I did a stupid - cell phone wifi

[netskyblue]

Today on my lunch I was sitting in my car just at the edge of my work's wifi and the signal was really poor and I needed to send out a quick message over Discord.  I turned wifi off to connect to mobile data so the message would send.  Then I FORGOT TO TURN IT BACK ON.  I went back inside, continued watching my partner's Twitch stream all day long, and incurred a Ting data charge of $60 in one afternoon.

I didn't have an auto cutoff set up.  Stupid, stupid, stupid.  I used to have one set to 100MB (the smallest bucket on Ting) but I found on those rare occasions when I did hit it... it cut me off!  (Duh) But in the most inconvenient times, I'd be somewhere and REALLY NEED mobile data and not be able to get it turned back on (which I could do at a computer, but not on the road).  So I just decided to forego the cutoff, because what's the difference between $3 and $10 really, when you really need the internet access, right? 

FACE. PUNCH.

I have now disabled mobile data on my phone itself (not through Ting) so if something HAPPENS and I need it for a brief time in the next 23 days before the billing cycle ends (*cries*) I can turn it back on easily.  After that, I'm setting the cutoff at 500MB.  Because while I have occasionally gone over 100MB from normal use and needed to move up to the $10 bucket, I've never crossed the 500MB limit with intentional use.  At least that way if I do a STUPID STUPID STUPID thing like I did today, it will shut off my connection and I'll be forced to go "hey, what happened to the internet?"

[sokoloff]

See if your phone OS has controls to restrict data over cell network. (IOS does.)

Set twitch and other bandwidth hogs to not be allowed to use cell data at all is another option.

[TheAnonOne]

It's times like these that I am pretty happy I have the "$100 for unlimited *for two*" plan at T-Mobile.

$50/each and I never have to worry. While it's more expensive than some of these 3rd party providers by maybe as much as double, the cost is pretty small overall in terms of my life..

[FiguringItOut]

It's times like these that I am pretty happy I have the "$100 for unlimited *for two*" plan at T-Mobile.

$50/each and I never have to worry. While it's more expensive than some of these 3rd party providers by maybe as much as double, the cost is pretty small overall in terms of my life..

Similar here; My Family Mobile through Walmart using Tmobile network.

I'm paying $102/mo for 3 phones, unlimited talk and txt and 9 GB on one phone and  3 GB each on two other phones.  Never have to worry about it. 

The only drawback is that there is no international services, even for additional fees.  So I have to be creative when I travel.

[Daley]

Are there multiple lines on your Ting account? Are you using Ting CDMA or GSM?

If you're the only one on the account, and you're using Ting GSM, it might be worth it for you to switch over to US Mobile's GSM LTE plan. It's hard caps with no bumping up to next tiers on anything, but given the price difference by abandoning off-network roaming, you could bump up to a larger data package for those heavier months and still pay less than Ting.

[shelivesthedream]

You know you can block certain apps from using mobile data ever? For example, I've blocked all video-playing/streaming apps like Youtube and BBC Radio Player. I only permit a few apps to ever use it, like Google Maps and email, that I might actually need in a pinch.

[TheAnonOne]

It's times like these that I am pretty happy I have the "$100 for unlimited *for two*" plan at T-Mobile.

$50/each and I never have to worry. While it's more expensive than some of these 3rd party providers by maybe as much as double, the cost is pretty small overall in terms of my life..

Similar here; My Family Mobile through Walmart using Tmobile network.

I'm paying $102/mo for 3 phones, unlimited talk and txt and 9 GB on one phone and  3 GB each on two other phones.  Never have to worry about it. 

The only drawback is that there is no international services, even for additional fees.  So I have to be creative when I travel.

Yeah T-Mobile has "free" international as well. It was pretty useful in Tokyo last year. Should be nice when we go back to Asia.

[Syonyk]

See if your phone OS has controls to restrict data over cell network. (IOS does.)

Set twitch and other bandwidth hogs to not be allowed to use cell data at all is another option.

Yup...  pretty sure Android can do the same.  Turn off cell data for things you don't want to use cell data.  I've got my various music streaming apps set to never use cell data.  Same for YouTube.  Same for some of my browsers.  It's not hard to turn it on if I have some reason to, but it's a significant effort hurdle.

Also, you can get cell plans that don't just run the meter if you go over.  I'm on AT&T's $30/mo prepaid that's 1GB/mo, with 1 month rollover, but if you go over, it simply badly throttles the connection.  It won't ever run the meter like a lot of other providers.

You've learned a lesson, now fix it so it won't happen again.

[Threshkin]

It's times like these that I am pretty happy I have the "$100 for unlimited *for two*" plan at T-Mobile.

$50/each and I never have to worry. While it's more expensive than some of these 3rd party providers by maybe as much as double, the cost is pretty small overall in terms of my life..

Similar here; My Family Mobile through Walmart using Tmobile network.

I'm paying $102/mo for 3 phones, unlimited talk and txt and 9 GB on one phone and  3 GB each on two other phones.  Never have to worry about it. 

The only drawback is that there is no international services, even for additional fees.  So I have to be creative when I travel.

Yeah T-Mobile has "free" international as well. It was pretty useful in Tokyo last year. Should be nice when we go back to Asia.

The T-Mobile "free" international is funny IMO.  We have it and get unlimited cellular data internationally but texts and voice calls cost extra.  So instead of a quick text or phone call which have a very low bandwidth impact we just do Skype or WeChat video calls which have a much bigger impact on the cellular network........

[Linea_Norway]

I guess we all from time to time make an unintentional mistake that costs a lot of money. We can't avoid it completely. Be glad you can afford the mistake and take corrective measure to avoid it in the future.