Filed under: iTS, How-tos, iTunes, iPhone
iPhone: Prepay the right way
It is now about 5:00 Mountain Time as I write this. I spent most of the day at the AT&T store from about 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. Then I spent several more hours at home talking to AT&T and Apple support personnel. I have swapped SIMs so often that I deserve a SIM merit badge. I have set up no fewer than six separate phone accounts. My credit card has been beaten and battered funding those accounts. Here's what I learned: If you want to set up your iPhone as a prepaid account, do not--no that's not emphatic enough--do NOT, DO NOT attempt to set up the account in advance with AT&T.
Just don't. Trust me. Here's how you should do it:
Buy the iPhone. Connect it to iTunes. Sign up using 999-99-9999 as your social security number. After failing the credit check, select a GoPhone plan. After signing up for a GoPhone plan and being assigned a number and passcode, connect to the AT&T GoPhone funding page as prompted, enter your credit card or debit card information and you're good to go. DO NOT attempt to fund your iPhone over the phone with AT&T. DO NOT set up your iPhone prepaid account in advance with AT&T.
As for me? After a certain number of failed attempts (all on the part of extremely warm, wonderful, but ultimately unsuccesful AT&T employees), the fraud detection system kicked into gear. That's where I am now. I can't move forward until AT&T closes down all those well meaning but useless accounts and lets me activate the one, good account that started and ended in iTunes.
As for the AT&T and Apple personnel? I've been working with them now for nearly 22 hours of on-phone and in-person time. (Yes, I was up way late last night). With the exception of one person[1], they have all been fabulously kind, patient and supportive. Thank you to you all, especially Diana Cruzan the retail sales manager for the Aurora City Place AT&T store, Jamshed Mulla, AT&T iPhone Guru, and Dan Callahan of Fleishman Hillard.
[1] There's always one.
Update: 5:25. Just off the phone with AT&T fraud detection people. It LIVES!!!! "iPhone is Activated". Woot!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Henry said 7:56PM on 7-02-2007
Did you have to put down a deposit with prepay?
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Erica Sadun said 7:57PM on 7-02-2007
No deposit. No contract. No credit check.
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Dave said 8:00PM on 7-02-2007
I'm curious if there's anything stopping someone from say, Canada, from buying an iPhone, signing up for pre-paid and then taking it back to Canada to use as a wifi Internet device and iPod?
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Michael Rose said 8:02PM on 7-02-2007
You're a lot more patient than I would have been...
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Kendall said 8:06PM on 7-02-2007
Do you know the rates for text messages? Also do you get the annoying pop ups like many were reporting since you have the pay as you go?
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Straight Cash Homie said 8:09PM on 7-02-2007
I am waiting for my online ordered iPhone and this question will sound incredibly naive to most of you I am sure but forgive me, I am not a mobile phone wizard, my current phone is more than 4 years old after all. My question is: Since the prepay has no contract, this would seem to mean that if a person signs up for prepay with the iphone and subsequently another provider (other than AT&T) offers SIMs for iphones, I could switch carriers. Is this correct?
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Alan said 8:16PM on 7-02-2007
Here is my question... can you activate your iPhone as a goPhone, then switch over to the monthly rate ($60 for 450 minutes and unlimited data) but not be in a contract?
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Frank Nanook said 8:26PM on 7-02-2007
I woul like to bring an (activated) IPhone from New-York to Canada this week (to use as an ipod/wifi device without a SIM card)...what would be the price of that AT&T GoPhone plan ? (in fact a one time activation fee)
Frank
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Dan said 8:32PM on 7-02-2007
I did this same thing today after some frustration over the weekend. I originally bought the phone with the intention of adding it to a small business "family" plan. Well, since we use the Fed. ID of the business, I'm not allowed to add an iPhone to that account. So, I decided to go prepaid until they decide to allow iPhones on corporate accounts. I did it all in about 3 minutes...VERY simple. I used the name Wireless Person and a SSN of 999-99-9999. 30 seconds after submit I was given the opportunity to choose a GoPlan. I picked the cheap one...immediately got a phone number, then funded the account and was up and running right away. Data is unlimited, text messages and voice minutes are 0.15/ea. Of course, the more expensive plans give you more options, but I plan on getting rid of this account ASAP. FYI, I've also since removed the SIM and the iPod and Wi-Fi works w/o the SIM just fine.
Dan
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jimmie said 8:32PM on 7-02-2007
I signed up as a go phone customer as well. Every time I use my iPhone and turn it off I get an annoying reminder of my account status " the last transaction cost 0.00 USD. Your account balance is 32.24 USD. You have 995 N&W minutes remianing". It's annoying that it pops up after I yse my phone, mail, etc. and turn the iPhone off. The alert pops up on my screen and there's a dismiss button. I called Apple and they said that there is nothing they can do, this is how the iPhone go phone works. They said all AT&T go phones do this. Anyone else having this problem?
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Drnkusv said 8:39PM on 7-02-2007
I have been having this same problem. It is bizarre, because with the unlimited data plan, nearly all of these messages say the last transaction was 0.00 USD -- so there is no possible benefit to the message. According to AT&T the only way to sstop this is to disable SMS messaging on the account entirely.
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Frank said 8:49PM on 7-02-2007
is the (annoying) message present if you remove yje SIM card ?
Frank
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celsius said 9:49PM on 7-02-2007
awesome. count me in.
thanks for all your dedication!
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pablo said 10:36PM on 7-02-2007
If you have to restore the phone does this trick still work?
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Erica Sadun said 10:38PM on 7-02-2007
It should. If it doesn't just call up AT&T customer service and they'll help you with it. This isn't really a "trick" so much as an unadvertised but completely legitimate plan. AT&T helped me out with it all day. Out of the many people who I talked with, not one said I did anything wrong or had violated any agreements or done anything than request a feature that was available but not widely known. The plan should survive a reset.
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sb said 10:51PM on 7-02-2007
Once you activate the phone, can you put in a different company sim card and have the iPhone work ok? If so...one more iPhone sold.
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Matthew said 11:21PM on 7-02-2007
I missed the WHY part to this. Maybe it's personal. Why did you want a prepaid plan so bad?
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Erica Sadun said 11:58PM on 7-02-2007
Data plan is $19.99 unlimited. Take a look at this gallery.
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cookiebrownie44 said 12:11AM on 7-03-2007
Can you use the Pay As You Go, The one with the card refill) and not just the Pick Your Plan which is charged monthly??
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Erica Sadun said 12:11AM on 7-03-2007
Pay as You Go is no-go according to AT&T. The rather expensive PickYourPlan seems to be the only prepaid choice.
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