Credit Problem

[Guest mbmalone]

Hi and hello to everyone. I've just joined the forum, though I've looked at it a few times in the past and hope

somebody could please help me.

I've just bought a San Francisco as an upgrade on Orange Dolphin Pay & Go, altough I may switch providers

for a better deal soon. After a few problems getting the 3G sim activated and changed to my old number, Orange

finally got it sorted last night. Obviously I was keen to see what my new phone would do and had a look at the

Android Market and Orange Maps for a few minutes.

However, I was amazed to find that when I checked my credit balance it had dropped from £10 to £0 in 20 minutes.

Looking at my usage details on my Orange account, 2 items for about £4.50 each stand out. They both say:-

GPRS ap-prepaidsessio 1149.0 4.51

I haven't downloaded anything or knowingly turned anything on or off and would appreciate it if anyone can either

suggest why my credit would be used up so quickly or point me in the diraction of a website that will tell me what

settings I need to have on my phone to avoid this happening. Looking at other postings, I have seen it suggested

that it could be something to do with connecting through Orange World. At the moment I am scared to even turn

the phone on in case it takes more of the credit I have just added. Looking at the running applications from the settings screen, there are quite alot of applications running but I don't know which of these, if any, it is safe to turn off without causing a problem with the phone's normal working.

Another thing I dont understand is, why wouldn't the £2 per day cap on using mobile internet on Orange have kicked

in anyway?

I hope someone can help because I like the phone but couldn't even consider keeping it unless I can get this sorted.

[Guest That-Guy]

I think a few people are having problems with orange data being used up.

Hence why I went with giffgaff ;)

Sorry can't be any more help, are you sure you haven't downloaded any apps?

[Guest thomas01155]

Unlock and swap to giffgaff ;)

[Guest Artales]

You do get free data with Dolphin, but check when your 'data month' starts, I'll bet it's in about two weeks... I paid a tenner for Dolphin and then had to wait for my data period, it's a mean marketing ruse. If you go near GPRS (data) outside that period it'll suck your credit away.

[Guest SqueakyG]

Dolphin is okay if you text a lot (300 free texts) and have minimal data needs (100MB). But there are alternatives.

If you think you'll want more than 100MB of data, you should pay £5 whenever you like for an Extra that gives you 250MB to use in a month. Just call 450 and follow the prompts to get to Extras.

With that £5 spent on an Extra, you probably wouldn't want to still be obligated to top up £10 each month for an animal package. So you could switch to the Raccoon package which does not require a monthly topup to stay active, and it gives you 12p phonecalls to any phone. (There are some negatives to Raccoon however: texts are 12p, and bare data charges are even more shocking than other packages).

Alternatively, try another provider. The San Francisco is really easy to unlock!

Personally I think Orange are being very shady with the San Francisco. They're selling the phone cheap as chips to entice PAYG customers to try an Android smartphone for the first time. But then they load up the phone with their own Orange version of standard Android apps. Orange Market, Orange Maps, Orange Email, etc. These Orange versions are the same as the standard versions except for one thing: They require you to be using an Orange network data connection.

I believe they are hoping for Android newbies to be confused and use the Orange apps by default, then they will run over their meager 100MB Dolphin data. What happened to the OP is what they hope will happen. But maybe I'm just cynical.

[Guest mbmalone]

Thanks for all the replies, I think Artales is right. Although Orange confirmed they have swapped

me onto the Dolphin Pay Go plan, I have now found on their website that the rewards part of this

wont start till at least the 22nd of February even though I topped up by more than £10 days ago.

I've looked at Giffgaff but a search of the coverage for O2 in my area doesn't look good where I live,

although its very good in the nearest town of Grimsby. I live in a village called Holton-Le-Clay, about 7

miles from Grimsby. It would be great if there is anybody on Giffgaff in this area who could tell me what

their experience of using Giffgaff is before I swap.

In the meantime, I think I would be best to update the ROM to 2.2 and get rid of all the Orange stuff and

buy a £5 extra for 250MB as suggested by SqueakyG. I might look at getting wireless network adapter

for my PC so I can use it on wi-fi at home.

Thanks again for the help given so far.

[Guest mrbloggs]

Just bought this phone myself yesterday. read a few articles while searching for info on this phone about people waking up in the morning to find all their credit gone. What I'm doing is going to settings>wireless & networks>mobile networks and switching data connection off. When i want to browse, i switch it on, then immediatly switch it off afterwards.

Up to now, i've used 54p of credit, and that includes 2 phone calls plus about an hours worth of light browsing

I must admit, I'm going a bit paranoid, I'm ringing 453 every hour to keep checking

Trying to find clear info on oranges site is a nightmare, but the guy in the orange shop told me when i bought it that you will only get charged 2 pound max per day

Edited February 6, 2011 by mrbloggs

[Guest Phoenix Silver]

beware with orange the update of its plans often take 24 hours to be effective

don't do anything before received the sms of confirmation

(lost 30 Euros in 1 hour because the stopid man at shop doesn't say me to wait

[Guest rbbrslmn]

beware with orange the update of its plans often take 24 hours to be effective

don't do anything before received the sms of confirmation

(lost 30 Euros in 1 hour because the stopid man at shop doesn't say me to wait

when I got my san fran october the update was effective immediately and that 100mb and the extra I bought lasted a good few weeks (moved to giffgaff since then) but my sister got one for xmas and the data charges were pure rape. add in the fact that fora new user they dont understand that when the phone goes to sleep the wi-fi tends to turn itself off so you are using 3G even if you dont realise it and it ends up a very costly phone to run on orange. the solution is of course to unlock and phone up for your PAC

[Guest dsswoosh]

My friend at work had the same problem, heres why and how to fix -

WHY? -

Dolphin is a great package, every ten quid you spend topping up you get 100mb internet useage and 300 free texts.

When you install apps though, they have access to your internet, and can frequently send data packets to and from servers. Once they have sent over 100mb worth of data the data still continues being sent and will eat into your credit.

The £2 daily limit Orange promise doesn't actualyy seem to work, at least i have never seen it work (typical company scrounging for more money).

The First Solution -

Go to Settings, Wireless & Networks, Mobile Networks, and uncheck Data Enabled. This will stop all 3g access to and from your phone. Obviously this becomes a pain when you want to use data.

The Best Solution -

Root your phone

Install Droidwall

Uncheck everything except -

Gallery + Messaging (these are needed for media messages)

Market (hey, we all want to use market right?)

Media Storage, DRM Protected, Content Storage, Download Manager

Media Server

Network Location, Android System, etc etc

+ any other programs you know you DEFINATELY want to connect to the 3g access.

I personally found the worst program for sending alot of data when i didnt want it to was GMAIL.

When you set up your firewall properly, you find that no Megabyte usage, and thus no credit will ever be wasted again :P