smartphone charge

romagear

I need help understanding phone charges,
I have not been using the internet or any other apps on my HTC Smart phone for some time now but I have recieved a bill for over £300 for data useage.
I have kept to text and calls only but have no switched off the main fuction for internet.
My question is -Can you be charged for incoming data from applications even if I am not surfing, I have not used it for overseas.
This has got me very worried as I am not very tec minded.

Figment

A lot of apps use data in the background

gruntled

Are you on a monthly contract with a data allowance - if so, how much data? Unless you have loads of apps installed and running all the time, that £300 seems a lot if you are not using your phone for significant downloads.

Stooby2

Are you on Pay As You Go (PAYG) or a contract?
Have you been abroad at all?

Notmyrealname

My phone as standard will, in the background, check the Google Play store for app updates, check the weather, check stocks, check news, check for email unless I turn all of that lot off manually. And it'll do that every 15 minutes during the day and once an hour on a night time.

You need to enable wifi and turn off mobile broadband.

paddyrg

A smartphone will be very chatty - turn off the 3G data in the settings or change to a better data plan. T-Mo don't charge for data overages, 3 claim to have an all-you-can-eat deal too.