Contributor
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2 Messages
Data overages are bleeding my wallet dry
In total, my bill is now $300 or more thanks to $20 overage charges (per additional 500 MB). Thing is, several of these overages occurred when I was on a WiFi network. 10 minutes ago I received a message saying that more than 75% of my additional data had been used. I'm at home, connected to my WiFi, and yet I receive such a message! So what can I do but disable cellular data on my phone? Data disabled, I go back about my business when not two minutes later I receive a message saying that 100% of my additional data had been used! What the heck?
I'm just so sick of this phone bleeding my wallet dry. But I'm stuck with it for at least another year because I can't afford to get out of my contract. I wish ATT could at least remove the last $20 from my bill, because I sure as heck did not use 75%, then 100% of my data when I was connected to WiFi at the time and had used very little cellular data the night before. But I somehow doubt they'd do that, so I all can do is vent my frustration here.
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Official Solution
formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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118.4K Messages
9 years ago
Data reporting is not done in real time. The actual dat use could have been hours, or days earlier. Towers report data back in 3 hour intervals during non peak use hours. It is typical to receive the most use REPORTED while your phone is home on wifi and not used over night.
I repeat, the actual use was during the day, hours prior to being reported.
Towers note when a connection opens and closes. Once it closes, it sends data totals back. The connection closes when you leave a tower's area, connect to wifi, turn an app off, turn off your phone.
If you have a 2 GB limit and only 500 MB left on the last day of billing period. During the day you use a full GB of data. It is normal for the data to start reporting back and adding up all the towers and send 2 notices that you are 75%, then 100%, then an overage in quick succession, at the end of the day, when your phone is connected to wifi, or turned off for the night.
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valjeanlafitte
Contributor
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2 Messages
9 years ago
That makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up for me!
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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118.4K Messages
9 years ago
Your welcome.
If you have an android phone you can set a monthly cap in your settings.
because of data reporting being behind, set the "hard cap" (red line) slightly below your limit.
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Allie1
Contributor
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1 Message
8 years ago
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formerlyknownas
ACE - Sage
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118.4K Messages
8 years ago
Switch to the new plan. https://www.att.com/shop/wireless/data-plans.html
Data is cheaper, still have rollover, never an overage charge.
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Gary L
ACE - Expert
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16.5K Messages
8 years ago
It's not just sending you messages, you're actually going over the data. It's just not reporting it to you until later, it's not instaneous. You can watch your data use on your phone, but you need to keep checking all the phones to add it up to see what you've used.
1GB is not a lot for a familiy, I'm assuming that's 3 or more or you'd have said both of us.
Depending on what it's doing you could eat through your plan pretty quick. Make sure your phone isn't automatically downloading apps or updates in the background (one app update/download could be the equivalent of 1000 email messages).
Regardless of what you're doing, it's clearly not enough data. If you're paying $30+ in overages already, why use the money to a plan with a lot more data (say 10GB) and see how much you really need after a few months. I know money isn't free, but you're spending it anyways, just make it an experiment for 2 months (not a permanent switch)
My friend was trying to always squeeze his use into a 200MB plan and stressed about it, and he wasn't getting the value out of his expensive iPhone. Now he has 3GB and he can't use it all and he uses that phone without hesitation and likes it even more. He's really getting the value out of his phone and his plan.
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