https://www.prepaidphonenews.com/2017/11/you-can-now-buy-freedompops-products-at.html
A couple of years ago, they started selling phones in Sams' Club...
$5 for the SIM... guess cheaper than the $6.99 expedited shipping, if you gotta have it now.
$70 a little pricy, but this form factor is very convenient!
Another advantage of buying from a 3rd party (Target, Best Buy, etc.)-- these come without the dreaded 'free trials' that need to be downgraded to avoid future charges.
That feature (not having to downgrade to free plan) can be really useful. Wondering why it says "debit or credit card required" on the packaging -- see
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/freedompop-nationwide-4g-lte-3-in-1-basic-free-sim-card-kit/5986902.p?skuId=5986902
Anyone who has bought the sim from bestbuy, can you please share your experience? Am thinking of buying from bestbuy just to avoid the hassles of downgrading, and don't want to find out that I will have to use a credit card for some other FP hassles.
And just to make sure - will this sim let me add freedompop friends for the extra 500mb, or is that not possible now?
what is the downgrading fee?
Sorry, I thought I'd commented on this a while back......
peterquinn, although it wasn't recently, the SIM I bought from Best Buy did not include "free trials" that needed to be downgraded: it started on the basic free plan right out of the box. It's hard to tell from the comments on the BB site, because it's not clear to me that all those folks are really referring to a Best Buy purchase. It's also possible that it's changed since I did mine.
I'm confident that a credit card will be required: the same FreedomPop overage structure will apply, and a credit card is a necessity for that. I'm similarly confident that FreedomPop Friends can be added.
If there is no attached "free trial", there won't be a charge to downgrade to the free plan. (Normally $5, although technically it's a deposit.........) There would still be a $5 deposit to turn off auto-top-up (which requires a credit card or Paypal account on file for the auto-top-up feature, or to pay the $5 to turn it off......)
If I place a Best Buy order this week, I'll throw one of these in and report back.
can anyone please confirm the downgrading fee?
Now the downgrading fee is $10.
Do you have a reference for that? I didn't know there had been a change.
last I checked, turn off auto topup is $5, min manual top-up is $10.
Interesting... Freedompop has been quietly hiking prices... probably needed to stay in business...
2 more references:
https://support.freedompop.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3328/kw/downgrade/related/1
So it looks like this increase has happened in the last few days-- and as is often true with FreedomPop, with no warning. From the description in the forum links, it sounds like maybe pop-up blockers are preventing users from seeing & accepting the downgrade charge.
The relatively quick change from $0, to $5, now $10 is a little worrisome. It's still a bargain, but it would be nice if everyone didn't have to find out about it when attempting the downgrade.
I downgraded on 20171120 & I was charged $5. Technically a deposit as KentE stated, but still, no warning during downgrading about charge. Or maybe I want paying attention.