Prepaid to Postpaid - Will I lose my PAYGO balance?

[jonasmercado]

I am currently on ROGERS PAYG plan and have been for over 8yrs. I have a large balance on my PAYG plan as I use it as a secondary phone.  If I was to go on 2yr or month2month plan, will I lose the balance of the PAYG plan or can it be used as a credit for the new plan? 

***Edited Labels***

[57]

@jonasmercado :  I'm on the $10/month plan.  Whenever I have a large balance I call Rogers and "pay" to have my payments suspended for 12 months. You "pay" $100 for this privilege.  After the year is up, my $10/month starts again and I keep my balance (minus the $100 which was removed from my balance at the start of that 12 month period).  If my balance again becomes too high, I suspend payments for another year and it costs me another $100.  I have done this three times so far in the 8 years I've been with Rogers.

You can call Rogers to discuss at 1-800-575-9090, Option 4, Option 4, Option 1 to speak to an agent.

I'm not sure if that works for you, but it has saved me a lot over the 8 years I've been with Rogers and I keep my balance at a reasonable amount.

[RogersZia · Accepted solution]

Good morning @jonasmercado and welcome to the Community!

Good question! If you decide to transfer your current cellphone number to a postpaid line, your Pay As You Go Balance will be credited onto your new monthly account. Just as an FYI, airtime balances are NOT refundable if cellular telephone number is ported/cancelled within 90 days of migration.

RogersZia

[barndoor]

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@57 wrote:

@jonasmercado :  I'm on the $10/month plan.  Whenever I have a large balance I call Rogers and "pay" to have my payments suspended for 12 months. You "pay" $100 for this privilege.  After the year is up, my $10/month starts again and I keep my balance (minus the $100 which was removed from my balance at the start of that 12 month period). 

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Sorry to take this thread on a tangent but it looks likely that  Zia has the solution  for the OP .

@57 ....if you are on the $10 a month plan  how are you gaining balance over time  ?  Or is this a no longer available    "talk anytime" plan and you were using the $10 top up   ?  thanks for any clarification . 

[57]

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@barndoor wrote:

1. Sorry to take this thread on a tangent but it looks likely that  Zia has the solution  for the OP .

2.  @57 ....if you are on the $10 a month plan  how are you gaining balance over time  ?  

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1. Yes.   Sorry about the tangent, but I thought my post may be helpful if he wished to stay PAYGo or not spend any extra to go postpaid.

2. I'm on the same PAYGo plan I started 8 years ago with what is now called Auto-Top-Up and used to be called Auto-Saver.  As long as I keep automatically topping up each month, my balance goes up by whatever I don't use that month.  Isn't that the way that new Auto-top-up plans work too, or doesn't that exist?  On average I only use my old cellphone a couple of times a month, so my "balance" increases each month. When it reaches $200, I use the option to "pay" $100 out of that balance to suspend payments for 12 months.  As I mentioned, I've done this three times, the last time was just over a year ago.  I don't know if this "option" still exists, but I believe it may exist so that Rogers don't have to maintain a "long term liability" on their books.

https://www.rogers.com/web/content/wireless-products/paygo_topup

[barndoor]

@57 ... from what I understand  of the situation , you have auto top up  for an old  "talk anytime"   plan .   You only pay for what you  use  and remaining balance can carry over .   It is my understanding that ,that plan is no longer available and all the new paygo plans are  basically,  flat rate per month  plans , with no balance carry over . 

You could still apply a hundred dollar card  and the balance would carry forward  but the longest you could use your phone on that hundred dollars would be  ten months  or you can still auto top up but it is going to cost you  $10 per month  and you will have no balance at the end f the month no matter what .

Perhaps a Rogers  employee will please correct me if I am wrong  but that is what I understood from the paygo CSR  I talked to . 

[OLDYELLR]

@jonasmercado If you make a $100 top up, you are good for a year. If you don't use your phone at all for that period, you'll just be charged the $0.75 monthly 911 fee.  If your balance is over $100 you can renew for a year from your balance by calling the PayGo number.

[barndoor]

@jonasmercado... I think it should also be  clarified here that you, as per your info above are currently on an old plan  with paygo ... and as  @OLDYELLR and @57 have pointed out it can be used in an extremely cost effective manner if it suits your needs . But I think should be  cautioned that if you cancel it there will be no going back because the  plan  you are describing does not exist anymore . 

I think that is one of the ways that Rogers provides some of its customers (whether it is intentional or by law I don't know) with a loyalty reward is by honouring /grandfathering  these older more cost effective plans .  

[newjeep721]

Just so guys all know.  I had a balance of about $109.00 on my Pay as you Go account that is expiring on March 5th 2018.  So I just called the number 1-800-575-9090, Option 4, Option 4, Option 1 to speak to an agent.

Then I waited on hold for a few minutes.  I spoke to a CS Rep and asked to use my balance to extend the account for 1 year, which would be $100.00, leaving me with about $9.00 in my account.  The CS Rep tried to tell me that I could only extend for 6 months and that it would cost me $50.00 out of my account balance.  I told the CS Rep that no, I wanted to extend for a full year and to take the $100.00 from my account.  The CS Rep then said okay, we can do that.  And they did.

So it does work.  If I didn't do this, I would have to pay $100.00 to extend by March 5th, 2018, leaving me with a $209.00 balance, which there is no way I would have used that much coming up to Dec., 2018.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that this is still an option for y'all.

I want to thank very much user "57"  for pointing this solution out to everyone.  It saved me having to pay an extra $100 in a few weeks, of which I would never use no matter how you look at it.

[OLDYELLR]

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@newjeep721 wrote:

Just so guys all know.  I had a balance of about $109.00 on my Pay as you Go account that is expiring on March 5th 2018.  So I just called the number 1-800-575-9090, Option 4, Option 4, Option 1 to speak to an agent.

Then I waited on hold for a few minutes.  I spoke to a CS Rep and asked to use my balance to extend the account for 1 year, which would be $100.00, leaving me with about $9.00 in my account.  The CS Rep tried to tell me that I could only extend for 6 months and that it would cost me $50.00 out of my account balance.  I told the CS Rep that no, I wanted to extend for a full year and to take the $100.00 from my account.  The CS Rep then said okay, we can do that.  And they did.

So it does work.  If I didn't do this, I would have to pay $100.00 to extend by March 5th, 2018, leaving me with a $209.00 balance, which there is no way I would have used that much coming up to Dec., 2018.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that this is still an option for y'all.

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Just remember that your $9 balance will not last a full year.  Just the monthly $0.75 911 Access fee will use it all up even if you never use your phone, so you'll have to top it up at some point. Being offered 6 months for $50 out of your balance is unusual because normally a $50 top up is only good for 30 days.

[newjeep721]

Yes, I realize that, but thank you for pointing it out.  I will top-up $20.00, of which I will use in about 8 months time.  So again, no matter how you look at it, (in my case anyway), I am ahead.

[newjeep721]

You're also correct about the "Being offered 6 months for $50 out of your balance is unusual because normally a $50 top up is only good for 30 days."  The CS rep said that I can ONLY do the $50.00 deal, even after I asked them to do the 1 year $100.00 deal.  Only after I reiterated that I wanted to do the 1 year $100 deal, did they say that I could do that.  I am wondering if they are offering that to force you to renew in 6 months, which by that time, things may have changed.  This way, I am locked into a 1 year deal, which I prefer.

[barndoor]

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@OLDYELLR wrote:

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Being offered 6 months for $50 out of your balance is unusual because normally a $50 top up is only good for 30 days.

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I see on the prepaid top up page they don't even offer a $50  voucher anymore .  It will be interesting to see how this all goes .

Thanks for sharing  how it went @newjeep721    . 

[OLDYELLR]

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@barndoor wrote:

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@OLDYELLR wrote:

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Being offered 6 months for $50 out of your balance is unusual because normally a $50 top up is only good for 30 days.

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I see on the prepaid top up page they don't even offer a $50  voucher anymore .  It will be interesting to see how this all goes .

Thanks for sharing  how it went @newjeep721    . 

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When I go to my Bills & Payments page and click TOP UP NOW, I can select any amount from $20 to $95 in $5 increments for 30 days, or $100 for 365 days.  When I got to Shop, Prepaid, Top Up Now, VOUCHERS, it says I can add airtime in $10*, $20, $30, $40 and $100.  Again, all payments are good for 30 days except $100  is good for 365 days.

* Only available for the Talk Anytime plan. 

It's odd that on this page a $10 payment is available because I thought I had the Talk Anytime plan,  just didn't know it was called that. In any case it says one thing in one place and another thing elsewhere.

[barndoor]

I wonder if they are switching to the $50 for 6 months  arrangement so people can stay under the $150 max easier.  ..

[newjeep721]

I'm thinking the opposite.  I think that they don't want you to lock into a 1 year deal using your balance, as they are going to do away with using your balance to Top-up very soon.

[barndoor]

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@newjeep721 wrote:

I'm thinking the opposite.  I think that they don't want you to lock into a 1 year deal using your balance, as they are going to do away with using your balance to Top-up very soon.

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I agree .   It is likely going to be phased out  ...just a question of how long it has .  They have apparently offered deals to the end of 2019  so I'd be using whatever strategy gets you to that point and gets your balance down as much as possible . That puts the customer in a much better negotiating position should Rogers  make the move to cancel it .   

[OLDYELLR]

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@newjeep721 wrote:

I'm thinking the opposite.  I think that they don't want you to lock into a 1 year deal using your balance, as they are going to do away with using your balance to Top-up very soon.

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At the end of this year the maximum balance will be capped at $130.  By now everybody ought to know that you can use funds from your unused balance to renew by phoning PayGo.  But it is a bit shady of Rogers not to make this fact known on the website or make it possible to do it on line. In my view anyone who has accumulated a balance of hundreds of dollars, not knowing the surplus can be used to renew, is quite happy with paying $100/year for the service when heavy smatphone users pay $100/month and more. I do agree that $100/a year for PayGo is not a big money maker for Rogers, but while other carriers have prepaid plans that are competitive or even better, it's a way hang on to customers until they may want to upgrade to something more lucrative. Today the Internet is rife with vertical videos from cellphones and more and more people are ditching their computers for those infernal devices.

[barndoor]

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@OLDYELLR wrote:

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At the end of this year the maximum balance will be capped at $130. 

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Isn't it  $150 ? 

[OLDYELLR]

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@barndoor wrote:

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@OLDYELLR wrote:

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At the end of this year the maximum balance will be capped at $130. 

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Isn't it  $150 ? 

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You're right. $150. I was thinking about the approximately $130 balance I would gave in September after I renew.