Pay as you go services

[RoyalFlush]

Hi

On the 30th October I purchased my first ever mobile broadband dongle from Tesco. It came with £5 credit 250mb data allowance and an expiry date of 28.11.11

Please would someone help me to understand the following points

1. What does the credit amount of £5 actually mean? What difference would it make if I had a balance of £5 or £500?
2. What happens when I reach the expiry date of 28.11.11?
3. I have just checked my balance and it has mysteriously now gone up from £5 to £15 but I have not topped it up or even registered a payment card to top up with. How could that have happened?
4. The only thing I do understand is that as I use the dongle the data allowance falls according to the amount of information I download, but that is the only thing I understand the rest - credit balance / expiry date / sudden rise in balance is all a mystery to me.

Idiots guide - simple explanation would be very gratefully recieved

Thanks

Mike 

[mari1970]

Hi RoyalFlush,

will try and explain your points for you..

1.The £5 credit that you have showing will turn into 250mb allowance which is valid for 30 days after your current allowance expires.. For example if you had £500, you would not have to top up for a very long time!

2. The allowance that you have on at the moment will expire on 28/11, so whatever you have remaining will be lost and then on 29/11, the other £5 you have on your balance will turn into your 250mb allowance for the next 30 days

3.It may well be that someone has topped up the wrong number if you have not applied any further credit, or alternatively could be free credit you received as some kind of promotion

4..I have provided a link to give you a bit of information about the dongle, hope this helps you..

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/personal/mobile-internet/on-your-pc-or-mac/internet-dongles/index.htm

[RoyalFlush]

Hi

Thanks for replying. I think I have got it. :-)  Can I just run this past you to see if I am understanding it.

• You can top up the dongle with money (any amount you want to) and that money itself does not have an expiry date.
• You can then convert some or all of that money to data usage
• The date usage does have an expiry date after which you loose it and have to convert more money to data

Assuming I have got that right lets say your balance was £25 on the dongle how /when can you convert that to data and do you have to do it all in one chunk or can you do it in £5 lots or something similar.

Thanks

Mike

[mari1970 · Accepted solution]

Hi, you have pretty much got it..

You are correct that the credit itself does not have an expiry date, so you can top up any amount..

If this makes it any easier for you, once you have used up your 250mb in that 30 day period, then another £5 will be taken from your credit and turned into another 250mb allowance..

It will only ever come off in increments of £5

[RoyalFlush]

Great

Got it at last. Thank you very much for your help

Mike