Tutor
•
6 Messages
Auto-Pay vs Account Balance
I have a multi-line account for two go phone lines. The monthly charge is $55. My account balance is $53 and change and set to expire in August.
If I were to enroll on auto-pay for this multi-line account, does the requirement to keep an account balance go away? IOW, if i enrolled in auto-pay now, will my account still stay active when that $53 expires in August? Or do I need to keep an account balance of more than zero dollars always active on the account.
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
•
64.7K Messages
7 years ago
There is no requirement to keep an account balance. You just can't have a $0 balance for more than 60 days after your monthly plan expires but as long as you renew your plan each month, it does not matter what your balance is. As @cctraderx suggests, add enough to your balance to pay for your next renewal, then sign up for autopay. Once you sign up for autopay, the monthly renewal will get charged to whatever you designate on autopay and any account balance will remain untouched.
0
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
•
64.7K Messages
7 years ago
@tctheatc You do not need to add any additional money on either your account or your wife's account. I believe the expiration data does change every time your autopay renews your plan but regardless, as long as you are on autopay you don't need to worry about balance or expiration. The 60 day clock does not start until your service is cut off. In your case, the 60 day clock would never start because your autopay renews your plan and your service never expires.
0
0
Accepted Solution
Official Solution
sandblaster
ACE - Expert
•
64.7K Messages
7 years ago
Don't confuse the fund expiration data with account expiration, they are not the same. When you put money on an account, those funds have an expiration date based on the amount of the refill. $10-$24 expires in 30 days, $25-$99 expires in 90 days and $100 or higher expires in a year. In other words, that is how long you have to use that money to buy service. If you put $45 on the account and immediately use that $45 to purchase a 30 day plan, that expiration now becomes meaningless because you already used that $45. Your account expires when 2 conditions are met. 1) your account balance is $0 and 2) your service has been cut off for more than 60 days. Since you continually renew your service, condition 2 is never met.
0
cctraderx
Guru
•
561 Messages
7 years ago
I would suggest you use this $53 for you next refill to use up that balance and then set up autopay to avoid losing your balance.
You only need a balance for paygo, since you are on a monthly plan then you would not need a balance available in order to use your phones and plans once that amount is paid.
0
tctheatc
Tutor
•
6 Messages
7 years ago
"You just can't have a $0 balance for more than 60 days after your monthly plan expires but as long as you renew your plan each month, it does not matter what your balance is."
The bolded part is what concerns me, and I can't get a straight answer from anyone at AT&T.
My 53$ account balance expires Aug 8. Currently I have a multi-line account with my wife's phone added onto mine. She currently has $0 that is also set to expire Aug 8. Both our monthly $30 plans will renew July 10. Then again about Aug 9th.
So my question is (with the bolded part above still in my mind) what will happen on August 8th? Will the account expiration date keep getting pushed up a month because my monthly plan auto-renews? Or do I still need to put some money in at the account expiration (vs the monthly plan expiration) to avoid the 60-day-after-account-balance deadline? Because if it's the latter, I have to consider the $$ I need to keep adding yearly to avoid expiration into the overall cost to me on a yearly basis. If it's the former, and I don't have to add $$ every year to keep the account expiration date moving, then auto-pay is a better deal.
0
0
tctheatc
Tutor
•
6 Messages
7 years ago
We'll see. Thanks for your assistance.
0
0
tctheatc
Tutor
•
6 Messages
7 years ago
We'll see. Thanks for your assistance.
0
0
tctheatc
Tutor
•
6 Messages
7 years ago
OK, thanks. I do understand the difference, but your articulation of the 2 conditions is helpful.
0
0
tctheatc
Tutor
•
6 Messages
7 years ago
In case anyone follows this thread with a similar issue, here's an update:
My plan renewed July 10. The new balance expiration date was indeed updated from Aug 8th to Aug 9th. So, just as a couple of the replies indicated, the auto-pay enrollment will keep pushing the account balance expiration up, even if the account balance is zero. So I do not have to keep adding money; the auto-pay will keep the account active.
0
0
wonderworld
Contributor
•
2 Messages
6 years ago
Is my account paid up for account # [edited for privacy – please do not post personal information]
0
0