on my CC for several months. I still got the autopay bonus just for having an autopay on file though. 🙂 (The latter is on the old Rewards system no longer offered, not sure if it works on Points, someone will know).

Yes, your "subscription" (monthly plan) is expiring at the end of the billing cycle shown in your account. Then they take payment from existing credit and CC if there's one on file and your subscription goes for another month.

You pay tax on the voucher so it goes on your account without the tax, then they don't charge tax when taking from it (e.g. buy a $100 voucher for $113, you get $100 credit and they only take $40 not $45.20).

Someone will correct me if my info is outdated. 🙂

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I prefer to avoid that "monthly" description - and really, really, really wish Public Mobile did so as well, consistently. (Here's a pipe dream!) The plan cycles are 30days (or 90days), which only equals a full month on four times a year.

Taxes are collected at point of sale, if it's a voucher the vendor collects the tax, if the system charges the card on file tax is added there. The system is taking the nominal plan cost from available funds. And yes, card on file is only charged for (plan cost - available funds) + tax, so if available funds >= plan cost, there is no charge on the card. 

[ottawa]

@AK32   No bonus for autopay sounds strange, but I believe you. A friend on the $15 plan gets 75c and $1.50 as 2 Points payouts every month. I don't know what for so I assumed one was autopay.

Yes if there's enough in the account they should take that first. You already paid tax when you paid, so they don't take it again. Here's mine from last month, note there was $9 credit in the account, then they charged $16+HST to put $16 into the account, then took out $25 (no tax).

 

[AK32]

I don’t want it on. I want auto pay off. I’m on the newer points system and there is no reward/benefit for having it on. I had it on for the first 2 months and didn’t get anything for it. So I’d rather pay manually. 

now that there are funds under “Funds Available” I should not experience any interruptions in my service, correct? 

i did not buy a voucher, I paid via credit card. It says my available funds are equal to my monthly plan (before tax), but I was charged that plus tax.  Just want to make sure it won’t say I still owe more even though I paid the correct amount. Based off your example, it seems like it should be okay, and that they charge tax to the credit card but shows the before tax amount under Available Funds. 

[ottawa]

As for turning on autopay for you, not sure why that's the case, unless you still get the Points for having autopay (5% I think?) even if there's no charge to your card that month. If you really want it off (which means your service will die if you haven't covered it), try deleting the CC. You'll lose the Points for autopay but they can't charge you. And if they can't charge you, you don't get service. 🙂

[ottawa]

I think Subscription is a marketing term for Monthly Plan. If you pay by voucher (understanding there's an autopay bonus in the Points system) I think the money just sits there and they tap it first. That's how it worked for me, I had applied a couple of large vouchers and didn't get charged on my CC for several months. I still got the autopay bonus just for having an autopay on file though. 🙂 (The latter is on the old Rewards system no longer offered, not sure if it works on Points, someone will know).

Yes, your "subscription" (monthly plan) is expiring at the end of the billing cycle shown in your account. Then they take payment from existing credit and CC if there's one on file and your subscription goes for another month.

You pay tax on the voucher so it goes on your account without the tax, then they don't charge tax when taking from it (e.g. buy a $100 voucher for $113, you get $100 credit and they only take $40 not $45.20).

Someone will correct me if my info is outdated. 🙂