What does a Spend Cap cover?

[ruth_jean]

Last night, my son ran out of data, so I phoned and put a spend cap on. He then found the internet worked for him. This morning, when he woke up, there was no access,a nd he got another message, saying that he was out of data.

Does the spend cap cover data as well as calls/texts, please? If it does, then what could have gone wrong?

Online, my account, which pays for his phone, says no extra charges incurred.

[Cleoriff]

Hi @ruth_jean 

If you apply a Spend Cap, you are, in effect, restricting his usage

Any chargeable usage outside your monthly allowance or outside of any Bolt On allowance will count towards your Spend Cap.

More info here https://www.o2.co.uk/help/account-and-billing/spend-cap

If  you need to contact customer services then do so here Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

Best of luck and welcome to the forum

[ruth_jean]

His monthly data allowance was 5gb. He spent it, so should his spend cap have kicked in, to allow him more usage? His contract is £17.00 per month. Do I need to increase his spend cap to, say, £20.00, to cover him?

[PhoneChanger]

@ruth_jean If you tariff is £17.00 per month with 5gb and you have a spend limit of £20.00 then he can spend an additional £20 on calls / texts / data / premium calls, etc. The amount you set as a spend limit is in addition to your monthly amount.

Best option if he runs out of data regularly is have a look at the next tariff up as its usually only £3-£5 per month more for usually an additional 5-15GB depending on your current tariff.

[gmarkj]

If he was connected to wifi then his data would still work @ruth_jean.
Did his monthly allowance restart?
A spend cap is effectively a limit to the amount he can go over the normal monthly amount by.
For instance - no spend cap means his bill (or yours) will only ever be the contract amount (£17).
A spend cap of £20 means his monthly bill COULD be up to £37 (£17 + £20).
My o2 tends to update daily rather than instantly - when did he run out and then use more data?
If yesterday then it might be on there now, but potentially could be tomorrow...

[ruth_jean]

That's what I was thinking. I cannot understand why, with his spend cap put on yesterday, he had access last night, but not today. I can think of no valid reason why his internet was cut off again, today.

The billing date is tomorrow.

To explain it...

He ran out of data yesterday. Could not connect. Got a message - out of data.

Phoned 02 and got a spend cap added.

An hour later he was able to reconnect.

Today he could not. Got another message - out of data.

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

The only explanation is that customer service added a small amount of data yesterday which has now been used..
The only way that data can be charged for as an extra is if you buy a bolt on. Spend caps do not cover these.
If you want more data you need to buy a bolt on but as his allowances reset tomorrow, there may not be any need.
5gb is a fairly large amount of data to use each month so he should be looking at using WiFi too where possible to keep your bills down.

@ruth_jean 

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/account-and-billing/spend-cap

[ruth_jean]

@MI5 - thanks. He is using the data when he is out, and unable to find free hotspots, or at work, during his lunchbreak. They are not allowed to login to company wifi.

I have now upgraded him to a new package, which, because it is a special offer, is actually cheaper than the current one.

[MI5]

@ruth_jean 

That's good news but set a reminder too yourself to check in 12 months time as some special offers only last for a year.