Best time to change tariff to avoid pro rata billing?

[Viewfinder]

As per subject - from your experience, when is the best time to switch tariff and have no or as little pro rata split billing periods? I have been on simplicity for a while now and it doesn't have an inclusive data allowance other than web daily. I could add a data bolt on but not sure if I an best switching to a similar tariff with inclusive or stay as I am with bolt on.  It will be very low usage for email etc and not for any excessive browsing!

I also want to keep to the 1 month rolling contract and not have to change this.  If I want to change tariffs and go for a tariff with a little bit of data such as the 100 or 300, when is the best time to switch without much of an overlap?

Granted that a change of tariff might incur some delay or overlap, I don't mind a day or so.  I have searched the forums and there are incidents of some double billing etc so just wanted some clarification.  Is it usually a day before next billing date or some time else?

Thanks!

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

The day before your bill would be best and as you are staying with o2 on the same account your bill will just carry over so no excess to pay or refund.

[Viewfinder]

Many thanks for the quick reply!

[MI5]

No worries mate.

[Viewfinder]

Just been looking at the Bolt On T&Cs and it says:

"19. If you have the Web Daily Bolt On and a monthly data Bolt On, your Web Daily Bolt On data allowance will always be used before your monthly data Bolt On data allowance."

I have Web Daily (Free add on) on my Simplicity tariff which says "Allows up to 50MB of UK data access each day on your mobile at your standard rate but you'll never b...".  Looking at my billing history, I only use on average 11mb a month.

If I go down the route of adding the Basic Data Bolt On, why would it still use my "Web Daily Bolt On data allowance will always be used before your monthly data Bolt On data allowance."?  The whole idea of buying the bolt on is to avoid the Web Daily charges?

[Viewfinder]

Apologies for the broken quote above, can't find the Edit button anywhere, if there is one...

[MI5]

A data bolt on will over-ride the web daily so I don't understand that sentence.
In all honesty, you may be better off with a big bundle if you top up every month anyway.

[MI5]

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@Viewfinder wrote:

Apologies for the broken quote above, can't find the Edit button anywhere, if there is one...

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Click "Options" in the post you want to edit.

[Viewfinder]

Thanks. Just to update that I ordered the bolt-on 3 days before bill date and throughout the order it gave me a future effective date of the day before the bill date.  I'm guessing either that is to round up or it could just be coincidentally that it takes 48 hours. No problems with that.

What did puzzle me was that despite it telling giving me a future effective date, it presented me with two tick boxes before the Buy button.

First tick box was to agree to Terms and Conditions - understandable.

Second tick box said "I want my service to begin immediately..." etc.

I presumed that I only just needed to tick the T&Cs box and and leave the "begin immediately" tick box unticked but no - it wouldn't complete the order unless both boxes were ticked!  The bolt on still didn't take effect until bill date anyway so it was a bit misleading to make the "begin immediately" tickbox mandatory.

Just thought I'd mention it!

[Viewfinder]

PS I still don't see the Edit button in Options, I only get Mark As New, Bookmark, Subscribe, Subscribe to RSS Feed, Hightlight, Print, Enail to a frield and Report Inappropriate Content.

No option to Edit? Would it depend on my post count what options I see?