Carrier Which T-Mo Plan Gets Used First?

[kap09]

I have my air on a t-mobile post paid plan and also activated the 200mb free data every month.

The issue is the billing cycles on the two plans don't line up. When using their account app, I can see the respective remaining allowances, but the allocation seems inconsistent. My only concern with this is not being able to maximize the plan soonest to expire instead of the later allowance being hit first.

Anyone have any info? Hoping someone has some info here instead of having the ring support considering how bad the whole free data rollout was in the first place.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

I thought the post-paid plans were getting the extra MB added to them at no cost?

That was the way I read something when it came out. We took my iPad off of the plan because I wasn't using more than the 200mb anyway so I can't check (I have an iPad 1, so edge isn't easy to use a lot of data!!).

 

[kap09]

I thought the post-paid plans were getting the extra MB added to them at no cost?

That was the way I read something when it came out. We took my iPad off of the plan because I wasn't using more than the 200mb anyway so I can't check (I have an iPad 1, so edge isn't easy to use a lot of data!!).

That's partially true. You basically have two plans going at any time. There is the main postpaid plan and then a 200mb "data pass."

I dug into this more and it appears they hit the 200mb pool first and then dip into the postpaid plan after you use up the 200mb. I just wish mine were on the same cycle!

 

[dgdosen]

Here's my observation on pre-paid vs post-paid (which is a misnomer because post-paid is really pre-paid if you look at an invoice)

I originally added an ipad data plan by adding it to my existing voice line (a 'post-paid' plan). Monthly, that's $20 (30-10 discount) + tax for 2.7 GB of data.... Only t-mobile never cuts you off, so your free 200MB is kind of meaningless. In addition, you don't save up unused data, so if you don't use your data, or free data, it's lost.

I've since switched to prepaid - The 30 days of prepaid data is more expensive (flat $30) and you get no overage, but you can control when you buy it, and if you're not using the data plan, you don't pay for it. On top of that - there are no taxes on a transaction (I just paid $30 flat for 2.5 GB). You can chose to buy if you need it or wait (and wifi or hotspot it)

IMO:

If you're a sporadic user of cellular data (meaning away from wifi) - I think the pre-paid plan makes more sense and is a bit less wasteful. I tried to use alll my 200 MB of free data (which is something I'd probably rarely do - I had to stream a tv show and download a 60MB file from dropbox to use it up...), but when I was close to the limit, tmobile sent a notification message to bump up my data. Pretty easy. (That's how I noticed tax was non-existent).

If you're a heavy user of cellular data - get the postpaid.

 

[biosci]

If you cancel your plans with tmobile, do you get reverted back to the free 200mb option?

 

[kap09]

If you cancel your plans with tmobile, do you get reverted back to the free 200mb option?

Don't know. I've had both since I got my Air last month. The iPad data is the only service I have with them as my cell service is on VZW.

If your existing sim stopped working entirely you could just as easily get a new one and activate the 200mb pass.

 

[dgdosen]

If you cancel your plans with tmobile, do you get reverted back to the free 200mb option?

Based on my experience - If you cancel an account, they'll disable the sim. If you ask them to reuse the sim, they'll 'reset' it so you can use it...

 

[JackieInCo]

Yes, if you don't refill one month, you still get the 200MB free. T-Mobile was not lying when they said 200MB free.

200MB free will get used first and then your data plan will kick in. If your plan is still in effect when the 200MB gets added on each month, the 200MB will start once your data plan expires for that month.

 

[TraceyS/FL]

Based on my experience - If you cancel an account, they'll disable the sim. If you ask them to reuse the sim, they'll 'reset' it so you can use it...

We removed the data plan on my iPad, and the next day I signed up for the freebie with the same sim and no phone call. It just worked!

 

[dgdosen]

We removed the data plan on my iPad, and the next day I signed up for the freebie with the same sim and no phone call. It just worked!

My experience might have meant their phone support was trying to sell more sims