Plusnet how long does the 5gb for £5 excess last

luminated

I have been with Plusnet for a year or so and for the first time looking like I will exceed my 10 gb monthly allowance due to my grown up kids usage over Xmas when they stayed with us.

Any idea if the 5gb will be only for the balance of this month or will it carry through into next month and even onward?

luminated

Can anyone help with this?

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

As far as I know, the allowance doesn't carry over, but you'll get a definitive answer on their forums.

kevinyork

No it does carry over, it last till the end of your billing month only.

snowleopard61

I've recently changed to Plusnet (from TalkTalk ... don't get me started!) and realise that I was optimistic in thinking I could get away with the lowest usage allowance because of my young adult children, one living at home and the other visiting from university, so have now changed to the increased allowance which they recommended.

I'm still on the original tariff until the end of the billing period though, and I've had numerous emails telling me I've gone over the allowance and they've applied the £5 extra charge - what confuses me is that I don't understand whether they are going to keep applying an extra £5 at intervals as the usage increases until the higher rate starts to apply. Does anyone know? (I hope this is clearly explained ...)

tyllwyd

You'd be better off talking to them to get the accurate answer - but from my experience of PlusNet, everything is charged according to the billing month (I think ours runs from the 10th of one month to the 9th of the next, or something similar). So if you exceed your allowance within the month, they charge you and add an extra 5gb or whatever it is to your allowance for that month. If you use that up within the month, they will charge you again and add another 5gb and so on until the clock resets at the end of the billing month, which is when I guess your increased allowance will apply?

If you want to keep an eye on your usage, you could log into their webportal, where there are graphs showing what you have used and when.

www.plus.net

snowleopard61

Thanks - I think I probably should talk to them really; my concern is whether the usage could be increasing so much that they would keep applying additional £5 charges over and over again during the same billing month.

It's annoying because my own usage at home is so small, but the child who's been at home from university gets through absolutely loads, and the other one (who doesn't usually use much) has been off work sick and bored.

tyllwyd

I think you should definitely starty by logging into their site and have a look at the information on your usage, that should give you a good idea. But when they are going to charge you for going over, they do email in advance to warn you that you are near the limit and they email again when they have charged, so it shouldn't happen without you knowing about it.

Plusnet_company_representative

Hi snowleopard61,

You can check your usage by visiting https://portal.plus.net/view_my_broadband_usage/index.php (you'll need to log in with your username and password to view the page though). This will show you how much you've used, along with how many extra 5GB blocks have been added.

There's also an option to set a data transfer cap, which will allow usage to be added up to the cost specified and then prevent any more from adding automatically. I realise this is somewhat redundant as you'll be changing product soon, however.

If it's alright could you advise of a ticket ID from your account? To get one just go to http://contactus.plus.net then view all tickets from there. I'd not suggest posting your username in a public forum, hence the request for the ticket ID

Hope that helps, and I'd be happy to check your usage and advise for you if I can find your account.

Regards,

Matt Taylor
Customer Support

snowleopard61

Thanks to both of you - I think (having looked at the 'check usage' facility) that the usage is just so much more than I ever expected it would be, and I didn't realise that once the £5 had been applied once they could keep doing so again and again in the same billing period. I suppose I thought that once I had paid it I'd be OK until the new tariff started applying. I do realise that the information states this, although I felt the way it was expressed was possibly open to another interpretation; more than anything I've never understood what the 'gb' actually meant in practice, i.e. how much of the allowance you could expect to use up doing what. Obviously the Plusnet tools are quite useful in this respect. If I could I would just put a cap on it, but it would make my daughter's life quite difficult, and fortunately the new tariff will kick in next billing period - annoyingly, just as she's about to go back to university and I'll hardly need it any more!

I'll see if I can find out a ticket ID and let you know.

snowleopard61

Matt - it's 50297429, and I see it says 'Awaiting customer response', although my response was just to click through to change the 'product'. I hope this was right.