Warning of excess usage

[ei6al]

On arriving in France last month I received the following text from 3, dated 25th August at 08.40.

From Three: You've reached 90% of your defined credit limit 75.  Call customer care for more information or to make a payment.

I was concerned I might have roamed to a maritime service in transit and incurred the heavy charges for this service so limited my activity in France as a precaution.  It transpired by roaming charges were well within the limits of my tariff.  Why did I receive this message?

[Three_Niall]

Hey @ei6al, thanks for reaching out, this message would normally be received if you are roaming in an area that is not included in your allowances, for example if you are roaming outside of the EU or if you are accessing the network on a ferry which is not included in the allowances of your plan. 

[ei6al]

Thanks for the response Niall.  I had received a seperate message confirming I had roamed to to sattellite (maritime), following which I turned my phone off.  But the message I received stating I had reached 90% of my defined limit and to call customer care was a separate message which freaked me to the point where I kept the phone off most of the time in France for fear I would lose service entirely. What does "my defined limit" mean and do I just ignore such messages in the future?  It was obviously not correct as I subsequently found I was well within my limit when I checked the account.

[Three_Niall]

The defined credit limit of 75 means that once the balance on your account hits €75 you won't be able to use any out-of-bundle services that incur an additional charge but no need to worry as you would still have full access to the allowances that come with the plan. 

The above text is a friendly reminder that you have spent 90% of this credit limit, this means that the balance on your account was within 10% of the €75 credit limit, if your bill wasn't paid at the time of these charges, the cost of the bill and the data roaming charges combined may have brought you into over 90% of the credit limit to activate this automatic text. 

[ei6al]

I understand the meaning of the message, my query was why it was sent within minutes of my boarding the ferry in Dublin..  As soon as I boarded the ferry I switched to free wifi on board.  I then got a text 25th Aug 16.27 advising welcoming me to Satellite and advising you were unable to retrieve my price plan. Exactly the same happened on the return, Fri 1st Sept 16.38 on boarding the ferry I got an identical message welcoming me to Satellite and advising you were unable to retrieve my price plan.  This despite the fact I switched to onboard wifi on arrival.  I note from my bill received today that I have been charged €29.06 non eu roaming - is that tied in to maritime satellite?  How could I have incurred roaming charges when I was on wifi?

[Three_Niall]

@ei6al when you are roaming on a Ferry this wouldn't be included in your EU allowances however you wouldn't be charged for the use of Wi-Fi while on the ferry. Depending on the settings on your phone, if you have Wi-Fi Assist turned on or your mobile data turned on your phone may connect to these satellite masts to incur the charges. When WiFi Assist or Adaptive Wifi, depending on your device, is turned in it will use your mobile data to help boost the connection if the Wi-Fi connection is poor. 

To give you more information on your query I would need to look at the account to see what has happened. Pop through to me here on PM along with your mobile number, full name, address, and date of birth so I can look at the account and check this here for you. 😊