A friend recently bought a new prepaid phone with Telstra and is on the Encore prepaid plan, with a $30. She uses a mobile only very rarely, so I'm not sure that this would have been her best option, but that's beside the point.
Is there any legitimate reason why they'd be sending her a text after only a fortnight telling her her bonus calls and data had expired?
when you get a mobile phone from telstra, comes with $10 as a bonus credit. maybe the sms is in relation to that credit expiring.
Agree. The $10 initial credit has a 14 day expiry period. Check the box the phone came in to confirm.
She didn't use a sim that came with the phone. Bought a new sim and $30 recharge from Telstra shop.
dial #100# from the handset
select the "balance" option (i think its "2" from memory)
then option 1
itll tell her about any bonus credits
with a $2 starter kit, it comes with $0 bonus credit with a 14 expiry. so the sms might be relation to the $0 expiring
Encore recharges give you bonus (often called funny money) of credit that can be used for talk, text & data PLUS a additional data inc in cap. Now telstra use the real money recharge as credit you can buy things like subscribing to mobile foxtel or talk/text/data/roaming data packs. If you purchase one of these then the credit comes from the recharge amount (not the bonus credit even though its in dollars) and any bonus packs is used before the bonus credit and then it will eat away the recharge credit until you get to $0 or you recharge; wherein you loose everything but the recharge rollover real credit.
confused?
Its a good system on prepaid once you understand it and allows you to serious get some great value out of telstra. For example… Say youve chosen the encore cap and do a $30 recharge. You now have $30 real credit, $220 bonus credit and 400mb of data. Now you could subscribe to mobilefoxtel for as little as $2 a week and that comes out of the recharge $30 credit, so say $8 for the month. Next you text for a bonus plus pack of say 85 text for $10. So assuming you dont call voicemail (it uses real credit unless you call your own mobile number, press # and enter your pin then it comes from your bonus credit but i personly turn it off with dial ##002# call; and then extend ringtime with dial 61*10130# call anf then i get the free message to text by default)
so 30-8-10=$12 and this will roll over on recharge unless you use all the bonus credit and the text pack you purchased. http://www.telstra.com.au/mobile-phones/prepaid-mobiles/extr…
Foxtel still sucks, its the same shows on a loop, but you can subscribe from the foxtel app as well as unsubscribe, bonus plus packs are a purchased as a sms. Telstra also allows creditme2u, where you can send $10 (cost 25c) to a telstra mobile and it extends the expiary date by 14 days and can be used to buy a bonus pack which is good then for 30days!
So keep with me… Mum gets the $30 recharge and uses some talk and data and a few texts so i sms and add the text data offering but she has plenty of credit so near the end of her recharge period i used up her credit with talk, text and data and she gets another 30days of use (from the same original recharge)! A rookie mistake is to add on as soon as you buy and apply the original recharge.
Another trick (besides turning off voicemail or calling yourself to use bonus credit instead of real credit to listen to message, which is a great trick on the $40 but esspecialy the $50 recharge & you love voicemail..
A great trick of low users is >
Swap plans to LONG LIFE and do at least a $70 recharge (the credit is good for 12months) and then text to swap to SIMPLICITY for the low call rates. You can also buy bonus plus packs but they have a 30day expiary but a great idea for data! You go from eating into your $70 at 89c per/min to 10c!!! Swap back to LL recharge and then swap back to SIMPLICITY. For low isers like my dad its great value.
I personly have just ported to T/prepaid and decided to go on encore and do a $50 recharge as i am a big talker. I add a plus pack of data when its getting low (not before) from the $50 and i have vmail turned off and have extended the ringtime (the hash codes are above, just type in the code and press send), messages ages are sent to my mobile as text and are free (the voice to text thing is amazing). I changed my foxtel subscription from the foxtel app to the $2 a week offer as i can watch abc/sbs and the data is unmetered. So each month i can roll over as much as $42 to spend the next month.
ENCORE has a hard $300 cap on roll over credit so use it up so you can recharge.
Now buying recharges, i use coles and the recharges give me bonus flybuys, which i can put 2000points=$10CR on my card and use to pay for the recharge as a FYI.
Once you get your phone setup (which is a one off deal usaly) then you have the fun of spending your credit on stuff. Going away and need the internet, well save soem credit and buy the 3gb or 4gb recharge, tether from any mobile these days even old niokias with the cable and you have the internet on your laptop! No need for extra gadgets and gizmos. Like a bit of foxtel and dont have it at home, well buy that then but realise its not the same content as whats on tv at least yet…
As mentioned you can use the #100# to check balances (also #125#) then 2 send then 1 send to check bonus balances and expiary dates (everything can have different dates so beware of whats expiaring when but only the real credit balance rolls over as long as you do a recharge within period its valid)
So bonus plus packs are used before bonus credit and then the recharge credit, only the recharge credit can roll over and be used to purcahse bonus plus packs. Voicemail comes from the recharge credit as does premium numbers, directory assistance ect… tricks around that mentioned above.
A mistake i made was adding additonal data as soon as i recharged, i will not come close to using it up and will have wasted the included data. I should have add it when the data was almost gone! Also before the credit expires on say the $50 recharge i can add $20 55min & $10 85text & $10 200mb which will extend the original recharge for another 30days use until i have consumed/used up the extra packs! Now buy a recharge with flybus from coles and get sometimes another $10 off the recharge… It can be awesome value when you know how…
Hey, srhardy, the friend in question is totally phone illiterate, isn't likely to use it for much other than receiving calls, pics from her children and the odd emergency call, but that is a truly AWESOME post, heaps of info I can pass onto hubby who just switched to encore last night after all our half price woolies vouchers were used up.
srhardy I would like to use Encore $50 and buy a $49 data pack. This only leaves me $1 recharge credit. How is the best way to manage this please. I'm a little confused as to how it all works. The above post is awesome, so I look forward to your advice (step by step if you don't mind), thanks in advance, Di
PS I should add that I'm not with Telstra yet, so I'm starting from scratch. I currently use about 3gb data per 30 days and would be looking to do this on a continuing basis,
$30 doesn't get you much at all with Telstra, maybe she did use it all up.