Do you know how much data you have in your mobile tariff?

The most frequent form of ‘out of bundle’ (often unexpected) spend on a mobile contract is from exceeding a data tariff.

On most business contracts, the cost of exceeding your pre-paid limit is £5.42 per 250 MB. So if you’re not careful, costs can escalate quickly.

All AF mobile contracts have a £200 spend cap to prevent things getting too out of hand. But we don’t want you to receive a big bill or get barred – we would much rather empower you to manage your usage, and know what to do if you start running low on data.

Knowledge is power

First things first, know your own limit. If you are the bill payer for a number of mobiles on your AF account, make sure each user knows their limit too.

You can find out how much data you have by checking your invoice – the tariff summary will usually include this in the description:

Next, how how do you make sure you stay within your limit?

Use a data tracking app.

There are several available in the Apple App store or the Google Play Store. Most are free, and only take a minute or two to set up. You will need to know your billing period, usually a calendar month, as shown on your invoice.

Once set up, the app will then alert you if you start getting close to your limit. Most providers set this at 80% of your pre-paid data limit. This gives you a chance to either moderate your data usage until the tariff resets at the start of the new billing period, or contact AF to change your tariff.

What to do if you need more data?

Speak to your AF Telecoms team. We can either add a temporary boost of 1 or 2 GB to help you get to the end of the billing period, or we can permanently increase your data tariff to give you more data until the end of your contract.

Most UK networks will also send usage alerts, usually by text message – but we advise against relying on these alerts as the only form of usage monitoring as they are not guaranteed to be received.

What happens if you go over your limit?

Users of business mobile contracts (which includes all AF contracts) are deemed responsible for their usage. This means mobile networks will not credit back overspend where you exceed your pre-paid tariff. The onus is on you to manage your usage, so be careful, and start using a data tracking app. 

If you have questions about your tariff, or would like to make a change get in touch with your AF Telecoms team by email to telecoms@af.farm or call 01603 881 909.