Woah there! Did my phone just cost me €12?

cormie

Last night I turned on my backup phone for the first time in a few months. It's a HTC desire running Mildwild 4.3, I haven't used it since November, when I bought a new sim for it with 20eur credit I think. Anyway, switched it on last night and left it on overnight, not doing anything, although 3G was turned on, woke up to a text sent at 07:29 from 3Alerts saying "You have spent EURO 5.21 on Internet Services since 13/02/2013", I was thinking how the hell, as I pretty much just turned it on and didn't touch it at all, when I woke up around 07:50, I had a look to see if it had downloaded loads of updates, which it didn't, there were still apps that weren't updated, then I put it down again and got another text at 08:08 saying "You have spent EURP 12.13 on Internet Services since 13/02/2013" :eek:

I quickly turned 3G off, what the hell could be going on? Is it even possible to spend €7 within 40 minutes of 3G off peak internet on any 3 plan?

shedweller

Sure is. I got a phone for free last year and noticed it was draining a euro a day from my pay as you go credit. That was with me making sure i didnt go online while out of wifi range. But the apps were updating etc.
Your phone must have done some serious updating without wifi

shedweller

shedweller wrote: »

Sure is. I got a phone for free last year and noticed it was draining a euro a day from my pay as you go credit. That was with me making sure i didnt go online while out of wifi range. But the apps were updating etc.
Your phone must have done some serious updating without wifi

No its just threes scabby internet rate, they charge per kb if your not on free interent or have a bundle (500mb for €5 for 30days)

Don't waste your time emailing them OP, I've tried with no success.

cormie

Wow, what kind of plan am I on that it's cost me €7 over 40 minutes :eek: It's just a PAYG sim that I hopped into three to get for use in the back up phone

KAGY

cormie wrote: »

Wow, what kind of plan am I on that it's cost me €7 over 40 minutes :eek: It's just a PAYG sim that I hopped into three to get for use in the back up phone

A per KB plan! Your phone might have been checking for updates, polling for new mail, usual background stuff!
Reminds me of a time afew years back(3/4) when I was charged close to E30 for looking at two webpages at 4c a kb

cormie

Thanks for the replies folks. Pretty shocked to see this isn't actually that shocking for a few of you!

The three sim card was the solution I went with after starting this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80826344

So what do I do now? Just do all the updates over wifi and try do as little as possible over 3G? Seems you can't really control 3G if you still want to get emails on the fly etc.

cormie

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies folks. Pretty shocked to see this isn't actually that shocking for a few of you!

It's not that shocking to us because the story is usually much worse. If you have a read of a few threads you'll hear of people getting bills of hundreds just from using the internet for a few hours. Consider yourself lucky!

If you're on three, just don't turn your internet on unless you have all you can eat data or an add on or something.

cormie

Thanks folks, ah that's a bit annoying, going with three was my end decision after the discussion on the thread I linked to. Seems the per KB is a bit too crazy for it to make sense though. Unless it was just doing a heap of background tasks and in general would cost much less to just check mail etc, but I guess there's no way to monitor and allow or disallow certain connections.

killbillvol2

cormie wrote: »

Thanks for the replies folks. Pretty shocked to see this isn't actually that shocking for a few of you!

The three sim card was the solution I went with after starting this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80826344

So what do I do now? Just do all the updates over wifi and try do as little as possible over 3G? Seems you can't really control 3G if you still want to get emails on the fly etc.

In fairness you started that thread with 3 in mind and shot down every other suggestion.

The problem is that you can't be selective about what data your phone uses. Your idea that you'd only use a couple of kb every day to update your calendar doesn't work in practice.

cormie

cormie wrote: »

Thanks folks, ah that's a bit annoying, going with three was my end decision after the discussion on the thread I linked to. Seems the per KB is a bit too crazy for it to make sense though. Unless it was just doing a heap of background tasks and in general would cost much less to just check mail etc, but I guess there's no way to monitor and allow or disallow certain connections.

just purchase a €5 internet addon
Set a reminder for your self for when the 30days are up
alternatively, JUST TOP UP!
Free internet with all top Ups now. Amount varies depending on how much you top up by

cormie

Thanks guys, yeah the intention was to have a tenner last 6 months or so, now from November until now, it has, but then when €7 is used within 40 minutes, it doesn't make a lot of sense! I didn't ever think it would use THAT much and be so expensive! It's a pity all these add ons are only on a month by month basis. Would rather pay 30 eur for 2gb that would last a year rather than a fiver for 1gb a month.

Turn off sync on your phone if you just want to check the internet for a quick second etc.

cormie

That could have been where all the data went actually, just thinking in the 4 months I've put a load of events in the calendar. No apps seemed to update themselves or anything like that so maybe it just cost €12 to update the calendar alone :eek:

Just going to have to be very careful in future and if the phone isn't in use for months again, make sure all the updating is done over wifi before letting the phone out of range, then it might have to spend 50c throughout the day doing any email checks, sync checks as long as too much isn't downloaded, which is affordable I guess. Just going to have to remember to do the wifi sync after any prolonged period of non.

ted1

Smart phones aren't designed for pay as you bundles that don't offer free Internet

kenyard

Depends on the apps too and method of syncing.
Some will re download all data again every time.
Still crazy cost alright. I remember O2 roaming charges were a pain. Looking at a Web page or two cost 3 euro. The us is way worse for data caps dude. We actually don't have it bad.

cormie

Cheers for all the help everyone. Will just have to keep an eye on it I guess and if I see the phone is going to get more usage, just get a data add on for the month.

nice_guy80

switch to 48

€20 a month.
free calls
free texts
3GB data

nice_guy80

nice_guy80 wrote: »

switch to 48

€20 a month.
free calls
free texts
3GB data

Ahem, with 3:
€20 a month
Free texts to any network
Free three-to-three calls
Free calls to any network on the weekend
Unlimited internet
+ the €20 credit left over

There's no real reason to switch to to choose Emobile over 3 unless 3 coverage is bad in your area or unless you make a lot of calls and don't use internet much.

nice_guy80

Deleted User wrote: »

Ahem, with 3:
€20 a month
Free texts to any network
Free three-to-three calls
Free calls to any network on the weekend
Unlimited internet
+ the €20 credit left over

There's no real reason to switch to to choose Emobile over 3 unless 3 coverage is bad in your area or unless you make a lot of calls and don't use internet much.

ahem?
48 months
free calls to any network
free texts to any network
20 mins landline calls

depends on how much calling you do

nice_guy80

nice_guy80 wrote: »

ahem?
48 months
free calls to any network
free texts to any network
20 mins landline calls

depends on how much calling you do

If you're gonna use your phone for that offer, might as well pick up one of these bad boys.

cormie

Thanks for the suggestions but the idea is to be able to get away with spending as little as possible over a long period of time (6 months plus) due to the phone only being a backup. To give you an idea of just how little it's used, the previous sim I had in it expired so it may only get 1 day of use every 3rd month so spending €20 a month isn't going to work no matter what I get for the €20

Even though this mornings episode cost me €12, that's €12 in 4 months use, now I know the extortionate cost per KB, if the same is to happen again, I'd probably be best off just getting a €5 addon if I do plan on using it again, then if it's getting much more use and the credit goes, I'll just top up by €20 and get that months allowance, and then if it stops being used again and goes into hibernation, I'll get the fiver again and so on..

Walkman

If its just data you want keep the 3 sim. Everytime you want to use it top it up with €5. You'll automatically get 100mb free then buy the 500mb add on for €4.99 giving you 600mb for €5

Kavrocks

Op you've been given incorrect information here and you haven't done your research either.

You can control what apps use 3G and Wifi on Android, you can also control what apps use 3G on iOS to the best of my knowledge. You can cap your 3G usage on Android and have it turn off after 30 days or after you've used a certain amount of data. You can control exactly what data is synced and have only emails synced if you want, you can also only download the text in emails and not any attachments too.

I can get 6 months+ out of €20 credit with 3 there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to either.

If this phone gets used once every 3 months why do you have 3G on in the first place? If its a backup why is it being used to check for emails?

cormie

Walkman, that's good to know thanks!

Thanks for that Kavrocks, interesting. It's not a backup in that sense but just a phone I bought with its own intention which hasn't been getting much use. I created its own email, google account etc. I just wanted it ready to go so didn't think of turning off 3G, but lesson learned.

How do you control the 3g/wifi usage, do I need an app to control all that, or is there settings for each app hidden somewhere to allow/disallow synching?

googled eyes

I just have my phones network apn set to mms only. It only updates over wifi and if I'm in a bind and need to use Internet over 3G network I just go to settings and set apn to internet and mms.

Kavrocks

cormie wrote: »

How do you control the 3g/wifi usage, do I need an app to control all that, or is there settings for each app hidden somewhere to allow/disallow synching?

Some things need an app and some don't. Google it.

BaconZombie

It's a app and the phone itself sync'd in the background.
It happen to me when my 20e monthly "unlimited" data ran out at 00:00.

My phone used up 20e of credit doing background sync'ng in under an hour.
They charge 1.01e per Mb off a bundle.

I bitched at 3 for not warning my the bundle was expiring and/or why they did not disable the 3G unit I re-enabled it.
Their response was to set a reminder to top-up and agreed that their off bundle pricing was crazily high.

ED E

Yeah, I really hate that the warning comes after you've already burned your credit.



I tried setting up a reminder, then I realised its not f'cking monthly, its 30 days flat, so a monthly remind shifts in and out of correctness with different months