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Changing my sim only plan

  • 5 July 2018
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Hi, I've recently decided to change my rolling sim only plan to one with more data. After reading up on it I finally did it today. It was my understanding that my next bill would be worked out pro rata. However, I seem to have been billed more than expected. My billing period ends on July 8th, I have changed my plan from the 5 pound plan to the 20 pound plan and was therefore expecting a bill in the 10-20 pound area. My next bill however has been calculated at 21.32! Nothing that I have read on the id information pages has said I'll be charged so much. Can anyone tell me how this has been worked out?
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Best answer by Mohammed 6 July 2018, 15:42

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Hello @Vic,

Yes, that's correct, when you change plans it's all calculated on your next bill as a pro-rata bill.
I'll try break this own with a example for you.

Let's say your plan is £5.00 a month and your bills are produced on the 1st of each month.
These bills cover your line rental from the 1st day of the month to the last day of the month.

We know that your Direct Debits are taken on or just after 14-days from this date, so we know you'll usually pay this half way in the month too.


So January, you pay £5.00 for line rental from the 01/01/18 - 31/01/18
February you pay £5.00 for the line rental from 01/02/18 - 28/0/28
In March, you pay £5.00 for the line rental from the 01/03/18 - 31/03/18 But you change plans to the £20.00 plan on the 2nd day into the month.

Effectively, this means you've been charged £5.00 for almost the whole month, but you changed plans on the 2nd day into the month. This means that bill would really by incorrect and so we'd need to charge you the correct amount.

Now, we can't send out 2 bills in one month, so how do we do this? We calculate it all on your next bill.
So what happens is the following:

In April, your bill is produced for line rental from the 01/04/18 - 30/04/18 like normal for £20.00 as this is your new plan.

But you will receive a credit for line rental on your account for the period of 02/03/18 - 31/03/18 from last month at the £5.00 rate.

This is because you no longer had that plan from that date and so you shouldn't be billed this amount.

Now, you still need to be billed something for this period, so we calculate what your line rental would cost at the correct £20.00 rate.
So very roughly, line rental from the 02/03/18 - 31/03/18 would be around £19.00.

Any credit provided to you at the old rate is subtracted from this (29 days line rental at the £5.00 rate is roughly £4.80 so £19.00 - £4.80 = £14.20

This is then added to that bill of £20.00.
Giving you a total of £20.00 + £14.20 to pay.

Your bill for April would be £34.20 which you'd think is much higher, but it's actually just a combination of 2 bills.

If you change plans later in the month, then the charge would be much less.
Like changing plans in the last day of your billing month might only add an extra £1.00 or so to your next bill.

I hope that makes sense.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Mohammed

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