I pay my bill as soon as I get the text that my service will be renewed. This is the text I receive:
“Freedom Mobile Update: Your service will be renewed on Fri. Nov. 26, 2021. Your current balance is $45.05. To top up…”
I’m confused. The balance just gets higher despite me paying the $15 that I should be every month.
Posted Nov 24, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC
It's a prepaid plan. The message you get is quite an apt description of what is transpiring here.
"To top up your account..."
You are depositing money into an account and the company is then deducting the the price of the services it offers from the balance of that account.
Ergo, you are paying more into the account then Freedom is deducting.
On a side note, while this may be a good practice in theory, your are actually giving a company money for services not yet rendered. Meaning you are giving Freedom a free loan. They are using your money to earn even more money from interest. Stop that.
Pay exactly what you owe. Head over to r/personalfinance to find out how you can make that extra $15 work for you instead of your phone company.
Eh, I do that all the time with postpaid, in case I end up not being able to pay the bill. I would still do the same thing if I was prepaid. LOL
Adding extra prepaid top-ups is a good thing actually. If your services is $15 or whatever it is, you could prepay (top-up) it yearly in that same amount (example, $25 after tax, x 12, $339 per year).
This way, you won't need to pay it each month, as it'll deduct it from your account balance every month.
If you end up using SMS short codes, #taxi and related services or international calling (or US calling if likely not included), that will deduct from your balance immediately.
Best to account for that, just in case, by adding an extra $25 to it. I have been doing this (while postpaid) for years.
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