I recently bought a 1 cent freedompop sim card ATT LTE and when it arrived I logged in to downgrade everything as I have done many times before. However this time it said that to have the free 200 meg service I would have to add 15 bucks due to billing delays and their possible loss of money. I had no choice so I did it. Later I read on Redit that if you add 10 before you begin the downgrade, it will accept the 10 and not ask for 15. Have any of you had any experience with this?
Yes that works
Interesting.
Thanks for posting this warning Frasier1.
Here is my POV:
I have 1 FP SIM in service & another still in its package, with intentions of activating the 2nd & then using both in my (otherwise totally useless) Blu phone, while it is parked at my desk for as long as it may function.
The key word here is 'free'; if EVER that silly service REQUIRES me to pay even a deposit for it's bare minimum of usefulness, that is the day I trash all of its stuff...period.
FP has never even given me enough value in return to justify what I've spent on the couple of SIMs for it - so if it ever gets hungry for $, then...
GAME OVER.
That is how I see this - perhaps as a possible worse than 'zero-sum game' ??
Freedompop's value depends on how much you need the data it can provide. I have a friend who's T-Mobile plan only includes 10mb of data-- a FreedomPop SIM gives him something he wouldn't otherwise have. I've been in the same place, too.
At this point in time, I don't need my FreedomPop lines, since I have plenty of data on my Sprint line. When that runs out, I expect to be mods reliant on FP again.
I've never purchased a SIM directly from Freedompop. It's my understanding that when purchased directly from Freedompop, the SIM comes activated and you need to "downgrade" if you no longer want to keep the "bonuses" you get when you buy the SIM.
I've purchased my two SIM's from Target, total was $2.16 including tax. It costs me .99 cents to activate each SIM. A grand total of $4.14 spent. I haven't turned off auto top up or added any credit to either account. I only really use the LTE data, each account gets 700mb per month (with Friends added), but I'm careful to only use about 500mb on each account every month to avoid getting charged anything. So to summarize, I get a total of about 1Gb of ATT LTE data every month for a one time outlay of $4.14. Hope this helps someone out!
So am I understanding this correctly - if I buy the sim from Target, I won't have to add any more money to disable topups or anything else? Or has FP changed the rules on that too now?
So am I understanding this correctly - if I buy the sim from Target, I won't have to add any more money to disable topups or anything else? Or has FP changed the rules on that too now?[/quote
Hi Pete,
In my experience Disabling top ups WILL create a charge or fee, no matter where you buy the SIM. I didn't disable topups only because I have a way to monitor usage.
Thanks Chosen. So FP still allows people to get away with NOT disabling topups? (My usage is very low, only around 90-100MB per month so I won't need to disable topups, but I was under the impression that FP made it mandatory recently. I seem to recall some 5 or 10 buck mandatory fee for that?)
I'm not aware of FP making it mandatory to disable topups, however it's been several months since I purchased and activated my SIM cards from Target. With everything I've read about FP, nothing would surprise me, but to be fair I've not experienced any issues or unexpected charges from them so far.
I don't believe there is any mandate to disable auto top-up.
What is mandatory is a charge to downgrade to a free plan if you buy a SIM that includes 1st-month free trials of additional data and features.
The SIMs from Target and Best Buy don't include the free trials when last reported, and should already be on the base free plan when activated.