Upfront payment for entire year - still get AutoPay rewards?

[LionelHutz]

If I select "Make a Payment" and make a payment big enough to cover the entire year coming up... and leave the credit card on file....  do I still get autopay rewards every month?

[darlicious]

@kselmak  There is no provision in the WCC that requires prepaid mobility service providers to refund credits in a customers account. Public mobiles terms of service clearly states there are no refunds of funds/credits in a customers account. So @popping  is correct in her statements.

     However public mobile being unique in this regard....has on a case by case basis issued refunds of account balances and very occasionally on prepaid services rendered when the "contract" has been fustrated possibly by one or both parties (pm vs customer). As a gesture of good will, to settle a BBB compliant, to avoid a CCTS complaint and/or to maintain good customer relations. I believe that public mobile genuinely cares about their customers and maintaining a good public image and reputation.

       This is an important part of retaining current customers, having repeat return customers and recruiting new customers with a business model whose marketing costs are kept low, mostly internet or social media based, by word of mouth and by referral. Maintaining that public image is paramount and shows why moderators generally grant most requests for credits that are the customers fault. Unfortunately this isnt always the case with new moderators and pm does lose new customers because of this. But it does keep most of its customers loyal and great marketers and sales personnel so that we continue to generate new business for them.

[kselmak]

I had an unhappy referral get his 50 back by cheque, you have to contact them before you port out, you do have rights, I don't know how he bargained but he got it back. With prepaid you don't get back they money that was paid for the service, if it's in your available funds nothing was (pre)paid with it.

Btw. Nobody is going back to service that held you hostage or took it from you. But I know he'll be back once he needs cell and has signal where he is.

[popping]

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@kselmak wrote:

Oh @popping there is a refund of any money you put on your account before it gets used up for your plan. If you can have proof of payment and you didn't consume it with the service you can have if back, it's your money. The rewards and referral bonuses you can't cash out but everything that went in by voucher out credit card payment is refundable if not spent. Even vending machines have a button you can press to get your money back if you didn't pick the item from it

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My sister was with Telus prepaid. When she visit me a year ago.  She purchased $100 Telus topup voucher and added to her account.  She still had about $20 at her Telus prepaid account.  Telus told her that there is no refund.  She switched to PM $10 50/50 plan before PM grandfathered the $10 50/50 plan on Oct 6th, 2019. 

Speakout prepaid told me the same thing about the fund in my mother's account.  I found PM couple days after I topup her Speakout account with $100.  I ended up waiting for 10 months before I ported out the Speakout number leaving $20 in the Speakout account.

[kselmak]

Oh @popping there is a refund of any money you put on your account before it gets used up for your plan. If you can have proof of payment and you didn't consume it with the service you can have if back, it's your money. The rewards and referral bonuses you can't cash out but everything that went in by voucher out credit card payment is refundable if not spent. Even vending machines have a button you can press to get your money back if you didn't pick the item from it

[popping]

PM is prepaid service and on month-to-month with no contract.  Since there is no refund of the fund in your PM account if you cancel your PM account early. PM will be laughing to the bank if you are creating a 1 year virtual contract by adding enough fund to pay for 1 year service in your account.

[kselmak]

Wow I just helped somebody pay for almost a year, she used to be with speakout and she moved last year to 10 plan, now she's paying $7 with loyalty and autopay and she complained to me that the only thing she's still missing from her speakout years is paying only once or twice per year. She would usually load when they have buy $100 get $125 promo. So I told her it's totally possible and she dumped 72. I passed her code to couple of people so it may be enough to get her through the year.

But yes she's definitely staying

[Mountainmaxman]

Yes, I only ever made one payment with my credit card, the first one, and i get the autopay discount every month. now with rewards I will likely never have to use the card again 😉

[Anonymous]

 @srlawren 

If there is a limit, it's in the four digits. Not mine 🙂

But I certainly agree with not dumping all that real money into the account.

[srlawren]

@LionelHutz I'm going to add my voice to the chorus of people that have responded "yes, but...!".  First off, I believe there is a maximum Available Funds balance allowed, though I don't recall the amount.  $250 comes to mind, but someone will correct me if I'm wrong there.  The pont there being, it may not even be possible (depending what that limit actually is and how much your plan costs) to actually load a full year's worth of funds.  That's one issue.

But beyond that, there is the problem that you're effectively locking yourself into staying with PM for a year, which is quite counter to one of the main reasons for using a prepaid service: zero lock-in.  

You of course don't have to share, but I'm curious why you would want to do this.  You could earn [ad admittedly tiny amount of] interest by putting that year's worth of funds into a high-interest savings account at your bank or credit union.  

[PAULRANG18]

Best to only pay a month at a time. Things can change quickly and the funds may be needed elsewhere. But one can do what one wants.

[jor123]

I was thinking the same - you never know what'll happen in a year

[CannonFodder]

@LionelHutz  As others have said, it's probably not advisable to do a full year's worth of up front payments, unless 1.) you KNOW you have excellent phone reception via PM BEFORE you make such a payment, and 2.) you KNOW you're extremely likely to stay with PM for the entire year.

[NDesai]

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@ShawnC13 wrote:

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@NDesai wrote:

Yes, as long as you leave Auto-pay enabled and cc linked, you will keep earning the $2 rewards.

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Absolutely, but the thing is if you decide to change providers a refund could take a while or not even happen.

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Or if OP decides to suspend the service for a month or so will not be possible without losing rewards. It doesn't make sense to make manual payment way in advanced .Just run a month or two ahead instead. 

[Jb456 · Accepted solution]

Definitely. System always debits your balance prior to charging anything on your card via autopay. As long as autopay is on you will continue to get the $2 reward per 30 days.

[ShawnC13]

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@NDesai wrote:

Yes, as long as you leave Auto-pay enabled and cc linked, you will keep earning the $2 rewards.

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Absolutely, but the thing is if you decide to change providers a refund could take a while or not even happen.

[NDesai]

Yes, as long as you leave Auto-pay enabled and cc linked, you will keep earning the $2 rewards.