Official Tello Mobile thread

[chris330r]

Correct, if you want the same plan. Or the change plan button to the right of that if you want to change your mix.
Also under payments section of your dashboard check "Email me 48 hours before charging me" if you want a reminder to renew early.

That's a handy feature to have and i'll be using it to keep reminding me to renew early to roll over what I don't use.

[GPz1100]

I have a tello data only plan. It appears to include unlimited texts. Not that it matters, I don't text from that device, just need a bit of data.

[chris330r]

Not familiar with the "Renew Now" button. I usually use the "I want this plan" button. I've been rolling over my data balance this way for many months. Best Tello feature. Of course, unlimited data does not rollover and your new plan must include some data.

I just get the $5 data only plan every 28 or 29 days and have racked up 8GB of data which is pretty much unlimited for my use case.

It's the blue button towards the bottom of the screen in the middle that says "Renew Now". I attached a screenshot of it here. There's also the "Change Plan" button at the right which is self explanatory. But if I want to continue with what I have, I assume I use that "Renew Now" button.

[power_book]

You can manually renew just after midnight on the last day (or before your renewal time usually around 2AM). Then you get 30day cycle.

It's the blue button towards the bottom of the screen in the middle that says "Renew Now". I attached a screenshot of it here. There's also the "Change Plan" button at the right which is self explanatory. But if I want to continue with what I have, I assume I use that "Renew Now" button.

[chris330r]

You can manually renew just after midnight on the last day (or before your renewal time usually around 2AM). Then you get 30day cycle.

This may be a dumb question, but see where it says in the screen shot at the right--- "On 6/24/23 you will be automatically charged $11+ taxes"?

Now if I manually pay the $11 on say 6/21 to get the rollover from the current month, that would halt the coming automatic 6/24 charge right? I just want to make sure I don't make a manual payment and then Tello still puts the auto charge through a few days later. I won't be a happy customer if that happens.

[Lisme]

It auto-renews only if the clock strikes 30 days without action from you. If you renew early, the clock starts over.

When you renew early, you get a new 30 day interval with auto-renew recalculated. I leave auto-renew turned on in case I don't do anything. If your service lapses, I think you have to get a new sim. I think there's a grace period to save your balances.

You can manually renew on the auto-renew date as long as you do it before 5 am Eastern time. Always use Eastern time, the office is in Atlanta.

[chris330r]

It auto-renews only if the clock strikes 30 days without action from you. If you renew early, the clock starts over.

When you renew early, you get a new 30 day interval with auto-renew recalculated. I leave auto-renew turned on in case I don't do anything. If your service lapses, I think you have to get a new sim. I think there's a grace period to save your balances.

You can manually renew on the auto-renew date as long as you do it before 5 am Eastern time. Always use Eastern time, the office is in Atlanta.

Thanks for the explanation. I'll do manual renew every month and also use the email reminder to make sure I don't forget to do it before the auto renew kicks in, so I think i'm all set now.

[rpz1]

When you renew early, you get a new 30 day interval with auto-renew recalculated. I leave auto-renew turned on in case I don't do anything. If your service lapses, I think you have to get a new sim. I think there's a grace period to save your balances.

Where can you turn on/off auto-renew?
It's my understanding that a payment method needs to be on file and auto renew is required on Tello.
Either it auto-renews, you do it early (over riding auto-renew) or you cancel your service. Never lapses due to none payment.
You can't even delete your payment method on file unless you replace it with another.

[PaulCrawhorne]

I put in a single-use virtual card, then use it elsewhere

in effect a NULL entry

[rpz1]

I put in a single-use virtual card, then use it elsewhere

in effect a NULL entry

Can you use a gift card to fill the payment method, then when you renew you add a valid cc/debit card?
(Since it appears they don't allow gift cards.)

[PaulCrawhorne]

The system would likely not accept a gift type prepaid.

Some block virtuals these days.

Some block all prepaids, up to the merchant.

[SlowLoris]

This may be a dumb question, but see where it says in the screen shot at the right--- "On 6/24/23 you will be automatically charged $11+ taxes"?

Now if I manually pay the $11 on say 6/21 to get the rollover from the current month, that would halt the coming automatic 6/24 charge right? I just want to make sure I don't make a manual payment and then Tello still puts the auto charge through a few days later. I won't be a happy customer if that happens.

You don't want to manually renew on 6/21 because that's too far in advance and you have already paid for those 2 extra days. I always do it the day before the autorenew because I don't want to cut it too close, but as others have said, you can even do it the morning of the renewal. If you hover over the date, you can see the estimated time of renewal -- mine says between 3am and 9 am.

I do NOT have a credit card on file in my Tello account at all. I know you can't delete a card when it is associated with a plan, but my recollection is that I could delete the card after I made a change to the monthly plan from 1GB to 500MB. On the payment page, it prompted me to attach the card on file to the new subscription, but instead I just deleted the card from the saved card section. Now each month, I get an email that there is a problem with my form of payment two days before my renewal, which prompts me to renew the next day. Since I have been using Tello Dollars for my $5 payment each month, I did not want a card on there at all.

And I can also confirm that the data only plan definitely includes text messages, as noted above.

[ACMaverick]

Of course it would work with only mobile data enabled. It's MMS. The problem is if wifi is on along side with mobile data on I can only send MMS but not receiving MMS. The download in message just keep circling. It worked just a few days ago but not now. I don't believe wifi needs to be OFF to receive MMS. No one should MANUALLY turn off wifi to receive MMS. Do you? I never did and never had a problem.

EDIT: It's working now. Nothing on my end changed. It's either low data priority on Tello from T-Mo or they did something on their end. This proves customer support did not know better or did not want to tell me. Just keep prolong the time until it's fixed or when they get some data priority.

Sigh!

I had a similar problem where I had issues sending/receiving MMS messages on Tello. The fix was to disable Wi-Fi Calling.

[chris330r]

UPDATE: My existing Tello plan was ending in 2 days so I changed my plan from 2GB to 1GB because I still have 1.07GB left from my original plan last month.

It was very easy to change the plan. I chose 1GB with no mins for $6 and it still gives you unlimited texts even though it doesn't say it in the plan choice. And indeed my 1.07GB carried over and now I have a total of 2.07GB until 7/22 which is more than enough for me. So far i'm very happy with Tello and have experienced absolutely no issues whatsoever with them.

[SlowLoris]

UPDATE: My existing Tello plan was ending in 2 days so I changed my plan from 2GB to 1GB because I still have 1.07GB left from my original plan last month.

It was very easy to change the plan. I chose 1GB with no mins for $6 and it still gives you unlimited texts even though it doesn't say it in the plan choice. And indeed my 1.07GB carried over and now I have a total of 2.07GB until 7/22 which is more than enough for me. So far i'm very happy with Tello and have experienced absolutely no issues whatsoever with them.

One quirk that I noted above: since you changed plans, your credit card may no longer be attached to the autorenewal. That can be a good thing if you always plan to manually renew AND/OR you want to delete the card. You will get an email 2 days before renewal, saying there is a problem with your payment, which serves as an extra reminder to manually renew. If you do ever want the plan to automatically renew, you may need to go into payment and select your card from the dropdown menu under Subscription Payment Options.

Also, it's too late for you, but for other people reading the thread: use a referral when creating your Tello account, then you can pay for the second month using Tello Dollars.