How to check remaining data allowance

[Magicbean]

Is there a sensible way to keep track of your data use each month without having to phone Customer Services or contact Live Chat?

Things I am already aware of that are not satisfactory ways of checking your data:

• MyO2 app - doesn't work for business customers.
• "My Data Manager" app - sends all your data via a VPN. Why should I trust this? I already pay for a secure VPN and it's going to make everything slower.
• iPhone Settings > Mobile Data - this bears little resemblence to the amount of data I have used in any period. For example ,when I was on a 1GB tariff, it often showed 8 to 8.5GB in the 'Current Period' and between 1 & 2GB in the 'Current Period Roaming' even when I'm not roaming. This never matches the bills and invoices so clearly is wrong.
• Sending a blank text to 21202 - used to work, now always fails with the message "O2: We are sorry this service is unavailable on your account...".
• Phoning customer support on 8002 - works but is time consuming and who wants to make phone call for several minutes to check a balnace that should be instant? 
• Live chat - same as phoning customer support - actually even slower.

Sending a text to check balance would be OK if it worked. An O2 business app would be ok. So would being able to use MyO2 app for business if it worked. So would the phone reporting the correct data in Settings > Mobile Data.

Surely this basic functionality is implemented......?

[Glory1]

Hi @Magicbean

Have you tried 3G Watchdog?

It was recommended to me by a member of the community and it works a treat. Oh, and I'm also on a business contract.

You can download the app in the Google Play Store or the App Store if you're an iPhone user.

Hope this helps and welcome to the forum 

[gmarkj]

Not being an iPhone user I am not 100%, but have you gotten the settings correct for when the "period" runs from/to?
You could also use an app - again, I use 3G watchdog on android which is very good as it has a widget as well as the app and predicts your usage for the period based on what you have used so far. Not sure on availability on iOS though...
Agree that it is not great that the main o2 tools (My o2 and the text responses) do not work. Have you queried with your business rep?

[jonsie]

I'm using 3G Watchdog. It's accurate and the widget means it's visible at all times.

[Glory1]

@Magicbean I've just checked and 3G Watchdog is android only, sorry.

[Magicbean]

I've just found that too. There are other iOS apps which claim to monitor data but I'm trying to see if I trust any of them. The have the functionality but it's not easy to tell if they measure it by sending your data elsewhere.

There is one called "Data Manager" in the Apple App Store that claims to use the stats measured by the phone and implies that it doesn't handle the data itself. That's quite hard to verify but it would be a start. You can set the billing cycle etc. which makes it better than remembering to reset the stats for the current period.

I'm trying "Data Manager" at the moment.

I still think it's pretty poor that O2 makes it so difficult to get an answer to such a basic question.

[Magicbean]

It seems that the 'Current Period' is from when you last reset the statistics manually. The 'Current Period Roaming" is supposed to be how much of that was when you were roaming.

Unless you remember to reset it yourself at midnight at the beginning of a billing cycle it's pretty pointless.

[jonsie]

You should be able to automatically reset on the billing cycle date.