Texts etc. on 3 Mobile Broadband

I've recently bought a 3 Mobile Broadband dongle, pre-loaded with 12GB or 12
months internet use - whichever expires first.

I have found that it allows me to send SMS messages to mobile phones -
without saying anything specific about whether these are free, or have to be
paid for in some way.

When I view my 'balance', it tells me how many days and how much data I have
left - which is what I would expect. However, when I click on 'Account
Details' it tells me that my account balance is £1.88 or somesuch - which
seems to have gone down a bit (from £2.01) since I sent a test text to my
mobile. In looking at the Help information about top-ups and add-ons it
looks as if texts DO cost about 12p each - so I guess that my (longish) test
message used 2 of those.

I have never topped up the account, so is it fair to assume that my dongle
was pre-loaded with about £2 of credit in addition to the 12GB of data
allowance? I can't find any reference to this either in the info which came
with the dongle or on the 3 website.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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In uk.telecom.mobile Roger Mills <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I have never topped up the account, so is it fair to assume that my dongle
> was pre-loaded with about ?2 of credit in addition to the 12GB of data
> allowance? I can't find any reference to this either in the info which came
> with the dongle or on the 3 website.

AFAIK those mobile broadband packs are just on the normal Three PAYG tariff.
Just as Three PAYG users can access Mobile Broadband addons without having
to buy a dongle, dongle users can make texts and calls from their Three SIM
(calls would require using another phone).

I don't know the base credit on your SIM. Mine came from eBay and had no
credit on it, but Three also sell 10 pound SIMs with 10 pounds of credit.
But it would be fair to assume your SIM started with some basic credit.

Another alternative is they've given you the VAT reduction on your purchase.
My last topup had 2.1% added onto my credit balance (so a 10 pound topup
would be 10.21 credit, a 20 pound topup 20.42, and so on). If you paid 100
pounds you might get an extra GBP2.17 in credit.

Theo

In an earlier contribution to this discussion, Theo Markettos
<theom+(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> Another alternative is they've given you the VAT reduction on your
> purchase. My last topup had 2.1% added onto my credit balance (so a
> 10 pound topup would be 10.21 credit, a 20 pound topup 20.42, and so
> on). If you paid 100 pounds you might get an extra GBP2.17 in credit.
>
> Theo

That's an interesting theory! I paid £100 for it from Maplins - who didn't
reduce the price when the VAT rate went down - so maybe '3' had refunded it
as a credit. The amount sounds about right for what it was the first time I
looked.

What would have happened had there not been any credit, and I had tried to
send a text? [Presumably the same thing that will happen when I've used up
all the credit!]
--
Cheers,
Roger
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