O2 keep taking my money

deco1610

So, I own an iPhone. I have done do since Christmas, but only now have I felt it to be necessary to seek an answer to my problem...


My phone has a pay as you go contract, with O2. I usually top up by €10 each time. When I run out of credit on my phone, I am still able to connect to my Wi-Fi at home, obviously at no charge.

When I'm at home and try to connect however, I am charged by O2 at the normal rate.

Why am I being charged for using the internet ONLY when I have money in my phone, and not when my credit balance is at 0???


Any help would be much appreciated!

mad muffin

I think I speak for everyone when I say..huh?

Tom Dunne

deco1610 wrote: »

My phone has a pay as you go contract, with O2. I usually top up by €10 each time. When I run out of credit on my phone, I am still able to connect to my Wi-Fi at home, obviously at no charge.

Not fully clear on what you are saying - I assume you mean it is a pay as you go (not contract)?

deco1610 wrote: »

When I'm at home and try to connect however, I am charged by O2 at the normal rate.

Do you mean when you are not at home? Or what do you mean?

deco1610 wrote: »

Why am I being charged for using the internet ONLY when I have money in my phone, and not when my credit balance is at 0???

If you try to withdraw from the ATM when your balance is zero, it isn't going to let you, is it?

Keano!

Simple fix man. I had the same problem for a day until I sorted it. Lost about 60 cent but could have been 6 euro if I hadn't noticed it when I did.

When you don't use Wi-Fi (Free) your iPof still tries to connect to the Internet for various reasons, that I'm not 100% sure of, but it does. Whe you turn off Wi-Fi, can you still view web-pages in Safari? Or use Internet required apps? If yes... then do the following, and you will only be allowed to do these things when in a Wi-Fi zone.


Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network:

Under the 'Cellular Data' heading, edit the APN by removing one letter. Exit


Still with Wi-Fi switched off, try and access Safari... you should be stopped by a message informing you of no connection etc..

Connect back to your Wi-Fi... and you will be granted access....




Solved the eating credit issue for me so it should do the same for you. If not, then I've no idea what yours is doing

HTH

deco1610

Keano! wrote: »

Simple fix man. I had the same problem for a day until I sorted it. Lost about 60 cent but could have been 6 euro if I hadn't noticed it when I did.

When you don't use Wi-Fi (Free) your iPof still tries to connect to the Internet for various reasons, that I'm not 100% sure of, but it does. Whe you turn off Wi-Fi, can you still view web-pages in Safari? Or use Internet required apps? If yes... then do the following, and you will only be allowed to do these things when in a Wi-Fi zone.


Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network:

Under the 'Cellular Data' heading, edit the APN by removing one letter. Exit


Still with Wi-Fi switched off, try and access Safari... you should be stopped by a message informing you of no connection etc..

Connect back to your Wi-Fi... and you will be granted access....




Solved the eating credit issue for me so it should do the same for you. If not, then I've no idea what yours is doing

HTH

Hmm... I did everything you suggested, and my problem definitely sounds similar to yours. But after I changed the APN name by one letter, like you said, (I changed 'internet' to 'interne') and after I switched Wi-Fi back on again, I still can't re-connect to the net...

I can't even connect through 3G anymore



Ps. Sorry if my original post read like gibberish, but its a Friday afternoon guys!!!

Gumbo

deco1610 wrote: »

Hmm... I did everything you suggested, and my problem definitely sounds similar to yours. But after I changed the APN name by one letter, like you said, (I changed 'internet' to 'interne') and after I switched Wi-Fi back on again, I still can't re-connect to the net...

I can't even connect through 3G anymore



Ps. Sorry if my original post read like gibberish, but its a Friday afternoon guys!!!

you said you didnt want to connect through the network (3G). if you change the APN settings it wont let you connect through 3G and hence save you money.

Tom Dunne

deco1610 wrote: »

I can't even connect through 3G anymore

See, here's the problem.

It's not clear what exactly your problem is and what you are trying to achieve.

You removed the 3G settings, that's why you can't access 3G.

So, can you clearly tell us what the problem is, before changing any settings and we will see what we can do.

deco1610

kceire wrote: »

you said you didnt want to connect through the network (3G). if you change the APN settings it wont let you connect through 3G and hence save you money.

Ok... well, whats happening with my phone when I'm out of credit and I'm at home, and I'm somehow able to connect to the net? I've always assumed that I've been connecting through my router, but if it has been connecting through the 3G network this whole time, why don't O2 stop me when I've run out of credit?

Tom Dunne wrote:

So, can you clearly tell us what the problem is, before changing any settings and we will see what we can do.

Well, the problem is (now that I'm seeing the whole issue in a new light) that I want my iPhone to connect to the internet through my Eircom router when I'm at home, and not to connect through the O2 3G network which costs me money. I'm not sure if this is possible, and as you can see from my post counter, I'm not a regular on these boards and don't know much about Consumer Electronics!


Thanks for your patience!

Tom Dunne

deco1610 wrote: »

Well, the problem is (now that I'm seeing the whole issue in a new light) that I want my iPhone to connect to the internet through my Eircom router when I'm at home, and not to connect through the O2 3G network which costs me money. I'm not sure if this is possible, and as you can see from my post counter, I'm not a regular on these boards and don't know much about Consumer Electronics!

Ok, now I see.

You need to be aware of a couple of things.

Firstly, some apps connect to the internet at regular intervals. They don't care what way they connect, whether it is via 3G or WiFi. So, if there is no WiFi around, they will of course use 3G and consequently cost you money.

Secondly, you need to configure your phone to access WiFi - it won't do it automatically. You need to get a WEP key (like a long password) from the router and put it into your phone.

So, when you are at home you can switch on WiFi on the phone and it will use that before it uses 3G, so won't cost you anything.

naasrd

deco1610 wrote: »

...as you can see from my post counter, I'm not a regular on these boards and don't know much about Consumer Electronics!
Thanks for your patience!

Today's noobie, tomorrow's mod. Great thread, the nuts and bolts of what boards.ie is all about.

Hobbes

might be related to this.

http://nexus404.com/Blog/2010/07/29/privacy-concerns-over-nighttime-iphone-uploads-internet-discovers-that-apple-uploading-data-from-iphones-at-night-controversy-ensues/

I've had my phone wake me up at night when it was beside the speakers. I disabled the 3G on it.