Important Update: Changes to Your FreedomPop Retail SIM Account
Effective immediately your FreedomPop retail SIM account will enable the auto-top-up feature when your balance runs low on minutes, text messages, or data.
We understand that this might be unexpected.
However, you can always opt for our Safety Mode plan.
For $5/month, you will receive 100 minutes of talk, 100 text messages, and 100MB of high-speed data without auto-top-ups.
So - free ain't free anymore I guess.
Looks like time to delete that account, sadly.
My account ran out of data and I do not see any charges on my Payment history.
I looked around and could not find the "Auto Top-Up" section. If you find it, please let me know.
I had forgotten all about my old privacy.com account & as it turns out it is still there & I was able to open it again (it didn't work with my older browser).
I'll re-visit FP soon & see what their deal is - given that t-mob signal is so spotty in our area that phone gets hardly any use at all.
It does work here at home so I figured it might get some use if/when there might be a power outage (hence VOIP would be down).
I've never been too impressed by FP vs. Textnow, which I've gotten far more use out of - so it will not be missed if it needs to get ditched.
It says "effective immediately" but my account still shows this as of this morning:
Welcome Stephen,
Your account is Active, and your next payment of $0.00 +taxes is due in 1 days, on October 04,2023. You have 100 minutes, 100 text messages and 100 MBs of data remaining.
In my opinion, everyone should leave a review on the Target page describing what happened, including the quote from the Target description, "Total freedom with no contracts or hidden fees and no tricks or gimmicks" along with a description of the email we received. It should also include the fact that Red Pocket owns FreedomPop, and a statement that perhaps Red Pocket shouldn't be trusted, either.
But I'm willing to listen if others think this is a bad idea.
Reports are of people getting charged when hitting monthly allocation limit, not of accounts showing any amount due when unused or within included limits.
I saw that one review regarding the change has already been posted, I suspect many may be in moderation, yet to be posted.
Funny thing.
I noticed that my nearest store shows 5 available, have never seen it be more that 2 since the product launched. Some nearby stores also showing 3 or 5, NEVER seen more than 2 before at any nearby store list either. Maybe FP rolling out more product trying to "get rich quick" before word gets out?
I have two active Walmart GSMT lines, one of which routinely runs of data. I didn't get the notice. If they try to charge me, it will bounce because the credit card on record is no longer valid (old GM Card card issued by Capitol One that changed after Marcus acquisition)
I called FreedomPop today and asked them 2 questions about the new rules:
Is this top-up initiated only if you go over your 100/100/100 allotment. or is it like the old days with FreedomPop where you get charged a top-up fee when you get close to a certain % of your allotment?. I was assured that it was only charged if you go over your actual
allotment. To be sure, I called another agent 20 minutes later and got the same answer.
What are the the automatic top-up fees, and what do you get? Here's the answer from both agents, which is specific to each category, ( minutes/text/data):
-$8 for 1000 minutes of talk
-$8 for 1000 texts
-$8 for ! GB of data
This is all quite livable for me , my wife, and two offspring who are using this plan as glove box/emergency phones . ( and yes of course, I used a Visa prepaid card with less than $2 left on it to activate the 4 accounts)
Well, per current reports you don't have anything to worry about if you never put the SIM in a phone. The point is that if you do put it in a phone and hit a limit FP will attempt to charge you overages.
If FP is reverting to bad old day tactics they could decide to just charging people for the line or taxes I suppose.
Remove form of payment or using a dead, very low balance or paused card are other methods of protecting yourself. Be aware, there are reports of FP sending people to collections over < $20.
Collections are sold in batches for pennies on the dollar. So 1M $8 = $8M and FP gets $8K and the collection companies will try to get whatever they can - hopefully more than $8K.
Yeah, I'm aware, but I'm not sure how many zombie debt collectors would be interested in buying $8 accounts.
I've had to dispatch my share of zombie debt collectors (one from a cell company from back in the bag phone days) and even a middling effort by the debtor will cost them more than the full "amount due" on an $8 debt.
Who says they have the intention to collect in full. Let's say a fraudster wants to be a "millionaire", buy a million in debt for $10K, pretend those debt are normal A/R of the business and goes to the bank to borrow against that $1M. Launder the money into another LLC, move off-shore then declare bankruptcy. End result, LLC has $1M. You ahve 1 business that is bankrupt and 1 LLC that has $1M, you are a millionaire. Rinse and repeat until you hit all the US banks and they no longer lend to you.