Why is my first bill higher than the cost of my price plan?

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Why is my first bill higher than the cost of my price plan?

Your first bill can sometimes be higher than expected — but don’t worry, this normally just reflects your usage for any days between your "Join" date and your "First bill" date (pro-rata usage) which will appear on the bill in addition to the one month in advance charge (cost of your price plan).

Please see below more details about your "Pro Rata charges" and on this page, you may also find links to our helpful topics:

Billing Index

Lets break it down:

Three Ireland compiles all of its customers bills at set intervals over each month. We do this so that we can group large batches of customers together and ensure that we have sufficient time to process and calculate all of their bills as efficiently and accurately as possible.

Therefore - the date you join the network might be a few days before your first bill date is compiled, and any billable usage during that period of time is charged separately.  (Pro-rata usage period)

Most Three Ireland price plans are 'all you can eat' which means that your standard usage will already be included in the cost of your price plan. This price plan cost is paid one month in advance, and we do this so that when your contract ends the last month of your plan fees are already paid for and we can just refund you the value of any un-used days.  (Pro-rata plan refund period)

Lets follow the journey of an example customer called Mary as she Joins & Leaves the Three Ireland network to see how this pro-rata system usually works. (values used are just for example purposes)

Joining Three:

Leaving Three:

So, in brief: the sequence of events would be:

Join	Date	Cost	Covers
Date of joining Three	20/06/2023	€4 Pro-rata Usage	Days of usage since joining
First bill date	26/06/2023	€20	1 month in advance
Second bill date	26/07/2023	€20	1 month in advance
Leave
Notice given	19/03/2025
Account close date	18/04/2025
Final bill date	26/04/2025	- €12 Pro-rata plan refund	Days since account closed

Looking for more information on your bill, direct debits and roaming? Open up the drop down menus below where you can find helpful links that can help you with your query.

More Information on Your Bill Explained

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Want to find out more about your bill? Take a look at the links below to help understand more about your bill.

For information about the details that are included in your printed bill you can click here:

https://community.three.ie/t5/Billing/Your-Bill-Explained/ta-p/519997

For information on how to find / use your bill click here:

https://community.three.ie/t5/3MadeEasy/All-About-Understanding-your-Bill/ba-p/758625

Looking for information on a Business Bill?

For information on Business bills click here:

https://community.three.ie/t5/Business/Your-Bill-Explained/ta-p/792431

More Information on Payments / Direct Debit

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Looking to update your Payment / Direct Debit Details? Check out the links below to find out more on how to get started and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Update your Direct Debit Details

Looking for information on why your Direct Debit failed? The below link will advise you on why it failed and what to do next. 

Why Did My Direct Debit Payment Fail?

More Information on Roaming Charges

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Heading abroad? Have a look at the links below which help with roaming issues, avoiding large charges and how to turn off Wifi-Assist to make sure you don't receive a large bill when you return.

For information on roaming charges click here:

https://community.three.ie/t5/3MadeEasy/All-About-Roaming-with-Three/ba-p/769150

https://community.three.ie/t5/Billing/How-to-Avoid-Large-Roaming-Charges/ta-p/751624

https://community.three.ie/t5/Billing/Troubleshooting-Roaming-Issues/ta-p/756875

For information on turning off 'Wifi-Assist' to stop you picking up foreign networks while travelling:

https://community.three.ie/t5/Technology-News/Mods-Tips-amp-Tricks-Wi-Fi-Assist/ba-p/762533