Data Usage?

[alliebear22]

To give you some background, when I first switched to Verizon, I shared my plan with my dad and younger brother, but I was responsible for the bill every month (lucky me, huh?)  Anyway, a few months ago, my older brother asked me if he could be on the plan too, so I added a fourth line for him. Just recently, my younger brother (he is almost 20) decided he would buy his own phone and get his own plan, which I was happy about. We decided not to cancel his line because of early cancellation fees, so I just suspended service since our contract is up next year.

So the other day, I received a bill that was significanly more than the monthly norm. I was a little bit surprised but figured someone accidentally went over in some area, so I didn't think too much of it. This morning when I woke up, my little brother mentioned his phone bill, so I brought up the ginormous bill I got. He whispered that I needed to check my older brother's data usage. He left and I looked up the data activity. That is exactly what the problem is.

I am too mad to speak to my brother right now, so I told my dad about it. Like always, he sided with my brother and won't offer to help me at all. I know I need to talk to my brother about it, and I will, but first I want to know what Verizon charges per MB or KB (MB is preferred) of data usage so I can have my facts right before going to Verizon to beg for them to keep service on my phone.

Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you all so much!

[NekoSaru]

Depends on if he has a PDA or normal phone. For normal phones it is 1.99 per MB. For a PDA it is like .015 per KB coming to around $15 per MB.

I would add a data block to his line right now to keep from any additional usage occuring. 

[nmchileman · Accepted solution]

I agree. $1.99/MB for basic handsets and .015/KB ($15.36/MB) for PDAs.

Keep in mind "data charges" aren't always just web browsing. It could also mean downloads for media items (games,ringtones, music, apps) so you'll want to make sure of this as well.

I would recommend a data block as well if you're brother isn't going to be responsible about it. Just make sure you remove any existing apps/games he may have downloaded. Because even with the block in place anything that exists on the phone already will still be able to be used.

[LukeTech]

Add the data block and beg/plead to have it backdated to the offending month so maybe the usage will be billed to the block rather than per KB.

[alliebear22]

Thanks for replying, guys (or girls)! I didn't know they would backdate a bill (just one, I assume) but that is a huge help! Yes, I agree with you all that $2 per MB is outrageous for his phone. Thankfully, he only used 50MB this month, and not the fulll 12,000 MB he has stored on his phone. I'll get the data block installed right now and hopefully they'll backdate this for me *fingers crossed*

[itsjustmejanie]

hey i dont mean to hijack your thread but i have a question and cannot find any other place to add it.

Tell me if this seems normal to you.  i have the 1.99/mb plan because the website says that 50 web pages is about .3 mb so I figured i would not use anywhere near a full MB..i knew when i first got the phone it would be a little higher because its new...

yesterday around 4pm i activated my new Lg EnV touch.  Shortly after that, i decided to download the backup assistant so i would have all my  phone#s.  i couldnt find it at first.. i didnt realize but i was searching through the games catalog.  I only did it for a second though and finally found it and downloaded it.  Then i had it restore all my phone#s.. I have 72 phone#s stored.  Then I sent myself some pictures through pix messaging that i had sent from other phone to my email. (it is not supposed to be counted as mb useage) then i sent myself some ring tones again through text messaging so it is not supposed to use mb useage.  Then several hours later I tried to access both twitter and photobucket and both said my password was invalid so i gave up, logged off and shut off the phone.

Today before i even turned the phone on, ichecked online and it said i had already used .974 mb.  How is that possible with the little bit of stuff that i accessed? is that normal? 

please let me know your take on it.

[QwestOrphan2]

I don't know, but I've got 0.03 MB for accessing a demo game twice..... the first time I had no idea that the game wasn't really preloaded on the phone, the second time I was disappointed that demo meant what it means. This game was a selling point on choosing the phone I have - except that it's not really preloaded, and it's not really a demo.

i like this data block idea... i'll have to search to find out how it's done because i don't want to be charged 2 bucks and more for stuff I'm not using.  I'd hate to have to pay for something I'm not using.  For those who are long time Verizon customers, does Verizon charge for operating system downloads, or are those free?   does a customer have to accept new version downloads?