Someone please explain this to me (again!)

[Dedex1]

Okay, I was on the standard plan with an expiration of 6/24. In March I switched to the 12 plan which has auto renewed until today when my $24 balance was confiscated. I thought if I had enough on the account it would renew and extend my date another 30 days?? Or do I still have to put money on to extend the date out 120 days to keep that balance for renewal every 30 days?

Very pissed right now

[tracnet]

Okay, I was on the standard plan with an expiration of 6/24. In March I switched to the 12 plan which has auto renewed until today when my $24 balance was confiscated. I thought if I had enough on the account it would renew and extend my date another 30 days?? Or do I still have to put money on to extend the date out 120 days to keep that balance for renewal every 30 days?

Very pissed right now

I would use the PP online chat feature to talk to a CSR about this. Sign into your online account and click on LiveHelp. If the info you gave in your post is accurate they should be able to help you.

[Boz1]

The answer is that you HAVE to add funds every 119 days (or every year if using an $80 PIN), or the remaining balance at expiration will be confiscated. The way a cash balance remains without specific expiration is if you add a monthly plan PIN every month. With that said, it is still worth contacting PPC because you may get a sympathetic CSR that might reinstate all or part of your prior balance.

[Relztrah]

Am I understanding this? What apparently happened to Dedex1 is that his cash balance expired before his monthly 12 plan expired. So when his monthly 12 plan was up for renewal, it didn't automatically draw from his cash balance, even though there was more than $12 in there, because that cash balance had previously expired.

Just trying to figure out how he lost $24 to avoid the same problem myself.

[tracnet]

Am I understanding this? What apparently happened to Dedex1 is that his cash balance expired before his monthly 12 plan expired. So when his monthly 12 plan was up for renewal, it didn't automatically draw from his cash balance, even though there was more than $12 in there, because that cash balance had previously expired.

Yeah, that's how I understood it too. I was told by a couple different CSR's that renewing the 12 plan from the cash balance on the account is the same as adding a 12 PIN. So, according to those CSR's, the cash balance should not have expired.

[Boz1]

The only way to extend a cash balance expiration date is to add a new PIN to the account.

[Dedex1]

And this is why I'm confused and annoyed This is NOT explained on the web site and I did not get the normal reminder e-mail. So I had no clue until I started getting the "not enough funds" texts. Now that I know, it won't happen again, but geez!

[Boz1]

And this is why I'm confused and annoyed This is NOT explained on the web site and I did not get the normal reminder e-mail. So I had no clue until I started getting the "not enough funds" texts. Now that I know, it won't happen again, but geez!

It kinda is explained on the website. I'm not sure about the text reminders.

Account Life Cycle
The replenishment cycle for standard prepaid cell phone minutes is 120 days. In order to keep your Page Plus service active, you must add airtime prior to your end-of-service date, which is 120 days from your last replenishment. Failure to do so will trigger a 30-day grace period, after which your phone number will be deactivated.

Account Life Cycle
The 12 plan renews automatically every month. In order to keep your Page Plus service active, you must add funds within 60 days from your last replenishment. Failure to do so will result in a loss of your balance and trigger a 30-day grace period, after which your phone number will be deactivated.

As I mentioned above, the only way to extend a cash balance expiration date is to add a new PIN to the account.

[funkd00biest]

They dance around the issue a little here although never mentioning "cash balance":

When do my minutes expire?
For the Standard plan, your minutes will only expire if you fail to replenish within 120 days from the date of your last replenishment; otherwise, your unused minutes will always roll forward. If the balance has been removed after the 120 day expiration, it cannot be recovered. For monthly Talk n Text plans, your allotment of voice minutes, messages and data expire each month.

[sjv]

I'm a bit confused and I think PP's policy here is confusing. I assume your balance was really just the remainder of unused minutes from the standard plan you bought. If so then those funds should be bound to the terms of that plan and its weird that PP would even have used them to auto-renew a monthly plan since that carries a different set of terms from what you purchased in the first place.

I'd say if that's what they were doing then you have a right to your money because they changed the terms of your purchase in the first place by using the funds for a different purpose than was stated at the time of your original purchase.

[Boz1]

sjv, that isn't how it works. Standard Plan PINs are NOT just minutes. They are good for minutes, texts, MMS, data, and for renewing a monthly plan.

The only way to extend a cash balance expiration date is to add a new PIN to the account. Standard Plan PINs add cash balance to your PPC account. If you add a $10-$50 PIN, the expiration is 120 days, so you have to add a new PIN by 119 days. If you add an $80 PIN, the expiration is 1 year, so you have to add a new PIN by 364 days. If you choose to have your monthly plan renew out of your cash balance, that is your choice, but you have to be aware of your balance expiration date.

The farthest out expiration date will always apply. If you add a monthly plan PIN to your account, and your cash balance expires in LESS than 30 days, it will push your cash balance expiration date out 30 days. If you add a monthly plan PIN to your account, and your cash balance expires in MORE than 30 days, it will NOT CHANGE your cash balance expiration date.

It is true that it can be confusing, and could probably be explained better than it is on the PPC website.

[sjv]

sjv, that isn't how it works. Standard Plan PINs are NOT just minutes. They are good for minutes, texts, MMS, data, and for renewing a monthly plan.

The only way to extend a cash balance expiration date is to add a new PIN to the account. Standard Plan PINs add cash balance to your PPC account. If you add a $10-$50 PIN, the expiration is 120 days, so you have to add a new PIN by 119 days. If you add an $80 PIN, the expiration is 1 year, so you have to add a new PIN by 364 days. If you choose to have your monthly plan renew out of your cash balance, that is your choice, but you have to be aware of your balance expiration date.

The farthest out expiration date will always apply. If you add a monthly plan PIN to your account, and your cash balance expires in LESS than 30 days, it will push your cash balance expiration date out 30 days. If you add a monthly plan PIN to your account, and your cash balance expires in MORE than 30 days, it will NOT CHANGE your cash balance expiration date.

It is true that it can be confusing, and could probably be explained better than it is on the PPC website.

I know the standard plan is not just talk, I am on such a plan. But its a dubious practice to sell a standard plan that stipulates very specific terms and then turn it into something else and then take the funds away. I guess I don't have a huge issue except to say that PP should turn this into a simple, non-expiring cash balance if that is how they are going to use it. That's not to say the customer should be mailed a check but its more like a store credit to be generally applied to whatever PP sells.

[Boz1]

I know the standard plan is not just talk, I am on such a plan. But its a dubious practice to sell a standard plan that stipulates very specific terms and then turn it into something else and then take the funds away. I guess I don't have a huge issue except to say that PP should turn this into a simple, non-expiring cash balance if that is how they are going to use it. That's not to say the customer should be mailed a check but its more like a store credit to be generally applied to whatever PP sells.

That is exactly what it is, except for the non-expiring part. There is no better true pay-as-you-go plan than what PPC offers. It has the perfect combination of low per-minute rates and the longest expiration period in the industry. I'm not aware of any other provider that offers continuous service for $30/year with no upfront investment.

[newcronos]

I know the standard plan is not just talk, I am on such a plan. But its a dubious practice to sell a standard plan that stipulates very specific terms and then turn it into something else and then take the funds away. I guess I don't have a huge issue except to say that PP should turn this into a simple, non-expiring cash balance if that is how they are going to use it. That's not to say the customer should be mailed a check but its more like a store credit to be generally applied to whatever PP sells.

I believe we should think about the monthly plan and the cash balance as having different rules with regards to expiration date extension.

1. The monthly plan is renewable by adding a PIN, or by automatically charging the cash balance, if the total amount in the cash balance is enough to cover it.

2. The cash balance is renewable by adding 'new money' to your account, either a nominal PIN to the cash balance or a monthly PIN to extend your monthly plan.

What happened to the OP ensured him to keep renewing his monthly plan by deducting his cash balance as per number 1 above, but since he never added 'new money' to the system, the expiration date of his cash balance never changes, and the cash balance expires at the original expiration date.