Various Plan Questions

[flyingneon]

Hi,

I'm porting in from Freedom Mobile, but first I was wondering if you could clarify a couple of things for me:

1. This "Competitive Response" promotion is indeed a 4GB/month package and not 2GB/month? In other words, the bonus 6GB (over 90 days) is not awarded only at activation, but on every payment cycle? It seems to be explained in the forums, but the signup form is not exactly clear on wether or not this renews. Please confirm (mod).

2. It says here that the above is true "as long as you don't make any changes to your plan". What does changes to your plan mean? I noticed in the billing interface (shown here) that there are add-ons; can I add and remove those at will?

3. What happens if I sign-up for auto-pay and a payment fails (my credit card expired or I unknowingly reached the limit or my bank locked it because of suspicious activity, etc. - something happened)? Is there a grace perior or do I automatically lose my service and my plan? How long is this grace period and how (and how soon) do you notify me of any problems? 

4. Long distance: if I sign-up for a province wide plan and I make an international call for example, I will obviously have to pay for it. Seeing how this is a pre-paid account, how do I pay for it? Is there a monthly bill? Do I just pay it on my next 90-day renew? Do I have to somehow leave some extra credit in my account for these types of calls? Or are they outright blocked?

Thanks in advance.

[WearySky]

@flyingneon If you have any balance in your account, the autopayment job will take from that balance before hitting your credit card.  So that's definitely an option if you want to be extra safe.  And yes, you still get the autopay discount as long as you're signed up for autopay, regardless of whether it pulls the money from your existing balance or your credit card.

[flyingneon]

Amazing research, @Luddite!!!

It would seem more pragmatic (and less work for people who have to deal with failed reactivations) for the automatic payments to be processed some time before expiration - say a week or so.

Do you know what happens if you sign up for automatic payments and also make manual payments ahead? For example, say my $120 service expires on day D and my auto-payment is thus scheduled for that day. If I go in and make a $120 payment on day D-7, when day D comes along, does the system know not to charge me again, or at least charge me a difference, if there is one? Anyone try this? Your system A/B model seems to imply that this is true.

Also, do you lose your $2 autopayment discount if you do a manual payment?

[flyingneon]

Thanks, @WearySky ! 🙂

[Luddite]

@flyingneon At the risk of overkill, peruse these posts related to payment cycle and periods without payments:

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Plans-Add-Ons/EXPIRED-vs-SUSPENDED-AVAILABLE-FUNDS-vs...

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Paying-for-your-service/Extended-Absence/td-p/142735

[WearySky]

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@flyingneon wrote:

This is troublesome; thank you for bringing it up.

Do you know when autopay happens? I hope it's not on the 89th day of your billing cycle, because that would give zero time for any payment problems. And what kind of notifications do you get for failed payments? Anyone have any personal experience with this?

I'm not a "bad payer", but it has happened that my bank blocked my credit card because my credit card number was compromised and I lost my ISP plan because of that. I just don't need that stress, especially if I'm on vacation or travelling.

To be clear - you have 90 days of grace *on top of* your original 90 days.  Autopayment withdraws on the either the last day of your old period, or the first day of your next period, I can't remember which.  If autopay fails, your service is suspended, but you then have *90 more days* to top up your account before your account is completely deactivated.

But that's only good for the 18 countries in the international calling list, and, as I've explained previosly, that's all but uselss to me. There are ~178 countries NOT on that list, or, the list of countries covered is 10x smaller than those not covered.

So, from what I can tell, they *do not* provide a way to leave some cash in your account for emergency long distance calls to countries not in that list. Thank you for the suggestion though.

My apologies, I misunderstood.  Yes, they have no way to call those countries at all, period (they don't have *any* "pay as you use it" functionality that isn't included in an addon, and I assume it's non-trivial to add such functionality).  If you really have an emergency need to call countries not available in the 18 they offer international minutes for, you can always pick up a calling card from http://thephonecardstore.ca/ - I don't really do international long distance calling these days, but back when I did (and when my wife did, calling back to family in Ireland), I found them very useful.  

[flyingneon]

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3 - as long as you top your account back up within 90 days of your plan's original 90 day expiration, you keep your current plan (if you wait more than 90 days, your account actually deactivates entirely and you lose your number)

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This is troublesome; thank you for bringing it up.

Do you know when autopay happens? I hope it's not on the 89th day of your billing cycle, because that would give zero time for any payment problems. And what kind of notifications do you get for failed payments? Anyone have any personal experience with this?

I'm not a "bad payer", but it has happened that my bank blocked my credit card because my credit card number was compromised and I lost my ISP plan because of that. I just don't need that stress, especially if I'm on vacation or travelling.

 4 - They *do* provide a way to leave some cash in your account for emergency long distance calls - just buy a long distance addon.  The $15 400 minute long distance addon is good for calls internationally and in Canada, and the minutes roll over indefinitely until you use them all up.

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But that's only good for the 18 countries in the international calling list, and, as I've explained previosly, that's all but uselss to me. There are ~178 countries NOT on that list, or, the list of countries covered is 10x smaller than those not covered.

So, from what I can tell, they *do not* provide a way to leave some cash in your account for emergency long distance calls to countries not in that list. Thank you for the suggestion though.

[WearySky]

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@flyingneon wrote:

@xCameron94x Thanks again!

3. That makes sense. But, as long as you pay ASAP, you don't lose your plan, right? Have you experienced this yourself?

4. Thanks for clarifying that. Has this happened to you? Do you have a source where I can "dig" more? I know about other ways of making those calls, but I wanted to know in case I needed to make an emergency call from my cell to check up on family, etc. I hope this changes soon and at least allow some sort of way to leave some cash in your account for these kind of situations.

@mod , can you please confirm all of this?

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3 - as long as you top your account back up within 90 days of your plan's original 90 day expiration, you keep your current plan (if you wait more than 90 days, your account actually deactivates entirely and you lose your number)

4 - They *do* provide a way to leave some cash in your account for emergency long distance calls - just buy a long distance addon.  The $15 400 minute long distance addon is good for calls internationally and in Canada, and the minutes roll over indefinitely until you use them all up.

[flyingneon]

@xCameron94x Thanks for all your help and suggestions! Really appreciate you taking the time to get back to me time and time again in great detail. And thank you for tagging a mod; I wasn't sure if that's what needed to be done. 🙂

[xCameron94x]

@flyingneon i havent expirenced any payment issue yet, hopefully I wont until i have to update my credit card information, and yes if you pay on the payment due date you will be fine!

I actually don't make calls very much. Everyone i know is based in Ontario. If your family members have skype or whats app you can those to call them. You can try google voice as well. Ive linked the page for rates, just search whatever country you wish to call and it gives a rate

https://www.google.com/voice/rates

@Shazia_K can you confirm this is the right information in this post?

[flyingneon]

@xCameron94x Thanks again!

3. That makes sense. But, as long as you pay ASAP, you don't lose your plan, right? Have you experienced this yourself?

4. Thanks for clarifying that. Has this happened to you? Do you have a source where I can "dig" more? I know about other ways of making those calls, but I wanted to know in case I needed to make an emergency call from my cell to check up on family, etc. I hope this changes soon and at least allow some sort of way to leave some cash in your account for these kind of situations.

@mod , can you please confirm all of this?

[xCameron94x]

@flyingneon

1) You will carry the extra 6bg as long as you renew your plan

3) Usually your account will become suspended, if it does not receive a payment on, or right after payment date. If your account is suspended, you cannot make calls/receive calls, texts or use data.

4) You are correct, the calls will not correct if that area code/country is not supported (If you pick province wide calling you can only call Ontario numbers)

You are correct that very few destinations are included, you might want to try a VoIP app like skype, whatsapp, ect to make calls to those destinations. Just be sure to check their rates for calls

[flyingneon]

Thanks for taking the time to answer, @xCameron94x

I'm still a little bit fuzzy on a couple of things:

1. My question was really if that 12GB/90days (4GB/30days) plan stays with you in the future, or if it's a one time 6GB bonus. I don't think your answer adressed either of those.

2. Ok, so any add-ons don't affect anything.

3. I understand the 87 day suspension point. How much leetime do you have until you get barred from making calls, etc. I assume they auto-pay is the day your new 30 day period starts. If your auto-payment fails for whatever reason and you don't notice, are you saying you have 87 days to correct that? Do you get notified in any way?

4. The only international/long distance add-ons I see listed are ones that are X minutes for Y dollars. Very few international destinations are covered by this. I was actually asking about one time  calls etc., especially to destinations  not listed there. If I make a phone call to Zimbabwe without an add-on, does it just get blocked or what?

Thanks again.

[xCameron94x]

Hey @flyingneon to answer your questions to the best of my ability

1) The bonus data is avaiable to freedom customers who port their number upton activation. They cannot create an account, and then port over if I'm not mistaken. They get to keep the data (12gb)

2) By making changes to your plan, it means picking a new plan, or changing the amount of data you have

3) Accounts will go into a "suspended" state for about 87ish days before the account is expired and you lose your phone number. if something goes wrong you will need to contact a mod

4) You will have to buy an add on for international/long distance calls in the add ons section. The add ons can be purchased at any time, and is a one time payment. The minutes do not expire until you have used them all. After you have used them all, you can purchase the add on again