O2 PAYG - Topping up before end of month?

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

Ben Briscoe - 31 Jul 2004 11:34 GMT

Dear group,

Fed up with the cost of my O2 contract and have decided to switch back
to PAYG since I have hardly used my free minutes since leaving
University. Got one of the 300 free texts SIM cards and will be using it
once my contract expires.

Just a quick question though, regarding the £10 a month top-up... if you
are due to top-up on say, for example, the 5th August, and you add £10
on the 2nd August, will that count as the £10 top-up to allow you 300
free texts until 5th September?

Thanks in advance for any help,

Signature

Ben

Reply to this Message

NoSpam - 31 Jul 2004 12:34 GMT

> Fed up with the cost of my O2 contract and have decided to switch back
> to PAYG since I have hardly used my free minutes since leaving
> University. Got one of the 300 free texts SIM cards and will be using it
> once my contract expires.

That's good. At the end of the day, if you're not making use of the tariff,
its a waste and no matter how cheap it is, its still money going down the
drain.

However, also bear in mind that sometimes people go on a contract to also
subsidise a phone. If you are in need of a phone, then remaining on
contract is the better option to get the phone cheaper.

> Just a quick question though, regarding the £10 a month top-up... if you
> are due to top-up on say, for example, the 5th August, and you add £10
> on the 2nd August, will that count as the £10 top-up to allow you 300
> free texts until 5th September?
> Thanks in advance for any help,
> Ben

Yes, I believe that's how it works. However, if you top up on the 6th
August, then your anniversary date changes to 6th September and there is the
possiblity that you won't be able to use your phone between the 5th and 6th
August as you have not topped up on time.

AMO

Reply to this Message

AJH400 - 31 Jul 2004 14:11 GMT

>regarding the £10 a month top-up... if you
>are due to top-up on say, for example, the 5th August, and you add £10
>on the 2nd August, will that count as the £10 top-up to allow you 300
>free texts until 5th September?

I've just got one of the o2 300min/txt PAYG sims as a backup, and as I
understand it, the top up month begins on any given day that you make the £10+
payment.

If you miss the top up date, you lose the free mins/txt allowance, until the
next payment re-instates the freebies. Any remaining credit pays for call or
text costs like a normal PAYG deal.

You get a text message reminding you to top up, and if you don't, another
saying you've not eligible for the free wap/txt until you do pay up again.

Beware though, my first top up didn't activate the free txt/mins for a couple
of days, during which txts I sent were deducted from my credit. So wait until
you receive the confirmation txt before you use the phone!

Andrew

replying? delete killspam from @aol.com******** and shoot any spammers you
meet ;-)

Reply to this Message

The Great Cornholio - 31 Jul 2004 17:26 GMT

I been on o2 on-line PAYG and have never recieved a txt reminding me to top up.
Do you need to set this up?

Reply to this Message

Dean Lambert - 31 Jul 2004 17:46 GMT

> I been on o2 on-line PAYG and have never recieved a txt reminding me to top up.
> Do you need to set this up?

No 02 tend to send them at least 48 hours before your end of the month

Reply to this Message

Graham J - 31 Jul 2004 20:48 GMT

> I've just got one of the o2 300min/txt PAYG sims as a backup, and as I
> understand it, the top up month begins on any given day that you make the £10+
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> next payment re-instates the freebies. Any remaining credit pays for call or
> text costs like a normal PAYG deal.

Yes, just to clarify, when you first top up you set the 'anniversary date'.
So if you top-up on the 16th of the month your anniversary date becomes the
16th of each month. Provided you top up by at least £10 before the
anniversary date each month you will continue to get free texts/wap and the
anniversary date will stay the same.

If you miss the anniversary date then you will start being charged for the
texts and wap until you top-up again. When you do so a new anniversary date
will be set and you will start over again.

> You get a text message reminding you to top up, and if you don't, another
> saying you've not eligible for the free wap/txt until you do pay up again.

I would say "you might get" rather than "you get". There are sometimes
texts to confirm you have made top-ups too but I wouldn't rely on them
coming.

> Beware though, my first top up didn't activate the free txt/mins for a couple
> of days, during which txts I sent were deducted from my credit. So wait until
> you receive the confirmation txt before you use the phone!

This is one of the potential gotchas. It used to take up to a couple of days
before the free texts kicked in, though I believe that one day is more
normal now. Not only does it affect the first top-up but it affects all of
them. If your anniversary date is the 16th you probably need to top-up by
the 14th to ensure continuity.

Another gotcha is they don't (or at least didn't) guarantee what time of day
the free texts take effect. So if your anniversary date is the 16th and you
have used up your allowance, your free texts might start anywhere between
00:01 and 23:59 that day.

A third gotcha was that the monthly cycle was in fact 30 days. They seem to
say one month every where now so presumably it has changed.

One last oddity was that their systems were unable to cope with changing
between PAYG tariffs in the middle of the monthly cycle even though they let
you do it. They changed the tariffs OK but the free allowance for that
month vanished at the same time. I don't know if they have fixed it.

Reply to this Message