Phone credit disappeared

Oblivion

I thought I'd lost my O2 PAYG balance a while back. Turned it on and couldn't make any calls at all, not even to check my balance. I also only have the phone for emergencies and hadn't used it for a long time.

When I phoned O2 customer services they said that because it hadn't been used for a while they had disabled calling but had put my balance into a holding fund. They were immediately able to reinstate my balance and the phone worked again. So now I make an occasional short call to home just to keep the account active.

ChiefGrasscutter

You need to buy O2's PAYG data bolt on if you want to use data
As I recall something like £6 each month for 100MB.

Yes with O2 you need to make a chargeable call every 6 months else they will disconnect it - and they do indeed do this.

paddyrg

£6 for 100MB is not a great deal - I often do 4 x that much data in a day! Just highlighting this to smartphone newcomers that small data packages can be a false economy if you ever watch video or even allow your apps to update themselves, or sync photos, out any of the other cool stuff that makes a smartphone fun to use. Yes, you can often get away with WiFi at home, but for instance if you're using Google Maps whilst travelling and another app wants to update, you might find your data usage is higher than those packages allow for.

Last time I had 100MB in a phone package was the very first of the 3G handsets where I had to wait 8 months to find someone else with one so we could both be underwhelmed with video calls!

ChiefGrasscutter

OK so having now checked out the O2 website properly (to correct my memory!)you can have the following data bolts ons per month
£3 100MB
£6 500MB
£10 1000MB
£13 2000MB
https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/tariffs/bolt-ons

anyway round here it would be nice if I could actually get 3G.......

Cisco001

O2 PAYG is pricey...

LadyDee

Cisco001 wrote: »

O2 PAYG is pricey...

For normal use it would be of course, but for my purposes it really does only cost pennies a week. Carried in my car for breakdowns etc., if my home phone is out of action (once in a blue moon), if I'm late for an appointment (again, once in a blue moon) and the occasional text.

I think my yearly expenditure would be less than many peoples' weekly bill:)

marleyboy

Cisco001 wrote: »

O2 PAYG is pricey...

It depends on your usage. My O2 PAYG currently has £156 credit, on top £6 reward bonus. I will never run out of credit because when the credit reaches £100 I top it up with £10 and get unlimited O2 texts\calls for a whole Month, on top of my ever increasing credit.

Anne_Marie_2

LadyDee, I take it that your phone is connected to your wi-fi for getting updates?

LadyDee

Anne_Marie wrote: »

LadyDee, I take it that your phone is connected to your wi-fi for getting updates?

Yes, it was until you kindly explained how to turn it off.

Do I need updates?

If I do, can I connect my phone to my laptop and update via my internet connection (somehow)?

Anne_Marie_2

LadyDee wrote: »

Yes, it was until you kindly explained how to turn it off.

Do I need updates?

If I do, can I connect my phone to my laptop and update via my internet connection (somehow)?

Not quite, I showed you how to turn off data usage on your phone, that is data provided by your phone carrier, yours is o2, so that you won't be losing any more of your O2 credit unwittingly. Wifi is connecting to your home wireless network, so that your phone does all updates through that and won't cost you (any more than you are already paying for your internet obviously). Check to see if you have wifi enabled on your phone by going into settings, then find WiFi, go into that and check if the slider is on or off. If off, you can switch it on, and then you should be provided with available wireless networks. Choose your own network and then enter your password for your home wireless network and then I think that you have to save or ok that. You should then be connected to your home wifi, fingers crossed.