Help, iPhone has used all my credit

Lord Choc Ice

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I am new to the iPhone and just bought an iPhone 4S and used my old PAYG sim card in it. It was working fine until today when I noticed that I had no credit left and I haven't even used it, there should have been at least £9 on it. I'm on ios version 9.3.2. Can someone shed any light on this? the only thing I have changed today is to set up my email account on the phone.
 
Turn off mobile data thats whats used up the credit.
Only use wifi for data.
 
Thanks jerryq, I have done that now. Need to top it up again and see what happens. Good job I wasn't on a tariff otherwise it could have been very expensive :(.
 
Yeah that will be updates or something although normally it requires the users input to download or update apps.

That would be me then :D. As I say this is my first iPhone and I previously had an iTouch 2nd generation so there were many updates to my apps when I connected the phone to iTunes although I didn't install them all on my phone. Any idea what 'carrier settings' are? Just got an update and not sure if I should download them or not.
 
Its just a small update to the Network settings ok to download but stay on WIFI so you dont get charged.
 
i thought system updates and app updates were wifi only downloads?
you can check how much data an app has used here: settings -> mobile data -> use mobile data for. you can also turn off apps you don't want to use your data allowance. games are a good example - they often only go online to serve you ads
i also use an app called 'data usage' which logs data use, but since moving off an unlimited tariff (i.e. where I didn't know my official data usage from the network's perspective), i've found it to be wildly inaccurate compared to the network's official version
 
i thought system updates and app updates were wifi only downloads?
you can check how much data an app has used here: settings -> mobile data -> use mobile data for. you can also turn off apps you don't want to use your data allowance. games are a good example - they often only go online to serve you ads
i also use an app called 'data usage' which logs data use, but since moving off an unlimited tariff (i.e. where I didn't know my official data usage from the network's perspective), i've found it to be wildly inaccurate compared to the network's official version

Thanks PumpingtonSteel. Now I have turned off mobile data it's fine. I had a look at the 'mobile data for' option too and everything is turned on! I turned off notifications for all my games but never realised there was this option too. Lots of things here to make the user very wary.
 
I think they're all on by default. If you're curious about what it was that ate up the data, you may see something under system services.
Also check to see if wi-fi assist is on. That's a feature that allows your phone to switch to cellular if wifi is poor. There was a bit of hoo-ha about this when it launched, with post-apocalyptic prophecies of doom in the press because it was feared a small number of people may use a bit more data than expected. Its usage is also viewable (at the very bottom of the list of apps)
 
Thanks for that Pumpington. I don't have wifi assist - is that a bit odd? I also had a look at the system service but I'm not sure what I should be looking for/at. Plus, is it OK to keep 3G switched on?
 
Looking back at your original statement, is it possible the credit expired?
Or you were subscribed to something e.g. £5 a month for unlimited texts that ate up your credit? I use(D) a website for the odd business task (PPH) and had a considerable surplus in my account awaiting my next job...I didn't log in for a while and they marked my account dormant, and charged me a monthly fee for the benefit, eating up over £60
I am not convinced it was data that used up all the credit
Did you do a check on the balance when you first re-insterted the SIM?


I thought wifi assist was standard with iOS 9?
and system services is all the things that don't fall under the apps - personal hotspot, system updates, game centre etc. Looking through it might indicate where large amounts of data have been used e.g. if it was a new device, it may sync a lot of accounts - mine would sync iCloud documents and probably photos the first time it was set up, which could use a lot of data
 
Looking back at your original statement, is it possible the credit expired?
Or you were subscribed to something e.g. £5 a month for unlimited texts that ate up your credit? I use(D) a website for the odd business task (PPH) and had a considerable surplus in my account awaiting my next job...I didn't log in for a while and they marked my account dormant, and charged me a monthly fee for the benefit, eating up over £60
I am not convinced it was data that used up all the credit
Did you do a check on the balance when you first re-insterted the SIM?


I thought wifi assist was standard with iOS 9?
and system services is all the things that don't fall under the apps - personal hotspot, system updates, game centre etc. Looking through it might indicate where large amounts of data have been used e.g. if it was a new device, it may sync a lot of accounts - mine would sync iCloud documents and probably photos the first time it was set up, which could use a lot of data

I'm positive as I check the credit quite a lot. It was just over £9 when I put the SIM card in and then suddenly it all went. I'm only on PAYG and don't subscribe to anything else. To be honest I thought I had more than £9 on it.

Yes, I had a look and wifi assist should come with iOS 9 but I don't have it for some weird reason. I had a look where it should be (under system services) but it wasn't there and I even searched for it and it didn't show. Looking through the data the most usage is Siri - which I don't use...:confused:.

It does seem fine now as I put £5 credit the other day and still have £5 left.
 
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Ok - wasn't sure if you had last checked before it was stored away or checked when reactivated
It's good that it's curbed now but I would be somewhat inclined to dig to ensure it doesn't happen again! I'm not sure about payg but most networks have apps for contract users which let you monitor usage
 
Yes, I checked this morning funnily enough - I mean checked whether they do an app. They (EE) have an app but it has terrible reviews on iTunes. Think I'll stick with just ringing 453 :).
 
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My Data Mgr is a decent app for monitoring data usage
 

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