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joegjr's profile

Tutor

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11 Messages

Thursday, March 7th, 2013 4:28 PM

Go Phone..$25 Monthly Rate Plan..couple basic questions..need help. thanks.

I was hoping an At&t employee (forum or regular) could help me out with a couple questions about my prepaid service so I can see If I get the same answer I received by calling 611 on my phone.  (I will keep the questions basic so that way they can be answered here as opposed to having to send a "private message to At&t so and so") 

 

ok, I have a At&t Go Phone and am using the $25 Monthly Rate Plan (250 mins plus unlimited texts)

 

I started my account on Feb. 18 by funding it with $25 Go Phone refill card.  I understand that means I have to buy another one on March 18 (or best by the day before March 17 to make sure i dont exceed the Rate Plan Expiration Date by a mistake)

 

that means I have to get the $25 card and put it on my account 10 days from now.  I currently only have 11 minutes on my plan, and figured I can just not answer the phone and not use it for the next 10 days and take advantage of the text portion (to try to save some money that way). 

 

 

 

One questions is IF i run out of minutes before my Rate Plan Expiration Plan Date will I still be able to use the Unlimited Texts portion of my monthly plan?

 

 

If I run out of minutes, lets say tommorrow, Can I buy a $10/$15 card put that on the account, then just be charged 10 cents/min until I buy another $25 card on March 17th/or March 18th to re-up my account??

 

(if the answer is YES to the above question, and I put $15 on the account for 150 minutes (10 cents a minute) and only use, lets say 75 minutes in the next 10 days, the day I would be adding $25 to reup my plan, would there still be a balance of $7-$8 that would roll over to next month)

 

 

thanks in advance for your time & help with this...

 

 

 

 

 

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Master

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10.2K Messages

11 years ago


@joegjr wrote:

cantput:    thank you for your answer....however I understand that part of the go phone process (putting money in your account in case the minutes run out and it will be renewed....i'm not looking to just add $25 everytime time my minutes run out...for that I get the $50 unlimited talk/text/data)

 

i don't use data. only pay the $25 for 250 mins and unlimited texts....

 

 

so I'm going to put out my questions again and hopefully I will receive an answer soon...

 

 

 

Question 1:  If you run out of minutes before your Rate Plan Expiration date... can you still use the Unlimited Texts portion?

 

 

Questions 2: If you're on the 25 monthly (250 mins and UL Text), and hypothetically run out of minutes with 1 week left before your Rate Plan Expiration date...instead of buying the $25 card early to just re-up the plan and start fresh with 250 minutes, etc.... can you just buy a $10 card, use the 100 minutes at 10 cents a minute...then when its the date of your Rate Plan Expiration date just put another $25 on at that time to re-up and start new for the month.... AND if you only use half the minutes (in that week) from the $10 top off (100 minutes)...which would mean you only used $5 of the $10 card...does the remaining $5 balance go to next month  (or can you just add $20 at the time of your Rate Plan Expiration date becaue you only used half o the $10 card you topped off a week ago)

 

 

 


Hey joegjr!

 

To answer your first question, YES, you can still use the unlimited text portion of your $25/monthly plan, even if your minutes run out. 

 

As for your second question, yes, you can buy a $10 refill card and use the 100 minutes at the pay-per-use of $.10 per minute until your $25 plan renews for the next month. In your scenario, if you only used $5 of the $10 refill card, the extra $5 WOULD roll over to the next month. You could then add $20 to equal out $25, but keep in mind that refill cards do not come in $20 increments. You would have to refill with a credit card or some other form of adding money. 

 

Hope this helps! 

 

Tutor

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11 Messages

11 years ago

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and yes I have checked out the....

faq.jpg

2 Attachments

Tutor

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11 Messages

11 years ago

bump... for answer  (still haven't been using my minutes....would be inclined to go buy the $25 Go Phone card refill right away once I get an answer on this....i know you guys are busy and overall do a great job, but can please help out a new 'prepaid' At&t customer.. thanks)

Teacher

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24 Messages

11 years ago

hello joe - it is difficult to get a straight answer to many questions about go phones - even though most all the issues are simple

 

Im going to guess here -- your best bet is to go ahead and put the money in your account and the system will refill you when you run out of minutes - and your monthly aniversary date will change to that date

 

another thing - if you have a credit card go to pinzoo to buy and load your money on your account - saves you a bit each month --- you can even set it up so pinzoo auto loads your go phone account with the money + at a discount

 

I have the $25/mo plan + I add $5 of data each month = total $30/mo [less using pinzoo]

I started my data with a gig for $25 and set it up to auto reload @$5/monyh

I put an extra 10-15$ in my acct to ensure the data never comes up short and it carries over what I don't use

be sure to set your phone so it only updates apps using wifi - some will wipe out your monthly data allotment in one update [in apps--tools]

 

for me ATT go phone is GREAT!      I have all the talk, data, etc. I can need for 1/2 the cost I was paying verison for 1/2 the services

 

[note - I commonly use less than 150min/mo - use data to check stocks, maps, find businesses, etc and have wifi available at home]

 

hope this helps

Tutor

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11 Messages

11 years ago

cantput:    thank you for your answer....however I understand that part of the go phone process (putting money in your account in case the minutes run out and it will be renewed....i'm not looking to just add $25 everytime time my minutes run out...for that I get the $50 unlimited talk/text/data)

 

i don't use data. only pay the $25 for 250 mins and unlimited texts....

 

 

so I'm going to put out my questions again and hopefully I will receive an answer soon...

 

 

 

Question 1:  If you run out of minutes before your Rate Plan Expiration date... can you still use the Unlimited Texts portion?

 

 

Questions 2: If you're on the 25 monthly (250 mins and UL Text), and hypothetically run out of minutes with 1 week left before your Rate Plan Expiration date...instead of buying the $25 card early to just re-up the plan and start fresh with 250 minutes, etc.... can you just buy a $10 card, use the 100 minutes at 10 cents a minute...then when its the date of your Rate Plan Expiration date just put another $25 on at that time to re-up and start new for the month.... AND if you only use half the minutes (in that week) from the $10 top off (100 minutes)...which would mean you only used $5 of the $10 card...does the remaining $5 balance go to next month  (or can you just add $20 at the time of your Rate Plan Expiration date becaue you only used half o the $10 card you topped off a week ago)

 

 

 

Tutor

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11 Messages

11 years ago

Wild Banchi: thanks for the response. I take it since you're an "ACE-GURU" you know what you're talking about. I am going to try that scenario out.

Master

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10.2K Messages

11 years ago

You're welcome!

I should also include that you have to switch your plan from the $25/monthly plan to the $0.10 per minute plan if you run out of the alloted 250 minutes. You may need to alternate back and forth this way.

I use the $25/monthly plan and when my plan expired, I wasn't able to use my phone at all, even at the pay-per-use rate. Switching to the $0.10 a minute plan would have allowed me to use the extra $2.14 in my account. I don't think there a limit as to how often you can alternate between plans, only when you may need to.

Tutor

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11 Messages

11 years ago

I wanted to post this incase other members of the community forums are reading and wondering how the prepaid plan works, etc...

 

 

I did run out of minutes and my Unlimited Texts portion of the plan does continue to work...so that's a good thing.  (i haven't bought a cheap card..or funded a small amount to my account to get more minutes @ .10 cents a minute by switching to that plan)

 

 

A) because once you switch, your unlimited texts from the $25 monthly plan would no longer be unlimited and I would be getting charged for texts @ .10 cents a minute as well as .10 cents a minute for calls....

 

also I saw in the FAQ:

 

 

---------------------------------------------------

Q: Can a Pay As You Go subscriber change to another Pay As You Go rate plan, and is there a charge for that change?

A: Pay As You Go subscribers may change plans at any time.  The first rate plan change request will be processed at no charge.  However, after the first change, you may be charged a $10 fee for each subsequent rate plan change.

-----------------------------------------------------

 

 

So naturally, i'm thinking (in my scenario)...if I were to switch to .10 cents a minute plan for the last few days/week of my $25 monthly plan (every month..or every other month..if i couldn't manage the 250 minutes), I would be accruing a $10 switch fee everytime... which would negate the whole saving money idea... (for that I would just pay the $50 unlimited min/data/text plan... know what i mean?)

 

 

 

I did call up 611 to find out more about this   (by the way, which you can do even without minutes...i know it seems like a "looping" automated service...but if you choose "more options"...then just say "operator"...then you should get a customer service representative w/in a few minutes)

 

 

 

The agent did find out about the rate plan service fee for me...and you no longer get a $10 fee for switching plans, but you'd have to go through the 611 operator each time... so thats good news

 

 

 

So basically, if you ran out of minutes close to your Rate Plan Expiration date you could fund $10 if you wanted and get 100 minutes to last you until that Rate Plan Expiration date at which point you would fund the account with $25 to get back on the $25 monthly 250 mins/unlimited texts plan....(keep in mind that once you switch to the .10 cents a minute plan, texts will be deducted from that account balance so be careful with texting if you decide to do that)

 

 

I guess it boils down to me managing my minutes and making them last if I want to spend $25 a month on my cell phone bill. (or switching to .10 cents a minute plan when needed and maybe managing a $35 a month cell phone bill...which is better than $50!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contributor

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1 Message

11 years ago

I am hoping you may be able to help me with two questions. 

 

I live overseas but will be visiting the States for 3 weeks shortly.  I was thinking of purchasing a Go Phone Sim card (for $10) and a $25 monthly Go Phone Plan for my unlocked iPhone. 

 

  1. Would this work in my cellphone (i.e. I don't have to have an AT&T phone)?; and
  2. Although this plan states it includes 250 anytime minutes, it also states it does not include mobile to mobile minutes.  Does this mean I cannot phone another US mobile from my mobile, or what does it mean?

 

Thanks.

ACE - Professor

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1.7K Messages

11 years ago

Hi Joll,

 I think I can help you answer those 2 questions.

 1) As long as your phone has GSM 2G, phone with 850 1900 band,it will work in North America.

     That mean your Iphone will work.

 

 2) It mean you cannot call other AT&T mobile customer for free. 
Any calls to any mobile phone  will be taken from your 250 anytime minutes 

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