AT&T LTE plans prorated?

[jhkaplan]

When I had my iPhone tethering, I will call AT&T to have them turn on the tethering feature whenever I was traveling. Does anybody know if I can do the same with the iPad LTE data plan? I don't want to have it on all the time but occasionally when I'm traveling, I would like to have the LTE plan turned on and then turned off with a prorated discount or refund.

I called AT&T and one rep spoke to wasn't sure if this would be prorated or not. I didn't want to call back to get another rep I figured I would ask all you experts first.

thank you for your help!

 

[deeddawg]

Here's what confused the reps -- data plans can be prepaid or postpaid, and the two behave differently.

Prepaid data is not prorated. You sign up for this from your ipad. When you sign up you choose 3GB for $30 or 250MB for $15 or whatever the top end one is. You've now bought that chunk of data, and you have 30 days to use it. When either 30 days is up or you've used up the data, it autorenews for another month. During this time you can cancel the autorenew if you like and continue to use the block of data until gone or 30 days from purchase. If you further cancel the whole data account, it's gone and you get no refund.

Prepaid has no overage charges; when you use up your data, you buy another block for the normal price. Doesn't matter if it took you three days to burn through it or 29 days to do so. When you buy a bottle of Pepsi and finish it, you buy another bottle.

Postpaid data works like your cellphone account, only with no contract or ETF or activation (with AT&T). This one should be prorated if you cancel. The trick is you can't (as far as I know) start/stop it from the ipad, you have to go to an AT&T store or call customer service. Proration may be a double edged sword; if you use 2.5GB of 3GB in 15 days and then cancel, I'm not sure how they handle that... Postpaid does have overage since you'd be using more data than your monthly allowance.

Have a look at http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB413502&cv=820# and http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB117070#fbid=ilpEeZyxgVw
"DataConnect" is postpaid, "DataConnect Pass" is prepaid.

 

[jhkaplan]

Here's what confused the reps -- data plans can be prepaid or postpaid, and the two behave differently.

Prepaid data is not prorated. You sign up for this from your ipad. When you sign up you choose 3GB for $30 or 250MB for $15 or whatever the top end one is. You've now bought that chunk of data, and you have 30 days to use it. When either 30 days is up or you've used up the data, it autorenews for another month. During this time you can cancel the autorenew if you like and continue to use the block of data until gone or 30 days from purchase. If you further cancel the whole data account, it's gone and you get no refund.

Prepaid has no overage charges; when you use up your data, you buy another block for the normal price. Doesn't matter if it took you three days to burn through it or 29 days to do so. When you buy a bottle of Pepsi and finish it, you buy another bottle.

Postpaid data works like your cellphone account, only with no contract or ETF or activation (with AT&T). This one should be prorated if you cancel. The trick is you can't (as far as I know) start/stop it from the ipad, you have to go to an AT&T store or call customer service. Proration may be a double edged sword; if you use 2.5GB of 3GB in 15 days and then cancel, I'm not sure how they handle that... Postpaid does have overage since you'd be using more data than your monthly allowance.

Have a look at http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB413502&cv=820# and http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB117070#fbid=ilpEeZyxgVw
"DataConnect" is postpaid, "DataConnect Pass" is prepaid.

Ah thank you so much for the clarification! Post-paid it is!

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Here's what confused the reps -- data plans can be prepaid or postpaid, and the two behave differently.

Prepaid data is not prorated. You sign up for this from your ipad. When you sign up you choose 3GB for $30 or 250MB for $15 or whatever the top end one is. You've now bought that chunk of data, and you have 30 days to use it. When either 30 days is up or you've used up the data, it autorenews for another month. During this time you can cancel the autorenew if you like and continue to use the block of data until gone or 30 days from purchase. If you further cancel the whole data account, it's gone and you get no refund.

Prepaid has no overage charges; when you use up your data, you buy another block for the normal price. Doesn't matter if it took you three days to burn through it or 29 days to do so. When you buy a bottle of Pepsi and finish it, you buy another bottle.

Postpaid data works like your cellphone account, only with no contract or ETF or activation (with AT&T). This one should be prorated if you cancel. The trick is you can't (as far as I know) start/stop it from the ipad, you have to go to an AT&T store or call customer service. Proration may be a double edged sword; if you use 2.5GB of 3GB in 15 days and then cancel, I'm not sure how they handle that... Postpaid does have overage since you'd be using more data than your monthly allowance.

Have a look at http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB413502&cv=820# and http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB117070#fbid=ilpEeZyxgVw
"DataConnect" is postpaid, "DataConnect Pass" is prepaid.

Looks like I can't sign up for post-paid through the iPad. It'd only be prepaid right? I need to create a new iPad account (since I haven't had one yet) and put in my CC. Would I just need to call AT&T to sign up for a new account to get post-paid?

 

[MarkG21]

Ah thank you so much for the clarification! Post-paid it is!

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Looks like I can't sign up for post-paid through the iPad. It'd only be prepaid right? I need to create a new iPad account (since I haven't had one yet) and put in my CC. Would I just need to call AT&T to sign up for a new account to get post-paid?

Correct, no post paid sign up through the iPad.

I'm sure you can sign up on the internet rather than calling.