$300 plan true cost?

[Hogan773]

Hi, my Mom is on Cricket with us right now but I need to separate her line to make room for my daughter. So I am likely to move her to the $30/month Cricket plan. HOWEVER I just noticed this $25/month 16GB thing from ATT Prepaid. I could set up a port and have the SIM shipped to her house and she could put it in the phone, however I am deciding if this is really worth the hassle to save $5 per month, maybe not. So does anyone know for NY state what the taxes and fees will be on the $300 plan?

She uses on average 500 MB of data each month, maybe up to 1GB if she travels somewhere, so I don't really care about the 5GB on Cricket vs 16GB on ATT

[bandoba]

My experience is from AT&T monthly prepaid plans but I believe the same is true with yearly plan. You could buy a prepaid gift card and use that to pay and since you can get gift cards with discount, you will come out ahead than paying directly to AT&T.

Hopefully someone with a yearly plan can confirm.

BTW given AT&T gives more data, your daughter would probably be interested in that more than your mom and so you can avoid putting out of cricket and just get a new AT&T SIM for a new line and keep it simple.

[Hogan773]

My experience is from AT&T monthly prepaid plans but I believe the same is true with yearly plan. You could buy a prepaid gift card and use that to pay and since you can get gift cards with discount, you will come out ahead than paying directly to AT&T.

Hopefully someone with a yearly plan can confirm.

BTW given AT&T gives more data, your daughter would probably be interested in that more than your mom and so you can avoid putting out of cricket and just get a new AT&T SIM for a new line and keep it simple.

Yes but my daughter will be able to get on the Unlimited plan for $25 a month (or less when I get the discounted refill cards) so then we don't need to worry about data.....if they let us have 6 lines I would keep Mom on, but since she is the one who uses hardly any data, then it makes most sense for her to get moved out onto the 5GB plan (or the ATT plan I am asking here).

[Boz1]

Hi, my Mom is on Cricket with us right now but I need to separate her line to make room for my daughter. So I am likely to move her to the $30/month Cricket plan. HOWEVER I just noticed this $25/month 16GB thing from ATT Prepaid. I could set up a port and have the SIM shipped to her house and she could put it in the phone, however I am deciding if this is really worth the hassle to save $5 per month, maybe not. So does anyone know for NY state what the taxes and fees will be on the $300 plan?

She uses on average 500 MB of data each month, maybe up to 1GB if she travels somewhere, so I don't really care about the 5GB on Cricket vs 16GB on ATT

I pay $256.50/360 days TOTAL for my wife's AT&T Prepaid $300 plan.

I pay $256.50 for $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid cards by buying when they are on sale for 10% off ($5 Off $50) at Target, and using my Target Red Card to get an additional 5% off, so each $50 card is $42.75 ($50-$5=$45x0.95=$42.75) and $42.75x6=$256.50 for the $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid cards. Target collects no additional taxes/fees on prepaid refill cards. Also, just to clarify, you need to buy each of the 6, $50 cards in 6 separate transactions, for $42.75 each.

It's up to you to decide whether or not it will be worth the effort, but $21.38/30 days TOTAL ($256.50/12) for the AT&T Prepaid $300 plan is a great deal!

[Hogan773]

I pay $256.50/360 days TOTAL for my wife's AT&T Prepaid $300 plan.

I pay $256.50 for $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid cards by buying when they are on sale for 10% off ($5 Off $50) at Target, and using my Target Red Card to get an additional 5% off, so each $50 card is $42.75 ($50-$5=$45x0.95=$42.75) and $42.75x6=$256.50 for the $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid cards. Target collects no additional taxes/fees on prepaid refill cards. Also, just to clarify, you need to buy each of the 6, $50 cards in 6 separate transactions, for $42.75 each.

It's up to you to decide whether or not it will be worth the effort, but $21.38/30 days TOTAL ($256.50/12) for the AT&T Prepaid $300 plan is a great deal!

My question is, how do I get the plan STARTED (using an online port application) while still using ATT refill cards? Or do I basically need to just suck it up and use a credit card the first time and so I am paying more than $300, and then the following year I could accumulate $300 worth of cards and make the payment prior to the anniversary date. My Mom doesn't live near me and I don't want to send her into a store and try to do all this herself. I was hoping to fill out the online port application and have the SIM card sent to her and then the port will happen when she activates and inserts the new SIM.

[Boz1]

My question is, how do I get the plan STARTED (using an online port application) while still using ATT refill cards? Or do I basically need to just suck it up and use a credit card the first time and so I am paying more than $300, and then the following year I could accumulate $300 worth of cards and make the payment prior to the anniversary date. My Mom doesn't live near me and I don't want to send her into a store and try to do all this herself. I was hoping to fill out the online port application and have the SIM card sent to her and then the port will happen when she activates and inserts the new SIM.

When I signed up for the AT&T Prepaid $300 plan, for my wife's line, it appeared that AT&T would charge my CC $304.99+taxes/fees, but AT&T only ACTUALLY charged $4.99+tax for the SIM card, which I discovered after her line wouldn't work, even after it was ported successfully to AT&T. According to an AT&T chat CSR, AT&T was SUPPOSED to charge my CC $300+taxes/fees AFTER the port was complete, but they didn't. Obviously, this turned out to be a good thing, since AT&T would have also collected taxes/fees on the $300. Once I knew the $300+taxes/fees wasn't automatically charged to my CC by AT&T, I created an AT&T online account, and used AT&T Prepaid refill cards with no taxes/fees from Target to pay $256.50 TOTAL for the initial $300.

My theory is that AT&T didn't charge my CC because I didn't select auto-pay when I signed up. But if I were to sign up for a new AT&T Prepaid $300 plan today, to ensure that I could fund the $300 with AT&T Prepaid refill cards purchased from Target, I'd still do that, but I'd ALSO use a prepaid or virtual CC with only enough availability to pay the initial $4.99+tax for the SIM card, so that if AT&T DID try to charge the CC the additional $300+taxes/fees, it would fail, and then I'd fund the plan in an AT&T online account with $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid refill cards, that I would have purchased from Target during one of their sales for $256.50 TOTAL.

By the way, coincidentally, Target is having the $5 off $50 sale this week, so your timing is good, if you want to try it. Lately, some people can only purchase 2 or 3 cards per day, so if you're interested, you should start buying, one at a time, earlier rather than later in the week.

[Hogan773]

When I signed up for the AT&T Prepaid $300 plan, for my wife's line, it appeared that AT&T would charge my CC $304.99+taxes/fees, but AT&T only ACTUALLY charged $4.99+tax for the SIM card, which I discovered after her line wouldn't work, even after it was ported successfully to AT&T. According to an AT&T chat CSR, AT&T was SUPPOSED to charge my CC $300+taxes/fees AFTER the port was complete, but they didn't. Obviously, this turned out to be a good thing, since AT&T would have also collected taxes/fees on the $300. Once I knew the $300+taxes/fees wasn't automatically charged to my CC by AT&T, I created an AT&T online account, and used AT&T Prepaid refill cards with no taxes/fees from Target to pay $256.50 TOTAL for the initial $300.

My theory is that AT&T didn't charge my CC because I didn't select auto-pay when I signed up. But if I were to sign up for a new AT&T Prepaid $300 plan today, to ensure that I could fund the $300 with AT&T Prepaid refill cards purchased from Target, I'd still do that, but I'd ALSO use a prepaid or virtual CC with only enough availability to pay the initial $4.99+tax for the SIM card, so that if AT&T DID try to charge the CC the additional $300+taxes/fees, it would fail, and then I'd fund the plan in an AT&T online account with $300 worth of AT&T Prepaid refill cards, that I would have purchased from Target during one of their sales for $256.50 TOTAL.

By the way, coincidentally, Target is having the $5 off $50 sale this week, so your timing is good, if you want to try it. Lately, some people can only purchase 2 or 3 cards per day, so if you're interested, you should start buying, one at a time, earlier rather than later in the week.

Sounds like yours was a fluke though in terms of them not charging the real $300

[Boz1]

Sounds like yours was a fluke though in terms of them not charging the real $300

Not based on other reports I've seen stating the same thing when not selecting auto-pay. But did you read the rest?

[Hogan773]

I did

I dunno I need to think about it. I don't really want to create some phantom card with 5 dollars only on it. I guess I can try it and see if it doesn't charge, then I could go buy refill cards. It is all just about how many hoops I want to jump through and spend time with in order to save a few bucks on my Mom's behalf (vs just moving her onto the $30 a month plan on Cricket, where I could also still get discounted refills on her behalf)

I guess worst case even if I just get charged the $300 with taxes, it prob won't come out to MORE than $30/month equivalent for the first year.

When one is set up on Autopay under GoPhone, does it then charge taxes and fees if that payment goes through? I'm not sure I want to keep hunting for Callingmart discounts or whatever for GoPhone every year on my Mom's behalf either since I am already watching for Cricket refills for myself

[Boz1]

Yes, but the taxes/fees seem to vary wildly based on location.

[bandoba]

I'll confirm that steps posted by Boz1 work and you are better off with a virtual card especially for the annual plan. I have used those steps for a monthly plan for ~4 lines.

[NCTed]

Similar experience here. When I switched to the 300/yr plan, it seemed like AT&T gave me a small grace period where I could load the refill cards on my account before it charged me for the year.

[kyrpt]

Does a $20 prepaid VISA debit gift card work to get started?

[Boz1]

Does a $20 prepaid VISA debit gift card work to get started?

Do you mean to sign up and pay for the SIM card? It should, unless something has changed recently.

[kyrpt]

Yes, that's what I meant. Thanks. Something like this would be needed since they don't accept AT&T refill card when signing up.